Wedding Tips
4 Qualities Your Wedding Officiant Should Have
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A Lil Intro
Figuring out who the heck to officiate your wedding is one tough job, especially if you haven’t been to many weddings before or have any idea how a ceremony is supposed to work.
Whether you’re asking your friend to officiate your wedding or hiring an officiant, there are few qualities you’ll want to be on the lookout for to ensure you have a tip-top wedding ceremony to kick-off your day! Nothing is more of a buzzkill than a sleeper ceremony or someone who drags the ceremony on and on with embarrassing stories of you both.
Here are a few tips to help you out.
Your wedding officiant should be a writer or at least have experience writing quality content
The hardest part of officiating is writing the ceremony, so be sure that the person you choose has experience writing quality material or establish if you’ll be the ones writing your own ceremony. A really great ceremony can take 10-20 hours to write, not including the time needed to gather information about you two. Even though it may seem like the ceremony isn’t important, it will be very obvious if someone isn’t good with sentence structure or makes awkward grammatical errors. Grammar does matter, folks!
They should have public speaking experience
Public speaking is a common fear for many people, and the person officiating your wedding, no matter how big or small, needs to be comfortable speaking in front of an audience. Someone with public speaking experience will also know how to react in case something unplanned happens without tripping up on their words. Additionally, a great public speaker can engage an audience and have fun with you two all while legalizing your ceremony.
They should have an awesome, yet professional personality
You’re going to tell this person your life story, intimate moments, and probably become good friends with that person if you aren’t already. If you’re hiring someone, you can easily judge their personality and writing style based on their introduction email to you. If you’re working with a loved one, be sure it’s someone you trust with this information and isn’t going to drunkenly officiate your ceremony.
They should be timely
There’s nothing more embarrassing than getting ready to walk down the aisle and your officiant is missing. A professional officiant should respond to emails within 48 business hours and arrive at your ceremony at least 30 minutes beforehand. A friend or family member should be the most punctual person you know that can round up your wedding party should they wander off before ceremony time.
Below is an example timeline of an ideal wedding plan:
12:30 PM – Bride puts on dress and bride individual photos
12:45 PM – Groom heads to first look location
1:00 PM – First look, letter reading, couple photos
2:00 PM – Bridal party photos
2:45 PM – Family Photos
3:30 PM – Family Photos done
4:00 PM – Hide away for Ceremony (eat something, drink water, have time alone together)
4:30 PM – Ceremony Starts
5:00 PM – Ceremony ends – cocktail hour begins
6:00 PM – Grand entrance with bridal party
6:15 PM – Dinner starts
6:30 PM – Speeches
7:00 PM – Cake cutting and dessert served
7:30 PM – Start Dances (couple’s first dance, father daughter, mother son, then open dance)
8:30 PM – Sneak away for golden hour photos
8:45 PM – Sunset time
9:00 PM – Return to dance floor
10:30 PM – Sparkler Send Off
Here is an example timeline for a wedding in the winter where the sun sets at 4:00 pm, and the couple wants to do their first look down the aisle.
12:00 PM – Groom and groomsmen group and individual photos
12:30 PM – Bride and bridesmaid group and individual photos
1:00 PM – hide before ceremony starts
1:30 PM – Ceremony begins
2:30 PM – Ceremony ends, guests head to cocktail hour
2:30 PM – Family group portraits
3:00 PM – Bridal party group photos
3:30 PM – Couple portraits heading into sunset
4:00 PM Sunset time, head to reception
4:30 PM – Cocktail hour ends, guests get seasted
4:45 PM – Grand March
5:00 PM – Dinner served
5:30 PM – Speeches
6:00 PM – Cake Cutting
6:30 PM – First dances
7:00 PM – Photography coverage done
The Bottom Line
Meet your
Officiants
Liz
(she/her)
Founder/Officiant
Liz founded Liz Rae & Co in 2015 during her best friend Maranda’s engagement. Her friend, Timmie, at the time also struggled with finding an LGBTQ-friendly officiant who custom-wrote ceremonies. Liz believes the ceremony is the best part of the wedding day and wanted to change the industry by emphasizing not only the importance of marriage ceremonies but inclusivity as well.
When she isn’t writing ceremonies, she’s working on editing her first novel and second fictional novels. She’s been writing her whole life, but gained her storytelling knowledge through Faber Academy’s novel program and UCLA’s TV and Film Writing degree. You can read some of her writing on her website, Liz Rae and more notably, on Thought Catalog. She also writes terrible Instagram poetry at @iamlizrae, but wouldn’t recommend reading it.
She speaks Spanish, some French, and some Italian, and she’s lived in France, Italy, Spain, Peru, the United Kingdom. She’s traveled to every continent except Antarctica.
She loves writing weddings of all kinds — her favorite part about the job is figuring out how to tell each and every story! She can’t wait to get to know you and be part of your wedding.
Liz founded Liz Rae & Co in 2015 during her best friend Maranda’s engagement. Her friend, Timmie, at the time also struggled with finding an LGBTQ-friendly officiant who custom-wrote ceremonies. Liz believes the ceremony is the best part of the wedding day and wanted to change the industry by emphasizing not only the importance of marriage ceremonies but inclusivity as well.
When she isn’t writing ceremonies, she’s working on editing her first novel and second fictional novels. She’s been writing her whole life, but gained her storytelling knowledge through Faber Academy’s novel program and UCLA’s TV and Film Writing degree. You can read some of her writing on her website, Liz Rae and more notably, on Thought Catalog. She also writes terrible Instagram poetry at @iamlizrae, but wouldn’t recommend reading it.
She speaks Spanish, some French, and some Italian, and she’s lived in France, Italy, Spain, Peru, the United Kingdom. She’s traveled to every continent except Antarctica.
She loves writing weddings of all kinds — her favorite part about the job is figuring out how to tell each and every story! She can’t wait to get to know you and be part of your wedding.
Ready to make your moment,
your moment?
Wedding Tips
Four Elements to Consider When Planning Your Wedding Ceremony Around Lighting
When planning your wedding, the first element on your mind probably isn’t the sun’s position at every hour. However, as you embark further on the planning process, considering lighting is especially important if great photos are one of your top priorities. While there are some typicalities behind wedding timelines, don’t overlook lighting when creating that schedule, as it can affect various photos throughout your wedding day.
Choosing a photographer that knows lighting makesallthe difference, so I teamed up with Lulle Photo to give you some pointers on how to structure your wedding ceremony around lighting so you look good while tying the knot.
Here are four elements to consider when planning your wedding ceremony around lighting.
Wedding Tips
4 Elements to Consider When Choosing Your Wedding Ceremony Photographer
So, you’re engaged and ready to start planning your wedding. Yay! Congrats! How exciting and…terrifying, at the same time. Two of the biggest (and usually most expensive) vendors you’ll choose for your day are your venue and your photographer.
Though, narrowing down which photographer to hire in a sea of photographers can be tricky, especially if this is your first time booking a professional. Even if you have previously worked with someone trained in photography, wedding photography is a whole new field, and it’s definitely not a vendor you want to skimp on.
If you’re wondering what the most important traits you should consider when selecting your photographer, Michelle from Wandermore Photography and me (Liz) compiled five elements to consider when browsing wedding photographers.
When Should You Book Your Wedding Officiant?
So, you’re engaged! Yay!
You probably know the venue and have already selected the photographer – you’ve got your main priorities covered!
But then what? You’ve got a laundry list of vendors to contact, meet with, and choose, And all this hassle on top of working at your day job while juggling every other priority in life.
And there are all these websites that give you conflicting, and often unrealistic, information about when to book your wedding vendors.