By Staff
Occasionally an officiant will encounter a couple who aren’t looking for an officiant to celebrate the wedding. “We want our friend to do the wedding,” they say. “Can’t you just sign the paperwork?”
Sometimes the couple aren’t looking for a paperwork-only wedding. They may need to marry quickly before one of them reports for military duty. Perhaps they are just shy. Money may be an issue. For whatever reason, they don’t want a splashy wedding. They just want to be married in a very small, very private ceremony. They don’t want a short and sweet ceremony; they just want to get the license, sign the papers, and be married.
Can an officiant help? Yes – and no.
Officiants are bound to follow the law. Here in Canada, that means the officiant cannot observe the friend conducting a ceremony and then just come up to sign the papers. The officiant cannot simply show up, sign the papers and leave. If an officiant does so, that officiant has broken the law and it can have serious consequences for both the celebrant and the couple.
The officiant must conduct the ceremony, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a lengthy affair. In fact, it can take less than five minutes. Some of our officiants have met couples and their two witnesses at a coffeeshop and the ceremony was completed before they’d finished their coffee!
All Inclusively Yours celebrants are given two micro-ceremonies for those couples who just want something quick or who prefer to have a friend do a formal ceremony for guests. Our micro-ceremonies, while brief, satisfy the requirements of the law.
And so, while officiants cannot just sign papers without a ceremony, Inclusively Yours officiants can do the next best thing: marry couples according to law more quickly than they ever thought possible.
The wedding they want, done right. Isn’t that every couple’s goal?