1. More couples are choosing a friend to officiate their wedding
Even before the pandemic popularized smaller, intimate weddings, more couples were choosing to have a friend or family member officiate their wedding over a professional officiant because it adds a personal touch to the ceremony. In 2018, 32% of couples married in the U.S. had the ceremony performed by a loved one—a percentage that has only grown since then. And now that fewer than half of U.S. adults consider themselves religious, choosing a pastor or priest to officiate your wedding may soon become a thing of the past.
2. Offering officiant coaching makes converting clients easier for venues
Venues that offer all-inclusive wedding planning have an edge on their competition because they know couples will pay for simplicity—and what’s simpler than having your venue cover all the details? All-inclusive packages might sound expensive, but they don’t have to be. Often putting your venue in charge of securing (or referring) your other vendors means you’ll get the best services possible at the best price. As more couples opt for first-time officiants over professionals, they will be looking for full-service venues that can support their officiants, too. That’s why I founded Something New Ceremonies—the first ceremony planning service of its kind—to offer officiant coaching and ceremony design for a new era of wedding planning. In the past, the ceremony was often the one thing the venue doesn’t plan in detail when offering an all-inclusive wedding package. But being able to refer your clients to an officiant coach you trust will mean you’re confident that every part of their wedding day will go as planned.
3. Officiants play a big part in making sure the day runs smoothly
As a wedding planner, pulling off a couple’s dream wedding means communicating with a variety of vendors, anticipating issues before they happen, and making sure the couple feels supported in all their choices. Besides the couple, no one knows more about how their day is supposed to flow and feel than their wedding planner—but the wedding planner typically has no control over what happens between “We gather here today” and “I now pronounce you married.” To a wedding planner, it’s crucial that sufficient microphones are set up, that rings are where they’re supposed to be, that the ceremony runs on time, that the marriage license gets signed…the list goes on. An expert officiant makes sure that all these things are accomplished—and without the wedding planner’s intervention. When your couple is working with a first-time officiant, hiring an officiant coach like me means that the wedding planner won’t have to work overtime to fill in the gaps for an inexperienced officiant.
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Stunning, personalized weddings on a budget are more attainable than ever, and 2023 is going to be the year of the first-time officiant! Vendors who are just learning about how to support couples and their first-time officiants can follow me on social media, or you can contact me to talk about partnering to make the wedding industry more client-focused than ever in 2023!
And if you’re planning a wedding and want to get started designing the ceremony of your dreams, send me a message!
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