Q & A

Q.) What is your officiant fee cost for a wedding?

We Officiate at ceremonies, indoors/outdoors, on a beach or at any venue site location. We create and we design beautiful and memorable ceremonies.

A) $395 fee – NON-DENOMINATIONAL/STANDARD/TRADITIONAL Selection: plus travel cost to the venue; 20-30 min. ceremony. Contact our office for travel/mileage details. (Note: Some Catholic traditions/rituals can be added.)

B) $595 fee – CATHOLIC & TRADITIONAL CEREMONY: The catholic wedding mass ceremony & the traditional ceremony options are 25-40 minutes vs the usual long ceremony* – plus travel cost to the venue; Contact our office for travel/mileage details.

*Special Note here: If a catholic wedding ceremony is selected, certain rituals & rubrics are to be followed in catholic traditions. Call for details.

(The ceremony ritual used follows the Old Catholic Rite. This Rite is approx. the same as the Roman Novus Ordo).

The catholic (non-roman) ceremony is celebrated at any venue location site. Note: due to the extra details involved in this type ceremony we suggest outdoor locations with much noise and winds be avoided. This option requires officiants wear vestments. 

C) $375 fee – BASIC CEREMONY WEEKDAY Selection – plus travel costs to the venue on a Mon, Tue, Wed, or Thurs – 15-25 minute ceremony. Contact our office for travel/mileage details. 

Descriptions of A, B, & C selections: We provide several options to consider having in your wedding ceremony. The Vows/Rings exchange uses Traditional or your Written Vows. You can add 1 reading or 1 ritual from the options we can provide you. A couple has input in the script.

D) $250 fee – ELOPEMENT CEREMONY Option (LOCAL)

NOTE: A couple comes to our location to get married (no travel fee). Description: Ceremony is very short and only for a couple and two witnesses. We use a prepared ceremony script of 3-5 minutes, as it has the required exchange of Vows & Rings. If an elopement is not local, a travel fee is added. Contact our office for travel/mileage details. 

Elopement definition is stated below, otherwise, the ceremony is performed as to the A, B, or C options above.

ELOPEMENT DEFINITION: Elopement means a couple gets married suddenly and privately, usually in a hurried manner away from a couple’s local residence for several reasons. For example; shipping out on Military Orders, family disagreements, etc. thus the immediate need to get married. A couple must be of the legal age to marry. No family or guests attend the ceremony.

VOW RENEWAL/RENEWING OF YOUR WEDDING VOWS

E) VOW RENEWAL CEREMONY Selection – the same as any of the A, B, or C selections, as described above. Contact our office for travel/mileage details. 

F) Wedding Ceremony Rehearsal – $250

To save you expense, we suggest you/your wedding planner conduct the walk-through of the Wedding Rehearsal yourselves. We will send you instructions on how to conduct your rehearsal.

If the ceremony has complex details, then have us there to conduct the rehearsal. There is an additional Rehearsal and Travel fee if the Officiant attends and conducts the Rehearsal. Depending on the venue location, travel time/distance, it may fit your budget better to consider paying for 1 hotel room/2 beds for the Officiants to stay over versus having to pay double travel fees, to and from the wedding venue location twice.

Q.) Do you have a travel fee to the venue site location?

A.) Yes, multiple factors are used to determine applicable costs and travel fees. This fee is determined by distance, fuel cost, parking, tolls, insurance, misc. factors, and officiants’ time traveling to and from your wedding venue location.

Q.) Do you attend the wedding rehearsal?

A.) We can be available if we don’t have another wedding already scheduled. To save you on costs, we suggest you conduct your own Rehearsal. There is an additional Rehearsal fee and Travel fee if the Officiant is to conduct the Rehearsal. Often it is less expensive for a couple to pay for 1 hotel room/2 beds for the Officiants versus having to pay a double travel fee for the Officiant to travel, to and from the wedding venue location for both the Rehearsal and the Wedding Ceremony.

Q.) Why select Men in Black Wedding Officiants to officiate at your wedding ceremony?

A.) So here is the bottom line statement to consider in the selection of an Officiant. A fair number of couples wanting full-ceremony-planning, contact us on very short notice. Do not select an officiant on the “cheap”. Many got ordained online within minutes and were never trained to do this work well and then just “wing it” as an officiant at their ceremony. This sad situation occurs more often than notand all the couples then regret it. why even risk this and have a horrific wedding day ceremony? A trained and educated officiant is needed to be the Celebrant officiating at weddings and public events. He/she needs to speak well, be articulate, have aura of presence, and take command of the ceremony script so the ceremony is a meaningful and memorable event for the couple, the families, and the guests as the couple now get married. Only a trained officiant, who is not on the “cheap” accomplishes this. At times a couple selects an individual to do a reading.  The reader, needs to be coached as to how to read in public. However, couples who select an officiant gotten “on the cheap” and that officiant is not aware he is to instruct the reader on HOW to properly read as a public speaker, then the reader struggles and is mumbling the printed word with the MIC down at his waist. No one then hears or cares what the reader is saying! BOTTOM LINE HERE, this wonderful one-time event can only be achieved by a trained officiant because the couple only gets one chance at this to get it right. In conclusion, would you really ask your Dentist to rebuild your car engine? Hardly! Contract only with a trained and educated officiant with years of experience in marrying couples and an officiant that has over 100 plus positive Reviews from the couples that the officiant has married. Men in Black Wedding Officiants have been marrying couples for over 30 years, have officiated at over 2,200 wedding ceremonies, have over 150 plus positive 5 STAR reviews from couples. Our ceremony options and the fees are fair but are not on the “cheap” because of all the work and attention we put into the ceremony planning with and for the couple for their big day. Our officiating services are worth far more than the deep frustration and disappointment a couple will experience on the most important day of their lives when selecting an untrained and inexperienced person acting as an officiant to marry you.

