If you were considering having a friend or family member, or someone who is ordained online perform the ceremony and getting a single-event officiant permit for them is too much of a hassle, we’re here to help.

There have been 5 bills before our state legislature since 2015 trying to expand on who has authority to sign a marriage license. None of them have passed. Online-ordained officiants and lay individuals do not have authority to perform marriage ceremonies in New York State that cannot later be deemed invalid without a special single-use permit.

You can find out much more about this by clicking here and here.

But don’t worry! If your heart is set on having your friend or family member perform your ceremony, The Officiants at Church of Ancient Ways can provide a 100% legally ordained wedding officiant to sign your marriage license any time up to and including the day of your wedding!

Here are a few ways it can work:

You come anytime before the wedding to one of our officiant locations, then we privately marry you and sign the license with you and your witness. That can happen any time up to the day of the wedding. It’s $100 for that service.

We come to you at some point after your first look and before the final dance and sign the license on-site. For that, the price varies on distance, but for locations in Nassau County and Western Suffolk County, it’s $300.

You want the officiant as part of the ceremony to deliver the legal part and/or to get them locked into being there for your specific ceremony start time. Again, pricing varies for distance, but in our prime area, this service is $450.

For options B & C, we assign an officiant to you a week before the ceremony – usually whomever is closest – and connect them to you so you’ll know when to expect them and have the license and fee ready. The fee for options B & C go up outside of our prime area of Nassau and Western Suffolk County (west of the William Floyd Parkway).