Are you getting/have you gotten a close friend or family member to officiate your wedding?

I wish we could but, in Nova Scotia, it has to be done off a certain list of Justice of the Peace certified in being an officiant.

Ditto with everyone from Ontario, it has to be someone legal to officiate it.

No can do. our ceremony is being presided over by the pastor at his church.

View quoted message The commissioner will do a quick bare bones “ceremony” that morning, and my mother will basically redo it and make it more celebratory when our guests are present later that day.

So we’ll technically be married before our guests see us.

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So which part would your mom do when shes up there? Would she just re-do what the commissioner would do except it just wouldn't technically be for legal purposes? I am just curious because I think I want to go with this idea!

View quoted message The entire ceremony is the legal part. No one other then a commissioner can pronounce you legally married. They are also the only ones with authority to sign the documents.

View quoted message Yes.
Not sure of the legal vs non legal part but we really want the commissioner to do the bare bones “do you you swear to blah blah blah?” Yes?
Ok.
Sign here...etc.

The commissioner would do whatever the basic city hall rep would do.

View quoted message So would you technically get married before the ceremony but still have a traditional ceremony with you mom? Which part of the ceremony is the actual legal part that needs to be done by a commissioner?

We’re based in Ontario but getting married in BC.

We’ll have an official/legit commissioner do the quick legal bit the morning of, and have my mom perform the ceremony later in the day at the actual ceremony,

I'm in Ontario where things are different but we had our friend officiate our wedding and hired an officiant for the day who attended the ceremony to witness it and make it all legitimate (she had all the papers and signed everything and made the pronouncement making things legal). I would make sure to do tons of research but there is always the option of what we did in the background.

I just found this for Alberta:

https://www.servicealberta.ca/temporary-marriage-commissioner.cfm

It looks like you can do a one-day officiant. There are some eligibility requirements though that makes it a little more difficult for just anyone to do it. Hopefully, your would-be officiant fits into the eligibility criteria.

View quoted message Might be different in Alberta I'm not from there doni really don't know. I did look into if for Ontario and unfortunately it's not an option unless we hire someone to sign the papers lol I hope you can do it that would be so amazing to have your fiance's dad do it!!

We looked into it but when we looked on the Alberta website it said that for the general public you have to be eligible to be appointed, this is from the website:

clearly show there is no current permanent marriage commissioner available who can perform the marriage.

• All permanent marriage commissioners in the community where the marriage is to take place, as well as surrounding communities, must be contacted to see if they are available to perform the wedding.
  
  so this kind of discouraged us. We want it to be legal first and foremost and didn’t want to have to worry about that! Like also mentioned I believe you can have one there to over see someone else doing the ceremony but the actual government appointed marriage commissioner has to sign the marriage licence.

View quoted message Yeah I will do some more research! Thanks for the heads up. She got married in Alberta.

View quoted message Definitely look into it. Canada has strict rules about marriage officiants. I didn't think you could just get ordained for a day, last time I heard that wasn't legal, you'd have to have an actual officiant to sign the legal documents. Call your local city hall and they will be able to help you out! Where did your cousin get married?

Oh I did not know there were rules around it. My cousin’s wedding was officiated by their dad who got ordained for a day by using a website online and getting a one day license so that is where we got the idea from. I should look more into it!

View quoted message In Ontario you have to be legal and registered with the government, honors ands or buts lol they are very strict about it. If you don't have an approved officiant then it's not legal, they are very picky apparently lol

I didn't think you could do that. I always thought Canada was different where you had to have a registered minister or officiant with the government for it to be legal. I know in the states you can get ordained no problem but that's illegal to use in Canada. How does this work?

There was someone else asking about this the other day on the forum. I'm not sure about the rules in Alberta, but in Ontario, it would be easiest to get an officiant to sign the documents and oversee the ceremony, while your friend/parent does the ceremony itself.