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Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

natinwpb Posted:

Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

My friend in FL did the 'become an ordained minister' thing so she could marry a couple she knew. She's coming to our wedding in NY and has offered to marry us there also. She's also a notary. I'm thinking that she probably has to become ordained in NY state. Does anyone have any experience with this? We offered to pay her airfare to NY and a night's hotel,which is still cheaper than what most officiants want.

IslandPrincess Posted:

Re: Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

My FH's best friend is ordained and has done a few weddings, so we had wanted him to do ours, but I had talked to an officiant and he had said (I'm almost positive) they had to be ordained in New York or do something extra since he lives in Florida...

October Bliss Posted:

Re: Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

This is the law regarding who can perform a marriage ceremony in New York (as copied from LIW)

To be valid, a marriage ceremony must be performed by any of the individuals specified in Section 11 of the New York State Domestic Relations Law. These include:

1- the mayor of a city or village;
2- the city clerk or one of the deputy city clerks of a city of more than one million inhabitants;
3- a marriage officer appointed by the town or village board or the city common council;
4- a justice or judge of the following courts: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern or Western Districts of New York, the NYS Court of Appeals, the Appellate Division of the NYS Supreme Court, the NYS Supreme Court, the Court of Claims, the Family Court, a Surrogates Court, the Civil and Criminal Courts of New York City (including Housing Judges of the Civil Court) and other courts of record;
5- a village, town or county justice;
6- a member of the clergy or minister who has been officially ordained and granted authority to perform marriage ceremonies from a governing church body in accordance with the rules and regulations of the church body;
7- a member of the clergy or minister who is not authorized by a governing church body but who has been chosen by a spiritual group to preside over their spiritual affairs;
other officiants as specified by Section 11 of the Domestic Relations Law;

The person performing the ceremony must be registered with the City of New York in order to perform a ceremony within the New York City limits. The officiant does not have to be a resident of New York State. Ship captains are not authorized to perform marriage ceremonies in New York State.


Soon2BeMrsS Posted:

Re: Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

so even if a family member or friend becomes ordainede the marriage will not be legal?

IslandPrincess Posted:

Re: Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

From what I know, I believe it will be legal if they follow all of the rules for becoming ordained, but in my case, we found it to be too much trouble to become ordained in NY, since our friend was from FL

Soon2BeMrsS Posted:

Re: Anyone do the ordained for the day thing?

thanks for the info.

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