Wedding Wednesday: The Officiant

Happy Wednesday and Happy (almost) New Year, party people! We’re slowly but surely checking the big vendors off our wedding planning list, and the most recent one we’ve thrown down a deposit for is our officiant (a.k.a. the person who is going to marry us).

Omied and I went to a boatload of weddings this year (remember when Stylelend helped dress me for a few of them?), and we found inspiration in each of them for little touches we’d like to include in our own wedding. The sixth and final wedding of the year that we attended was for our friends Dan and Oana, at Empire Mines State Historic Park. The ceremony was beautiful and I loved how their officiant was warm and genuine. She kept things running smoothly, was very well-spoken (obviously important when you’re getting up and talking in front of a couple hundred people), and she told the couple’s story in lovely way that felt very special to them.

A few days after Dan and Oana’s wedding I started doing research for our own officiant, using sites like weddingwire and The Knot. I was totally overwhelmed. How was I supposed to know who we would click with, and who would be able to tell our story in a way that is “us?” I thought of our friends’ wedding just a few days ago, and how their ceremony and officiant fit their personalities so well. I sent Oana an email asking how she found her officiant, and if she’d recommend her. Oana was kind enough to reply during their honeymoon in Italy, and told me that their wedding was officiated by Cindie Wilding, that she was a celebrant, and that she highly recommended Cindie as she was an amazing vendor to work with. After hearing Oana’s rave review I was super excited to set up a call for us to meet Cindie.

After our Skype call with Cindie, I knew that she would be perfect for our wedding. I love her process of getting to know the bride and groom so she can tell their story, and I also love that she specializes in officiating weddings for couples of all types of backgrounds—all types of religions or none, straight or gay; she’s even done Persian weddings before! I’m so excited to be working with Cindie because I know she’ll help our ceremony feel special and share our relationship’s love and warmth with all our guests.

You can read more about Cindie’s wedding services (as well as a very sweet note from Oana about how much she enjoyed having Cindie as their officiant) on her Weddings page.