How to Officiate Your Friend’s Wedding

Congrats! You’ve been asked by your friends to officiate their wedding! As with many in these days and ages, friends turn to friends to help them mark that special occasion, preferring a tried-and-true pal over a reverend or professional officiant. This is a tremendous honor I was fortunate to fulfill for not one but two very different and wonderful weddings, and I learned a few things along the way.

You can become an officiant speedily and freely online, and then it is up to you to file the marriage license within 10 days to the County Clerk at our beautiful S.B County Courthouse. Be very careful not to make any errors on the license, as penmanship mistakes will result in a fine and a new license will need to be filed; the same goes for coffee or beverage stains. The California Department of Public Health has a FAQ section about wedding laws on their website, and you’d do best to review it.

Officiating a wedding is an important responsibility as you are legalizing a marriage, so you must follow the law. In many cases, you will also be sanctifying the union in a religious way, so you may have to consider and follow the religious rites.