|
About Our Services Testimonials from our Clients Questions to Ask an OfficiantMaking Your Ceremony Stand Out
Fees for Our Services Simple Elopement & Wedding Ceremonies Available: Baptisms, Christenings, & Naming Ceremonies Celebration of Life, Memorial Services & Funeral Ceremonies Ottawa Wedding Resources
|
 |
|
|
Like an iceberg's tip, many couples see only a small portion of the time, effort, and experience that a wedding officiant brings to their ceremony. In addition to the actual ceremony itself, there is a considerable amount of preparatory work associated with each wedding. While smaller ceremonies and elopements may appear to be simple straightforward events,we do share with the larger ceremonies a similar requirement for intensive preparation. Even 15-20 minute ceremonies usually involve at least 6-8 hours of meetings and work. The 25-30 minute ceremonies which involve more options take even longer to prepare for. Becoming a wedding officiant requires a significant investment of time and other resources in order to obtain the required clerical ordination and subsequent licensing by the Registrar General of Ontario . Like any business operation, there are basic expenses incurred just to be able to offer wedding officiant services: office space, furniture, computer equipment, utilities, phones, internet access fees, Website registration & hosting, office supplies, insurance, & taxes. And as we've all felt recently, the cost of car ownership, maintenance and operation continues to escalate. Each wedding booked needs to share a prorated portion of these costs. If you're reading this page, you've likely already visited many of the other pages found on this website. You can appreciate that the time and effort required to both gain the expertise in wedding officiation and then to share it so extensively through such a website has also been substantial. Thousands of hours have gone into the research, writing and development of this site. It's maintenance also demands that it get updated regularly as well.
In our effort to make you aware of our unique services, we have mounted a major marketing initiative through a wide array of wedding portal websites. As you no doubt realize, few of these listings are free so each wedding we perform does have to contribute to our overall marketing efforts. And all of this investment has occurred before you even contacted us! Once you do connect, we will do an initial consultation, a determination of officiant availability, a confirmation of selected officiant, prepare a draft wedding vows script, accept and process your retainer fee and provide you with an assurance that a back-up officiant will be available if circumstances require it. After the initial e-mail & telephone communications, we will conduct a virtual hour long planning meeting which will provide general wedding ceremony consultation relevant to your vision as well as some revision of wedding vows script. If necessary, we will undertake further research for additional elements required to the ceremony script culminating in a final revision of it. You may optionally select a Gold or Platinum level ceremony which includes a comprehensive one hour long rehearsal which will fully prepare you and your wedding party members to be completely poised and relaxed at your ceremony. Prior to the wedding, we will take possession of your marriage licence and ensure that it safely makes it way to the ceremony. We'll record the required information in our marriage registration record (which eliminates 25 minutes of down time at the ceremony) and then prepare your Record of Soleminization of Marriage as well as an unofficial but much more attractive and very personalized supplementary Certificate of Marriage. Prior to your ceremony, we will get cleaned up (you really don't want us coming straight from gardening!) and change into attire which is complementary to the style of dress for your wedding party. We will travel up to 50 km to your ceremony site arriving at least 30 minutes early so that we can help everyone get situated. We will wait patiently should the bride somehow manage to arrive after the scheduled start time of the ceremony. (Yes, this does actually occur!) We will execute your ceremony script professionally to the delight of your guests. After our officiation of an exceptional marriage ceremony, we will briefly stay to chat with some of your family and guests, we will depart (no, you don't have to invite us to your reception, but thanks for thinking about it!) and then we will complete the marriage registration documents and file them with the Registrar General of Ontario. After we return from the ceremony site, we'll change back into our street clothes and get our clothing laundered for another future wedding. And occasionally, we buy something new to wear that will look great at your ceremony. In all, each wedding we perform requires a minimum of at least 6 -10 hours of dedicated time by us, the larger, more complex ones needing the more time. We work as officiants because we both enjoy it and like to help lots of different people achieve their wedding visions. If weh were doing this just for the money, then they'd likely be wedding photographers or videographers or cake makers or dress retailers or....... you get the picture now. You can always find an officiant somewhere willing to work for the minimum going fee if you're prepared to spend enough of your time calling around. In the end, though, you get what you pay for. When it comes to wedding officiants, for the equivalent cost of just a few bottles of banquet wine, you can take all risk out of getting caught with repetitive traditional boredom and ensure that you and your guests will experience the very best in making the day of your dreams come true. You and they deserve it. So go for it. Call us (Lynne and Keith) at 613-831-7555. We have got a lot more to offer than might meet the eye!
|
|
|
Photo by Martin Photography
About Officiant Fees
T
.