Both of my (still married) parents want to walk me down the aisle but my partner and I are so shy that we want to avoid an aisle all together. How can we, 1) avoid an aisle 2) still somehow start the ceremony off meaningfully? and 3) How can we include both sets of still married parents? —Jessie

To help me answer this question, I decided it was time for another episode of DUELING OFFICIANTS! See, every now and then I pull on the expertise of two wedding officiants — my parents! They’re both Internet-ordained ministers, and between the two of them they’ve married dozens of people, often helping couple craft their ceremonies from scratch. They have different styles of officiating, though, so you’ll get differing views.

Read the rest of this entry »

We don’t want wedding bands…ever. So we decided on tattoos, but this leaves us “finger-naked” for the ceremony. I thought I hit a home run with the idea of using ribbon and “tying the knot” to symbolize the damn thing, but he wasn’t too thrilled about that. Got any ideas? —Roan

To help me answer this question, I decided to pull on the expertise of two wedding officiants — my parents! They’re both Internet-ordained ministers, and between the two of them they’ve married dozens of people, often helping couple craft their ceremonies from scratch. They have different styles of officiating, though, so may I present to you the first edition of DUELING OFFICIANTS!

Read the rest of this entry »