5 Critical Questions to Ask Potential Wedding Officiants

5 Critical Questions to Ask Potential Wedding Officiants

The venue, guest list and entertainment are all set for your upcoming wedding, and now it’s time to choose the person who will marry you. This choice is an important one, because wedding officiants are the glue that really brings your ceremony together.

If you’re unsure how to choose the right one, here’s 5 questions you should ask when interviewing potential candidates.

1.     Are you a traditional, religious or progressive officiant? Make sure to choose one that fits your spiritual and ceremonial beliefs. You don’t want an officiant who won’t acknowledge and honor your type of wedding.

2.     What is your experience and credentials? To ensure your marriage legal and binding, make sure that your officiant is licensed in the state for which he or she practices. Additionally, you’ll want someone with experience. When you’re saying your vows, you want to be sure that your officiant knows what they’re doing.  You’ll be nervous enough already. What’s worse would be to have the person marrying you fumbling over their words, unprepared or insecure.

3.     How much do you charge? Knowing exactly what you’re paying for up front removes any surprise invoices that weren’t previously agreed upon.  Discuss deposits, transportation and travel costs, required meals if any, ceremony rehearsal costs, time allotted for the ceremony and cancellation or refund policies.

4.     How would other couples that you’ve married describe your style? You are conducting an interview after all, and this question is a great one because it gets to the tone, personality, flexibility and general nature of your wedding officiant. You’ll want them to fully understand and be clear about your vision.

5.     Do you have sample wordings/music/readings/vows that we can review?  If you need help collaborating or want your officiant in the front seat of your ceremony, then ask them what they’ve done in the past and see if you can coordinate together on how the ceremony will go.

Your wedding ceremony is special, sacred and unique. You want it to be a foolproof affair, so doing your homework ahead of time is critical for choosing the right officiant for your wedding day.

If you’d like more information on wedding officiants, pricing, details and reviews, visit www.connectedliving-fl.com for more information.

How To Handle Your Wedding Day With Grace & Ease!

How to Have the Best Wedding Day of Your Life

Weddings signify the beginning of a lifetime of happiness, but for the bride and groom, may come with a great deal of stress. From last minute planning to the anticipation of the future, the soon-to-be newlyweds might not be feeling as carefree as you might think.

As everything comes together and you realize that you’ll soon be dedicating your commitment and devotion for each other in front of an audience of loving well-wishers, it’s important to make the actual affair as stress-free as possible and one to remember.  Corinne is highly skilled as an officiant at creating stress-free wedding ceremonies and always recommends her attendance at the rehearsal!  You'll learn exactly where to stand, what to say when, and become familiar with the flow of the ceremony! 

The most important piece of advice for the best wedding day of your life is just to relax.  Because Corinne is also a marriage and family therapist, she knows the top techniques for managing wedding day jitters!  I know it might be easier said than done, but when the last song plays and all the guests depart, you don’t want to regret missing out because you were too absorbed in all the tiny mishaps along the way. 

So here’s a list of all the things that potentially could go wrong on your wedding day (and yes, some of these WILL happen), and a game plan to keep you cool, calm and collected all the way through.

1.     You wake up to find that the previous week’s facial did NOTHING for the fresh new pimple that appeared out of nowhere. Don’t freak out. Makeup does wonders these days, and the fabulous dress that you bought will detract from the tiny flaw on your face. Also, photoshop is AMAZING and your pictures will be none the wiser.

2.     That slight chance of rain forecast turned into highly likelihood of rain, and your wedding’s outside. Did you know that rain on your wedding day is a sign of fertility? Old wives tale? I think not! Count it as a blessing and instruct your maid of honor to call the venue and put their plan B into action. First of all, that’s your maid’s job (they don’t call them maid’s for nothing!) and second of all, you don’t have time to be dealing or worrying about that stuff.

3.     Your altered wedding dress isn’t fitting quite as right as it did in the store when you went for your last fitting. If it’s too snug, tell your maid to get you a girdle at the nearest clothing store. If it’s too loose, put your wedding party to work with those clothespins. Trust me, your dress WILL fit and it WILL look fabulous.

4.     You’re late to your own wedding because you were getting pampered to look amazing. Don’t apologize! Nobody will be starting without you, and wasn’t it Audrey Hepburn that said, “Fashionably late is the ONLY way to go?”

5.     You’re at the alter with the love of your life, hand-in-hand, and you forget your vows. Don’t panic. I promise you that whatever comes out of your mouth- whether it’s a river of tears or nothing pronounceable- will still make every guest think it’s the most romantic thing they’ve ever heard. So just say what comes to mind and don’t sweat it.