Q.) Do you offer Pre-Marital Counseling or Pre-Cana sessions?

A.) Yes. Counseling is offered by phone or in-person with a couple. The sessions depend on what issues a couple has. In addition, a couple may face outside influences that can determine the number of sessions to address issues. The number of sessions and time a couple needs determines the cost. There is no perfect number of sessions. We recommend 30-60 minute sessions. The number of sessions is up to the couple to request according to the officiant’s schedule. These days with work schedules, many other obligations and the time needed to travel to us often have the sessions accomplished by phone. Once set in place usually a Tuesday and a Thursday night from 8 pm generally works. Approx. 4-10 sessions are what is required especially if there are issues outside the couple causing challenges to the couple’s future married life together that needs to be to addressed.

Q.) What is your typical process for working with a new couple?

A.) We contact a couple right after they contact us. We then address the couple’s ceremony needs and share wedding ceremony ideas and suggestions for them to consider for their ceremony planning. Once a couple selects us and completes the registration documents then we and the couple create and write a custom-designed ceremony script for their wedding day. This can include certain wedding traditions and rituals appropriate to them. The couple can write their own vows if desired, or use traditional Vows to exchange in their ceremony.

Q.) What education, training, and background do you have that validates you as an officiant?

A.) We have officiated at over 2,200 weddings. We have excellent reviews from the many couples we married, who were amazed at our ceremony Officiant services. As experienced wedding Officiants, we were trained and Ordained in person. We were not appointed in 10 minutes from an internet computer using a credit card. We Attended over 10 years of formal registered Seminary College and Graduate School of studies in Philosophy and Theology. We respect all spiritual traditions and religions as well as perform ceremonies that are religious, secular, or non-religious. We have over 30 years of experience. We are old enough to have the required wisdom and experience, and yet young enough to be flexible with a sense of humor in a ceremony. The ceremony IS your wedding! The key here is to secure the right wedding officiant for you to start Married life, and thus choose the Men In Black Wedding Officiants. The ceremony can be traditional, casual, or reflective using religious or non-religious customs. We make your ceremony the most beautiful day in your life. We do not impose our religious beliefs on anyone. The MEN IN BLACK Wedding Officiants have Officiated at all types of ceremonies.

Q.) How did you get started doing this type of work?

A.) Having been in religious life for over 49 years and seeing the needs of those with different beliefs and positions than ours, I believed we needed to be inviting and engaging of all positions from a couple, family, and guests. The enjoyment we have from seeing the glow on a couple’s face as they get married and are super happy with us officiating their ceremony is really beyond words and makes the work we do very satisfying to us.

Q.) What types of couples have you worked with?

A.) We have worked with all couples–Non-Denominational/Denominational, Inter-Faith, Military Honor Guard, Spiritual, Catholic, Marriage Equality- LGBTQIAPK, Vow Renewals, Elopements, Funerals, and Baptisms/Christenings. The are many tasks required by many vendors for the Officiant to coordinate with, as to have all the ceremony details intermesh for a smooth and inviting ceremony to occur. This usually involves about 10-20 hours of preparation time per ceremony. Our officiant services keeps a couple in the loop, by ongoing phone calls, texts, and emails. The preparation work involved of a wedding ceremony planning from start to finish plus the actual travel time to and from a couple’s wedding venue location to perform the ceremony, the signing and registration of the legal wedding documents with the State afterward, takes a lot of time! We create a ceremony with sensitivity, with light humor as to keep the family and guests engaged in the ceremony, and we create a sense of awe with a spiritual reflective tone. This explains in more detail all that is involved on our part to prepare and to Officiate at your ceremony. We hope that you consider using our Officiant services for your wedding ceremony. You do this once. Have it done right…with the professional approach of an Officiant who has the grace and experience to create your wedding experience that married couples need for their special moment. This is the mission statement of the Men in Black Wedding Officiants

Q.) What advice would you give a couple looking in contracting an Officiant?

A.) Register early, complete the registration & contract forms and send in the required deposit fees, to secure and book your date & time, as many couples often call and request the same date. To be fair to all, we work on a first-come, first-serve basis. Your deposit reserves and secures our time available for your wedding date & time in our schedule.

Q.) What should couples think about before talking to an Officiant about their wedding?

A.) Couples should invest the time to research what they want at their wedding. WRITE IT DOWN. KEEP A BINDER OF ALL THE PLANNING ASPECTS. Become familiar with all the ceremony options available to them, so they understand what we can do as Officiants for them, in order to custom create those traditions and rituals into a ceremony that are appropriate to them. Once again, a couple’s ceremony can be traditional, casual, spiritual or reflective, or with secular traditions. It is only then when we have and know that input from a couple, is when we can make your wedding ceremony one of the most specular and beautiful days in your life, in becoming husband and wife or partners.