Quote:
Originally posted by greatwhitenorthchick
I am ignorant. How does one get to be an officiant of weddings? Don't you have to be a minister or a sea captain or justice of the peace (I think that may be just a Canadian term) or magistrate or mayor or something? Can any old Tom or Dick do it? (no offense)
(Please tell me you're a sea captain. I would like that. Ahoy!!)
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Sadly, though I've talked about becoming a pirate with this same group of friends, I am not a sea captain.
They're actually getting common law married, but they want to have a ceremony, so the ceremony has no legal impact on the marriage at all. It's simply a token for friends and family to celebrate their marriage. (She teaches Marriage and Family, among other things sociological. I suspect a LOT of research has gone into this.)
I am ordained through the
Universal Life Church (and you can be to!), though, just in case they change their minds and want me to be a legal minister. I was ordained by a lesbian with a peacock feather in 2001 so I could marry someone else (which never panned out). Pretty much anyone can be ordained, and it depends on the state how the paperwork can be filed. Before the Internet came along, I think that the Universal Life Church used to put ordination ads in the back of the Rolling Stone. That's how Chris in the Morning became the local minister in Northern Exposure.
