How long ahead of time.....

If you go by all the websites about planning a wedding, they will tell what you should be doing a year in advance, 9 months in advance etc... If you are planning a large beach wedding with chairs and arbors etc, you probably should plan that in advance as much as you can.  BUT if you are planning on a simple wedding on the beach with a few close friends or family.... you can almost get away with planning it the day before (providing you can find an officiant available).  I have had people call the day before and luckily I was available and the ceremony turned out beautifully. 
In the last few days I have booked 2 weddings into 2014, so these brides are thinking ahead. 

If you decide that you want to do the wedding at the last minute, you can usually pull it together pretty quickly.  Your officiant should be able to help with any last minute details that you need and you will save yourself months of stress!  LOL

Beach wedding variations

On Saturday I had the pleasure of officiating a wedding for a wonderful young couple.  They had, what I would call a formal beach wedding.  The house that they had rented was on the beach with dunes between the house and the beach.  The house also had a large patio and sandy area between the house and the dunes.  They had set up the patio area for the reception, with lights and tables.  The mother of the bride provided all the decorations herself and it was absolutely beautiful.  They had an arch  and flowers creating an aisle and then an arbor for the ceremony.  The groomsmen met the bridesmaids and escorted them "down the aisle".  The father of the bride escorted her to her groom.  The entire group had tears in their eyes at this point.  When the bride and groom exchanged vows, there wasn't a dry eye anywhere, including them.  It was so emotional and so sweet.  After the pronouncement, the groomsmen escorted the bridesmaid back down the aisle and as there was an extra groomsman, he escorted me up the aisle.  That was the first time that I had been escorted at a wedding that I officiated. :-)
The point of this blog was that they chose to have their beach wedding, not on the beach but on the sand behind the house.  This was a good decision - as it was a very windy day and the dunes and the house blocked most of the wind.  It was a beautiful ceremony and set up. 
Don't be afraid to think outside of the box when planning your wedding.

Interesting call of the day

I get lots of interesting calls and I will share some of them with you.  I am not making fun of anyone just sharing the variety of calls that come my way.
I had a call from a lady who is looking to get married on the beach on a Sunday evening.  She asked if I was an ordained Baptist minister.  I am not.  She wanted to know if I knew of any ordained Baptist ministers.  I have not attended a Baptist church since moving to Florida so I do not know any Baptist ministers (at least that I know of ).  In order to assist this lady, I looked up the Baptist churches in the area and gave her some numbers and suggested that maybe they could help her.  I would think that most ministers would be doing their evening services on Sundays but what do I know? 
The lady thanked me very much and said that I had been very helpful and that if she was unable to find an ordained Baptist minister that she would call me back.  I guess she found someone as I haven't heard from her.
You just never know what people are going to ask for. :-)

Tying the knot - literally

I have talked about the sand ceremony which is very popular these days.  Now I have quite a few brides wanting to "tie the knot" ... quite literally.  Earlier this week we did a handfasting, which is when the hands are tied together.  It is a symbolic gesture.  I have done this ceremony before and this time it came with directions on how to tie the knot, which was very helpful!  :-)
I got a request this week for a "fisherman's knot ceremony".  This is the first time I had heard of this ceremony. This one is similar to the sand ceremony in that it represents the two individuals (the two cords or both ends of one cord) coming together and tying a "fisherman's knot" which represents the couple coming together as one.  The fisherman's knot is one of the strongest knots that you can tie and will hold together no matter what.  The more pressure that is put upon the knot, the stronger it gets. Very symbolic of the strength of the marriage.  There are words that go along with the ceremony, which explain the ceremony for those that are unfamiliar with it.

So if you thinking of "tying the knot" then you might want to think about literally "tying the knot"!

Two weddings on Saturday

I don't normally book two weddings for the same day as most couples want to have their wedding on the beach at sunset so that makes it really difficult.  This time one couple wanted to do a morning wedding and the other an afternoon wedding so that worked out perfectly. 
The weddings were about 1 mile apart in Santa Rosa Beach.  The first wedding was at 10 am and it had rained and been very chilly the day before.  That morning was still pretty breezy and a little chilly.  The family had travelled here to share the day with the couple.  The wedding turned out beautifully, in spite of being a little cool.
Six hours later I was on the beach again, and the wind had died down and the temperature had risen and it was perfect.  Not too hot, not too cold.  There were a lot of family and friends in town for this wedding as well and it was picture perfect. 
I am not sure what the significance (if any) April 20th is, but I had a lot of requests for that day and I saw that other officiants were getting a lot of requests for that day as well. 
I did add a portable voice amplifier for the second wedding.  It seemed to work pretty well, as the folks that were back aways were able to hear me well, without it being too loud for the couple.  I may use that again especially if it is breezy and the waves on the gulf are crashing in.
Have a great week everyone!! :-)

Wedding season has begun

I had a nice little break this past weekend in Vegas with some friends that I had not seen for a long time.  I am so glad that I did that because wedding season has begun. 
I was on the way home from the airport and got a call for a last minute wedding for that evening.  We made the arrangements and met last evening on the beach and this wonderful couple got married.  They had been thinking of getting married for awhile and they and their family were in town for another wedding.  They decided that there was no better place than the beach here to tie the knot.  If we had of planned the wedding months in advance, it would have not gone any better.  The house they were renting became full of newlyweds!!
Today I had a wedding on the beach that we had been planning for quite awhile.  It was picture perfect.  So whether you are planning in advance or decide at the last minute to get "hitched", be assured it will turn out beautifully.
Right now I have two weddings scheduled for Saturday but you never know what will come up between now and then!! That is what I love about this job! :-)

Mobile notary - what is it?

Along with officiating weddings, I also notarize documents. 
When a person needs papers notarized and is unable to go to the bank or some other place to get them notarized, they need a mobile notary.  That is what I do.  I will go to the client, pretty much anywhere, to notarize the documents that they need. 
There are many situations where someone may need documents notarized.  Some situations that would use a mobile notary are if someone had an accident or a fall and finds themselves in the hospital or rehab center and needs to designate someone as power of attorney to look after their affairs until they are able to do it themselves.
Unfortunately, a lot of people put off writing their will or power of attorneys until the very last minute or until the end is near for them.  At this stage, some people are bedridden and need to use a mobile notary to get their affairs in order.
So if you are one of those people who has not gotten your paperwork done in advance, and find yourself in one of these situations.... give me a call!!!