As I’ve mentioned ad nauseum on the boards, I’m getting married in a few weeks. Amazing how it takes over your life.
We’ve got everything except we are without officiant. I’ve got calls into a few ministers (all judges were a no-go) with the Unity church. However, I’m not feeling confident.
My google skills are apparently lacking. I find this passage everywhere:
*Kansas Officiants:
Judges of a court record or any ordained ministers may perform wedding ceremonies in Kansas.
According to Kansas law, “the two parties themselves, by mutual declarations that they take each other as husband and wife, in accordance with the customs, rules and regulations of any religious society, denomination or sect to which either of the parties belong, may be married without an authorized officiating person.”*
What I can’t find is how to make our “mutual declaration” legal. The marriage license has a place for “officiant” signature and address, but nothing about mutual declarations.
IANA Kansas L, but the law you quote seems to allow for marriage by mutual declaration without an officiant only in a case where one or both of the parties belongs to a religious society, denomination or sect whose customs, rules and regulations provide for marriage by mutual declaration without the involvement of an officiant.
Apparently posting to the Dope creates officiants out of thin air. I called a lady on a list I got from the local Unity Church and she can do it!
Ahhhhh. Now I’m frantically brainstorming vows, because we’ve put that off forever. We’re taking the vows from one of my closest friend’s wedding (two weeks ago) and changing them around to suit us. Then, when hubby gets home from work we can finalize, then we can be done.
So, only if I’m a Quaker or something similar can I officiate my own wedding? I was quite confused by the wording.
My understanding is, that as long as the officiant is ordained in a religion and has the certificate to prove that, they can marry couples. They do not need to have a congregation. I have a friend who is ordained as a Unitarian minister, he works at a college teaching networking. I have been to a wedding that he officiated at. Hope that clarifies a bit. Do you know any officially ordained Pagan ministers?
I will be doing my 4th wedding later this summer.