5 Easy Steps & You Can Perform Weddings!
Psst… Did you know you can perform weddings in just a few easy steps? We’ll show you how, now!
Weddings happen just about every day, every month, all year, here in the Austin and central Texas area. We know that weekday weddings are not as common, but we’ve provided our DJ and photo booth services for weddings every day of the week, believe it or not!
With so many weddings happening, sometimes, you may have trouble finding vendors for your particular wedding date. Especially in the fall, on a Saturday, in central Texas. That’s the busiest time of the year for weddings, here. So if you’re reading this and you haven’t secured all of your wedding vendors, it’s time to start booking, ASAP!
Have a Family Member or Friend Officiate?
One trend we’ve noticed over the last year is that more and more couples are asking a friend or family member to be their wedding officiant! You may think “what? How is that possible? Don’t you have to be an ordained minister or judge?” The short answer is, it depends.
The US wedding laws vary from state to state, and sometimes even county to county. You can look up your state’s laws on the get ordained website. By no means are we saying we don’t think you should hire a wedding officiant. We have worked with many great wedding officiants and are always happy to work with them.
We’ve also worked with many friends and family of our clients, who have done a great job. Many clients tell us that they’re happy they chose a friend or family member to perform their wedding because it added a very personal touch.
Let’s discuss the Texas laws since that’s the area we service. The state marriage laws for Texas are pretty straightforward. Yes, you can perform weddings in a matter of minutes! Here’s how you can officiate a wedding in 5 easy steps. Here they are.
1. Become an Ordained Minister – Don’t worry, you don’t have to get a degree in theology or anything. You can simply become ordained, online, FREE! Yes, free! Simply look up how to become an ordained minister, online, and you’ll see a few websites. You can visit the site we mentioned above, again, getordained.org to learn more.
It only takes a few minutes and is pretty easy. Jason and Diana have even done this, just in case any of our DJs ever run into an officiant doing a “no-show” at any of our weddings, Jason or Diana can easily step right in and perform the ceremony! We got our customers’ back! 🙂
2. Check Your County’s Marriage Requirements – If you’re on the getordained.org website, simply find the county you’ll be getting married in. For Travis County, you basically have to be over 18, be ordained, and the couple has to have their marriage certificate for you to sign. Be sure to sign the certificate as the “minister” and the religion will be under “non-denominational.”
Be sure to have the couple return the signed copy before the deadline. Also, you don’t have to be a resident of Texas to perform the ceremony.
3. Order Supplies – You won’t need many supplies, but if you’d like to be prepared, you can order a certificate holder and even an Ordained Minister ID card. You can order business cards, a minister stole, and even a letter of good standing, but these aren’t necessary. Just be sure to have the ceremony info that you’ll read, either on a tablet or printed out. It’s also a good idea to do a sound check with your DJ or sound person, before the ceremony.
4. Obtain the Valid Marriage License – In Texas, a marriage license is valid for 90 days. This means that the ceremony has to be performed and the license must be signed, within 90 days of the issued date. The license must be returned and signed within 30 days of the signed date.
5. Prepare – This last step seems obvious, but we’re saying it again. Be sure to have your ceremony script printed out or on a tablet, and simply fill in the names the couple would like to use. Rehearse it, a few times, too. You want to be comfortable. This is still public speaking, after all; reading in front of a lot of people can be hard for some people.
If you’d rather not have someone else that you know do your wedding ceremony, we also offer officiant services. Visit our Austin wedding officiant page for more info.
Overall, these are the 5 easy steps of how you can perform weddings! Check out a few other great articles on our wedding planning tips blog. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or help.
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