Officiant

Hi!! So my friend is going to be our officiant, shes ordained through the universal life church, does anyone know if this is allowable? Im so confused and not sure who/where to ask for officiant requirements

Officiant

From http://www.toh.li/marriage

Who Can Perform a Marriage Ceremony?
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:

the mayor of a city or village;
the former mayor, the city clerk or one of the deputy city clerks of a city of more than one million inhabitants;
a marriage officer appointed by the town or village board or the city common council;
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 New York State Court of Appeals, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, the New York State 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;
a village, town or county justice;
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;
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.
A person performing a ceremony in New York City 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. A ship must be docked if a certified official is performing a ceremony on a boat.

Officiant

You can double check w the state or town but it should be fine. From what I've heard, the only issue I've heard about w using someone ordained online is that if there is ever a divorce it can be used to contest the marriage ever was legal

Officiant

I've read on another forum that a marriage by someone ordained online might not hold up in a court. Wasn't sure exactly what was meant by that, but wasn't going to risk it.

One thing you can do instead though is get married by your friend at your wedding and either before your wedding or after the honeymoon, have it done again at town hall. Though I'd check with town hall if that's allowed. I'd assume so but I'm no expert! lol

Officiant

I did tons of research on this and called a bunch of different town halls and talked to a few officiants. I was told that Nassau and Suffolk county do not recognize online ministers but NYC does. So if you are getting married on Long Island it is recommended you get married at town hall before. You can also get a town officiant to come to the venue and do something quick after your ceremony and sign the paperwork to make sure all is legal. That is what we decided to do.