6.     You did it! You said I do! And now all you want is to have a drink with your new spouse and eat (because you just realized how ravishingly hungry you are due to not eating a morsel of food all day). But you still have pictures to get through. Tell a bridesmaid to meet up with you while they scour the hors d’oeuvres section and bring some glasses of champagne back for you and your honey. Make the photographs fun!

7.     Some of your guests are already sloshed and making their speeches embarrassingly long and boring to say the least. Ding your champagne glass loudly and politely say thanks while moving on to the next speech. You want to get this dance party started!

8.     The deejay is playing every song you warned them NOT to play, and the Macarena is making you want to scream. Stop and look around. You might not love the jam, but just about every one of your guests is on the dance floor. Live it up with them and learn the dance, even if it’s the last time you will ever partake. You’ll be the star on the dance floor, so live it up.

9.     You throw the bouquet to a married gal who didn’t get the “single ladies only” memo. It’s ok, because that one IS an old wives tale.

10. The night comes to a close with all the guests saying their goodbyes, and you realize you weren’t able to get to every guest throughout the night. Mention it in the thank you cards, and be overly gracious about their attendance. Trust me, they’ll understand and won’t hold it against you.

Here’s one last thing to remember. As you depart as a newly married couple, just remember that it was all worth it. Because even if you do end up sweating the small stuff, you’ll still look back and say that it was the best day of your life. It will be one of the most beautiful memories that you’ll have with your partner and you’ll talk about it for years to come. Revel in it, relax, take things in stride and enjoy every single minute. Because those minutes will feel like nanoseconds in comparison.

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5 Reasons Premarital Counseling is a MUST!

5 Reasons Why Premarital Counseling is a MUST

I know it might sound contradictory. Here you are, planning for your wedding, excited for your future and feeling delighted in your relationship. Counseling is the farthest thing from your mind. 

But hear me out. Premarital counseling is different than traditional counseling, and here’s why. You’re being realistic and proactive about your relationship. You believe in each other enough to plan ahead for your future and you’re setting up your relationship for even greater success by taking advantage of premarital counseling.

And here’s a promise. It’s not as scary as you might think. In fact, many of the couples I work with say that the experience was uplifting, fun and brought them closer together (is that even possible when you’re already so gaga over each other as it is!? The answer is YES).

So here’s 5 reasons why you shouldn’t just consider premarital counseling, but make it a priority BEFORE you get hitched.

1.     It’s important to have the same vision, dreams and life goals. Premarital counseling gets to the heart of your core beliefs, future aspirations and innermost desires. Through counseling, you learn about what’s important to both of you in order to create a strong family legacy.

2.     Because there will come a point where you won’t see your relationship through rose-colored glasses anymore.  It’s hard to hear, but it’s true. There will be times that you’ll fight passionately, love fiercely and hurt one another. This is normal, and through premarital counseling, you identify foreseeable triggers and warning signs so you can steer clear of relationship trouble as best you can.

3.     The majority of couples fight about sex, money and time spent together. You want to make sure you’re on the same page with those big-ticket relationship issues. And what better time to find common ground than now?

4.     If you were raised in a home where your parents argued a lot, then premarital counseling is a perfect way to understand your own family of origin in order to circumvent the same negative fighting cycle with your partner. A big part of healthy conflict management is in knowing how you were raised and learning more appropriate patterns of communicating.

5.     You’re ecstatic about the future and want to keep that momentum going for the long haul. Therapy is a great way to learn about what’s working WELL in your relationship now. Being able to identify all the ways in which your relationship is strong and healthy increases your optimism about the future and allows you to see the warning signs well before things have the potential of getting out of control.

You already know that you’re marrying the PERFECT person for you. But knowing that is just the beginning. You have to invest in your relationship while things are good now BEFORE making any future mistakes.

Fore more information about premarital counseling in the Fort Lauderdale area, visit The Center for Connected Living and schedule your free phone consultation. 

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Congratulations!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!  This is a new blog created to share important ideas and information when creating the vows for your ceremony.  Most of us overlook the vows until the last minute instead focusing on the celebration, dress, flowers, etc! However, the vows and your officiant will set the tone for the entire ceremony so it's important to choose carefully.  Contact me today for more information about how I can best assist you in planning the best day of your life!

Warmly,  Corinne
www.connectedliving-fl.com
#wedding#officiant#vows#ceremony