How to Get Married in BC
March 09th, 2010
Many couples don’t know where to begin searching for someone to create and perform their wedding ceremony.
Marriage Commissioner, Justice of the Peace, Minister, Chaplain, Celebrant, Wedding Officiant. These are all commonly used terms but what do they really mean?
Here in beautiful British Columbia, there are two primary options when choosing the Officiant for a legal wedding ceremony.
(FYI I fall into the first category)
ONE) An Officiant recognized as a Religious Representative… someone who has gone through BC’s very strict approval process and is thereby authorized to stand in the power of ceremony. While it may sound formal — it certainly doesn’t need to be! For instance, as an Interfaith Celebrant and Chaplain, my ceremonies are deeply meaningful and completely reflective of the couple’s beliefs, whatever they are.
But I digress… the truth is that this is a very diverse group of people who can perform a wide variety of wedding ceremonies. We range from Lay Chaplains (like me) who work in an Interfaith way (again, like me), to Priests, Ministers, Imams, Rabbis, etc who can guide a very formally religious wedding ceremony in a house of worship. We use a variety of titles: Celebrant, Wedding Officiant, Wedding Chaplain. What we don’t use is Marriage Commissioner ... see below
TWO) A government appointed Marriage Commissioner who uses a preset script. These ceremonies can be fun if the Marriage Commissioner is willing to make changes to the script to give it a more personal feel. Marriage Commissioner ceremonies are not created or written specifically for the couple. These ceremonies fall into what I call ‘the cookie cutter’ category.
That leaves us with Justice of the Peace. In the past these officers of the peace performed wedding ceremonies in city halls and courthouses around BC. Nowadays the Marriage Commissioner has taken over this role.
Did I muddy the water or make it clearer? Please let me know. I’d like to really help people understand this.
Subscribe to Blog