Commissioner can't make the timeline change. What to do?

I'm so happy it worked out. Not much longer!

View quoted message Yay! I'm so glad you dodged that bullet! This is a great update.

Just thought I'd update you all! After several back and forth emails, the commissioner agreed to do the 3:30 time we asked for. However, that exact evening a SUPER negative review of that commissioner was posted on the local Facebook wedding group. At least 30 people commented saying the same thing. There were multiple complaints on how she was unprofessional, showed up late, resisted the idea of doing custom vows, forgot the couple's names, etc. It was the nail in the coffin for us, so we politely declined her services and asked for a refund.


We quickly found an officiant through WeddingWire who is available on our wedding day, and we feel SO much better now. She seems so professional, reliable and thoughtful. It all worked out!

Call a bunch of officiants. wedding season is almost over im sure there is one person available for your date!

That’s a weird situation. Honestly I would go with someone close to you officiating the ceremony. It’s a nice personal touch, and although it’s not the same thing, it’ll be the easiest way to just go with the punches

Are you open to having a friend get ordained? I think it's free!

That is very, very weird. So now she is saying she wouldn't have been available for when she was originally booked???
If you want to stick with her, I would have her walk through with you what her obligations for the day are. In minute detail. She sounds like she has bitten off more than she can chew.

Update: Very confusing.... she just emailed us back saying she's able to come at 3pm now (which was when she said the previous couple's wedding would be), but it HAS to start at 3pm. I reiterated that our start time was 3:30pm and we could even do 3:45pm to be closer to the original 4:00pm start time. I feel like 3pm poses the same problem as we'd be in the midst of traveling to the venue. I'm so confused!!

Just to play devil's advocate here - the commissioner may actually have included travel time to and from the other wedding, possibly not that they actually have another wedding 30 minutes before the time you originally booked them for. It's not uncommon to have multiple weddings in one day, and they probably mostly range between 1-4 pm, so maybe she's already booked for one too close to yours? Giving them only two weeks notice of a time change means they had lots of time to be booked by other couples for other times during that day.

Still worth checking to see if you can find someone to accommodate your time, but it may be completely out of the commissioners hands.

Good luck, let us know if you are able to make the changes or find someone new!

I would go online and look for a different commissioner. Advise them of your situation and I am sure they would be able to accommodate you.
That being said, I hope you haven't put a deposit down for your officiant and if you did I would be requesting that money back!
Who plans another wedding 30 minutes after another! That's ridiculous! If yours went longer for ANY REASON that would mean the next wedding has no officiant!? I think the officiant either needs help managing their time, or maybe they are just giving you a hard time because they have other plans that day... I am not sure.

Regardless... Look for a new officiant ASAP!

View quoted message That’s not an option here in BC, unfortunately. The best bet is to try and find someone else who can do it in your area. Best of luck!

Wow. That is a bit of poor planning on their part! I think I would look for someone else instead of pushing back everything.

Did you hire your officiant through a company? If they have more than one person officiating weddings in the company, then you can request someone else.

If you have paid for everything and it is non refundable, then I would push everything back. but that would be the last thing I would do

In Alberta we were able to have a temporary commissioner approved to perform our ceremony. Not sure if the regulations are the same in BC. Ours temporary commissioner was a friend who is a lawyer. If regulations are the same and you know someone who fits in one of the approved categories it took about 5 days to approve our application.

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Thanks! Fingers crossed!!

View quoted message Guh, I knew something was bound to happen I'll definitely follow up with the refund once she responds (my fiancé emailed her back asking why she booked two ceremonies back to back, she even mentioned she'd arrive before our ceremony started, so it makes absolutely no sense... like what about travel time UGH). If we can't find anyone, I'll have to push everything back. It's not ideal... but hopefully people will understand.

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I know! Would she have shown up the minute the ceremony was supposed to start? Baffling. And thank you for the suggestion! Super helpful I'll definitely take a look!

View quoted message Yeah... I think we'll look around, but I'm not hopeful we'll find someone so last minute. Why do they cut it so close between ceremonies? and thank you! Hopefully things work out.

WOW. You should look for a new officiant/commissioner ASAP. Follow the link that Tori posted and just start mass messaging people until you find someone that is free. You will 100% find someone for the job.

Gosh, this is stressing me out just hearing about this.... okay. this is what I would do if I got this same problem:

First, ask the officiant/commissioner that you had set up if you get a refund if you have payed anything (I don't pay my officiant till the day-of though).

If you have payed him/her and they say it's not refundable then honestly I would reach out to all the other vendors to put it back to the original time.

If there has been no payments or you have more than one other vendor not okay with yet another change then I would start looking for a new officiant. Copy and paste the same message explaining when you need them and where and explain your predicament. Here's the link to officiants in Vancouver: Wedding Officiants Vancouver

Good luck!

Yikes! Better to find out now that the commissioner is a flake, I guess. Who cuts it that close between weddings?

I'm in Ontario, but our officiant does a lot of last minute weddings. I would suggest you connect with officiants who do elopements-- they are used to being booked a couple weeks in advance. We found ours on kijiji of all places!

Its a short notice and finding another Officiant/Commissioner will be hard as they may be booked already. It seems best to keep your timeline as scheduled since you will be married on the time given and not change any vendors timings too.

I too had booked our officiant and notified that he had to leave after our wedding to go do another wedding so we couldn't change anything if he was somewhere else beforehand. I hope all goes well and your day.