1. Has the personality to keep the audi--I mean GUESTS engaged. Someone who is comfortable speaking in front of a crowd, and isn't going to stiffen up when they're up there. This eliminated a lot of people right off the bat.
2. Knows both of us well. We didn't want our officiant to know one of us a lot better than the other. This is really tricky - we have very few friends that I'd truly call "mutual."
3. We know will be in our lives for the long haul. Now, we have very few guests that we don't believe this would be the case for - but if you twisted our arm and said, "Will this person still be around when you're 60?" there's probably a small handful where we'd respond..."Maybe...?"
The first person that came to our mind was my Uncle & Godfather (henceforth referred to as UGF). He fits all three categories pretty darn well: 1) He's a likable, personable person who isn't afraid of crowds. In fact, he recently was elected mayor of the Chicago suburb he lives in, and regularly speaks in public. 2) He's always been very supportive of us. UGF loves BW Groom, and from Day 1 knew he was the one for me. UGF goes to BW Groom's shows, loves and shares his comedy videos, sends him texts just to say hi, asks where BW Groom is when he's busy and is genuinely bummed when he can't come to a family function...he's a big fan, to say the least. 3) Obviously, he's going to be in our lives forever. He's my uncle! And godfather!
Also...he's been jonesing for this role in our wedding. Every time we see him, he offers to marry us and points out all of the reasons why he's the guy for the job. Gotta love a guy for desire and persistence!
After thinking it through, we realized we couldn't find a better officiant! We tried long and hard to really think of anybody else that fit the bill...and came up with nothing. We took it as a sign and decided to go for it.
Now...every year, UGF hosts a family Pumpkin-Carving contest, and UGF judges and determines the winner. BW Groom and I work as a team for these. Two years ago, we won with this brilliant piece of artwork:
You should also realize that my whole extended family are Disney freaks. So combining Disney + Halloween is a pretty good way to win the annual title.
Last year, we earned 2nd place with this funny looking guy:
BW Groom and I picked out a stencil with a ghost "couple" online, then downloaded the Disney font to spell out our request:
Now, we typically have about an hour and a half to complete the pumpkin, so we knew we had to get right to work. There are about 10 competitors every year, so the atmosphere gets pretty intense. Since we didn't want to spoil our surprise until the last minute, we didn't let anybody get a close look at our work.
No, we didn't.
However--there are some children who participate in this contest, and MAYBE they were awarded the first-place prize because they're a kid who really, really wanted to win. MAYBE.
Although, as you can see, this contest is not for the faint of heart (or pumpkin):
Now on to the task of actually planning our ceremony together... eek! Where to start??
-Lllama rama ding dong