Be sure to check out the complete Wedding on a Budget series of posts.

[twitter]Sure, you could have a friend get certified on the internet and do the ceremony for you, but Jen and I decided to turn to a professional to perform our service.

I’d love to offer many tips for searching and finding the perfect celebrant for your service, but we sort of had ours fall into our lap. Jennifer and her husband, Jordan, both perform weddings. After reading this series of blogs, Jennifer offered her services as officiant.

Here’s what we like about her: before she agreed to marry us, she wanted to meet us. A wedding is a very personal thing, so Jennifer wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page as far as goals, beliefs and ideas were concerned. We had a coffee and snack at a cafe and chatted for an hour and it was settled – Jennifer will do our ceremony.

Jennifer hands each couple a free Getting Married Kit to prepare for the wedding ceremony.

We will be writing our own service, so the kit has been handy to help us structure our own ceremony. On the list of things to do: search for some meaningful readings and write the vows.

That’s not difficult, simply google “wedding readings” and you can get hundreds of suggestions, the same goes for “wedding vows.” A mix and match of important and thoughtful passages will make up our ceremony, something along the lines of this Hindu Marriage Poem I’ve found:

You have become mine forever.
Yes, we have become partners.
I have become yours.
Hereafter, I cannot live without you.
Do not live without me.
Let us share the joys.
We are word and meaning, unite.
You are thought and I am sound.

May the nights be honey-sweet for us.
May the mornings be honey-sweet for us.
May the plants be honey-sweet for us.
May the earth be honey-sweet for us.

Looking for a celebrant? I’d recommend Jennifer and Jordan in a heartbeat.

Blogging about the wedding helped us find a celebrant, if you’re getting married you might want to try it as well to get some advice, or just look at the complete Vancouver Wedding on a Budget series to see what others have suggested.

My favourite comment list is the advice on finding a wedding photographer. (BTW, our photographer will be Carolyn from Spilled Milk Photography)

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