It's Official, We Have Our Officiant!

My parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary yesterday (congratulations, Mom and Dad), so I'm taking some time today to write about how we found our wedding officiant.

Mr. Blue Moon and I were both raised in Christian families, but in different denominational traditions. Mr. Blue Moon was raised in the Presbyterian tradition, and I was raised in a church of Christ. As we have gone through the process of finding a church to marry in that we can both agree on, thinking about what we want to incorporate into our wedding ceremony, and asking someone special to officiate it, we have talked a lot about how we can compromise and incorporate elements from both of our backgrounds. 

We decided pretty early on in our engagement to use our hometown's Presbyterian church, about five minutes down the road from both of our childhood homes, for our ceremony. Though we had several choices, Mr. Blue Moon ultimately felt that it was good to marry in a church that follows the same tradition that he was raised in. It was not important to me to get married in my church or another different church of Christ. 

However, I thought a good blend might be to ask someone from my religious tradition to officiate our ceremony. Mr. Blue Moon agreed, and we decided to ask my mom's cousin to do our ceremony. He has been a lifelong member of the same denomination, officiated many church of Christ weddings, and actually married my parents in 1991!

My lovely parents and cousin 25 years ago. Personal Photo.

My mom is really excited that we asked her cousin to officiate the wedding. We are talking with him about using some of the same scripture readings from my parents' ceremony. Since our wedding is focused on family and those traditions that get passed down, I am really happy to be able to mesh my religious upbringing with Mr. Blue Moon's, give a nod to my parents' wedding (they are seriously one of the strongest couples I know), and have a family member I have grown up with officiate our ceremony. I think that will really help us feel relaxed on the big day. 

How will you choose your wedding officiant? How are you blending denominational or religious differences in your wedding ceremony?