Officiant Fees

An officiant will do his job officiating in front of everyone for maybe thirty minutes.  If he is at a rehearsal he might work for 1 hour.  This is what the public sees, but officiants spend time preparing for their ceremonies and spend money before during and after the ceremony.

An officiant prepares for a ceremony by meeting with the couple, finding out how the couple wants there ceremony to be, by asking them.  The officiant will put together a script based on their answers.  The script may go back and forth a couple of times.  An officiant will then study and rehearse the script so that there is a smooth delivery on the wedding day.  

The officiant, if he does marriage licenses will spend his time traveling back and forth to and at the issuing facility, picking up the couples license.  He will then spend more time with the couple filling out the marriage license and filling out the necessary paperwork to accompany it.

The officiant spends time traveling to and from the ceremony site.  He or she will be there before the scheduled start time, and will leave after the ceremony is over, getting witnesses to sign, signing off on the marriage license, collecting any balances, etc.

An officiant spends money.  He or she will spend money advertising, renting an office or space, he will spend money on proper attire, buying and replacing equipment, like p.a. systems, microphones, etc. that are sometimes used at ceremonies.

Regarding insurance, some venues require vendors, including officiants, to have liability insurance, not to mention other insurances that the officiant pays for to protect himself and others from the licensing work he does, for example, errors and ommissions insurance.

The officiant uses his vehicle to and from your location, putting wear and tear on his car,  and burning gas, equals $$$.

An officiant and a marriage license make it legal, though officiants are one of the lowest paid vendors at a wedding ceremony, doing the second greatest fear in life – public speaking.  The first greatest fear is death.