How Much Do Wedding Officiants Make?

​I remember the first $100 I earned as a professional wedding officiant. I started my business with no initial investment because I was broke and that $100 felt like a million! Over time, I’ve gone from officiating 10 weddings a year to over 500.

So, How much do wedding officiant make? If you are an experienced wedding officiant performing 25 weddings a year at an average rate of $350 each you will earn $8750.  Your earnings will vary based on how much you are able to charge for a wedding, how many weddings you perform and your business expenses.

When I say I officiate over 500 weddings a year you might calculate I earn 500 x $350 = $175,00. 
 Wouldn’t that be nice?!?

The truth is, you can only charge for services what the market will bear and your prices have to be competitive in order to book enough weddings to generate your desired income.​

​I’m assuming you are asking the question, how much does a wedding officiant make, because you are interested in generating a certain desired income and looking at officiating weddings for money as a possibility.

I know a wedding officiant that earns $1000 or more per wedding​. 

​He is connected with a high-end wedding planner who is able to book him, maybe, 6 times a year.  Officiating weddings is something he does on the side when the opportunity presents itself.  He’s a good-looking young man in a suit and is a very effective public speaker.  He’s a great wedding officiant.

I have kids to feed and clothe and dental bills to pay.  I need to generate a steady income so I approach my business a little more realistically.

Here are some of the things to consider when calculating how much you can possibly make as a professional wedding officiant.

How much does it cost for you to officiate a wedding?

There are expenses you might not think about when you start officiating weddings.  Maybe you got ordained to marry a friend and it was part of your gift to them on their wedding day. You didn’t think about the expenses because it was part of your gift.  I realized one day that if a couple came to my house when I wasn’t doing anything else it literally cost me nothing to officiate their wedding.  It was 100% profit.  Or, I could just be nice and marry them for free.

​Here are some costs you need to consider when becoming a professional wedding officiant: 

• Is there a fee involved in being able to legally officiate a wedding where you live? Do you need to register? Do you need to file paperwork?
• Do you have appropriate clothing? Do you need to buy a suit or shoes or a robe to wear?
• The transportation cost of getting to the wedding. If you have to drive an hour to get to the wedding how much will the gas cost? Do you have to pay for parking? Tolls?
• Do you have a ceremony and a nice cover to put it in? You might want to invest in a nice folder or cover for your iPad.  You can find ceremony scripts online for free or you might want to buy books to research.
• Do you have to pay for a babysitter or re-arrange your work schedule? I performed over 1000 low budget weddings in my home.  Everyone came to me so I didn’t have to pay for gas or a babysitter.

How much does it cost to generate business?  

There are free ways to build a business.  If you have a large, local social media following or a large group of friends you could build a wedding officiant business with no investment.  Realistically, you will want to present yourself professionally if you are paying for advertising or not.  Some things are one time investments and others are monthly or yearly.

​Here are some costs you need to consider when advertising your wedding officiant business:

• A website.  There are free options in building a website but it looks a lot more professional to have your own URL.  You can build your own website or pay to have someone else build it.  I learned on my own.
• Business Cards.  I bought a gazillion of them a few years ago.  I still have half a gazillion left. More people use the internet to find your information and store it on their smartphone but it’s helpful to have business cards to share – especially with other wedding professionals who can recommend your business.
• Professional Headshots.  Formal weddings are about beautiful pictures.  Couples look at countless pictures when making decisions about how they spend their wedding dollars. You need to present yourself well in pictures too.
• Professional Branding and Logo’s.  You can find ways to do these things online for free but you might want to hire someone to do the work for you if you don’t have the time or don’t want to learn how.
• Paid Advertising.  This is my largest investment but it’s also my most valuable investment.  You can create free listings on Yelp, Google Listings, Wedding Wire, The Knot and other wedding websites but paid advertising is going to make you stand out. You have to spend money to make money.  You just have to make sure you aren’t spending too much money.  You work to generate profit for you, not the advertising company! I do as many things for free as I possibly can.
• An office.  If you decide to set up an office or a chapel to officiate weddings you will need to generate enough income to pay for the office and for you.  That’s a LOT of weddings you need to perform.  I have basic $60 service that I offer at a coffee shop down the street from offices that charge $100.  I pay for gas to get there but I don’t have to pay rent. I’d rather pay my mortgage.

How much you can earn as a wedding officiant depends on how much you can charge.

Now that you have considered your expenses, you need to decide if it’s worth it.  Will you actually make a profit as a professional wedding officiant?  If you make a profit, is it enough to justify the work and the time investment involved?
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When I decided to completely rework my business and my website I had to decide what I was willing to do and how much I needed to get paid to make it worth it. I decided that what I really need is to get paid for is my time.

How much is my time worth? 

Emails, phone calls, meetings, travel, they all take time. The actual length of a wedding ceremony is less than 30 minutes, but everything that goes into preparing for that 30 minutes can add up to hours behind the scenes. If I make an actual appointment with someone it is worth more to me than an email or text I can answer while I’m doing something else.  A scheduled appointment is an obligation and becomes a scheduled priority.  What is it a priority over?

What are my services worth to people who need them?

I decided to create several different services at different prices. That way couples can decide what they actually need and what they can afford.  I marry people every day.  Couples getting married on a Tuesday morning in January generally have different needs than a couple getting married on a Saturday afternoon at 4:30 during the height of wedding season.  We both understand what those needs are and what they are worth. If all I have to do is meet someone at a certain time, in my regular street clothes, sign a paper, ask them a question and snap a picture with my smartphone I’m good with $60.  I’ll probably spend that $60 on the way home at the grocery store.

A couple having a formal wedding ceremony will take over 10 hours of my time between meetings, emails, travel, not to mention using the years of experience I have.  I couldn’t charge the same prices 7 years ago.​

Related Questions

How much do wedding officiants charge? 

The average cost of a wedding officiant is $350. Actual costs will vary based on location, services provided and the experience of the wedding officiant. You can usually have a friend get ordained and marry you for free!

Can my friend perform my wedding ceremony?
​
Yes!  Anyone can perform a wedding ceremony.  You can download a wedding ceremony script for free, personalize it and get married!  You need to have a person to meets the legal qualifications in your state to actually sign your marriage license.