Wedding Bringing in officiants from out of town

[pjean]

I''m trying to sort out who''s going to do our wedding ceremony. My best idea at the moment is to ask a former professor of ours, with whom we were both very close when we were in college, to come and preside. I assume that means we would be paying for his trip and probably also for his wife''s.

Has anyone brought their officiant in from out of town, and how has that worked?

 

[Haven]

We were going to do this when we thought we were marrying out of town, and the arrangement was that we would pay for our officiant, his wife, and children to fly to the destination, and we would also pay for the hotel.

 

[marchswallowbird]

I was also going to do this, but the person I wanted for my officiant couldn''t do it. We were going to pay for driving and hotel costs for him and his wife (a 2-3 hour drive each way), and also invite them to the reception of course. We were assuming, but were not positive, that if we paid all the travel costs we wouldn''t also pay a fee for him to officiate, especially since he was someone I know really well, but we never got to those details.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 11/12/2008 5:52:11 PM
Author: Haven
We were going to do this when we thought we were marrying out of town, and the arrangement was that we would pay for our officiant, his wife, and children to fly to the destination, and we would also pay for the hotel.

This sounds like what I would do too. If a friend, they might decline the offer, but it''s what you would do for another vendor, so you should offer it to them as well.

 

[kittybean]

We have a friend studying in the seminary to be a priest, and although he can''t officiate our wedding, he can participate in it with the celebrating priest''s permission. We decided we were going to fly the friend out for our wedding, get him a hotel room, arrange for his meals, and provide transportation for him, as he has taken a vow of poverty. We really want him there.

If he were more able to pay for some of the expenses, we''d probably just cover plane and hotel and let him figure out transportation and food outside of what we''ll be serving at or before the wedding.

 

[pjean]

Thanks, guys. I guess I wanted confirmation that I wasn''t totally off base. I guess I''ll contact our professor and see what he thinks!