Marriage officiant

A marriage officiant or solemniser is a person who officiates at a wedding ceremony.

Marriage officiant is a civil officer such as a justice of the peace who performs acts of marriage or civil union. Their main responsibility is to witness the consent of the intended spouses for the wedding license and hence validate the marriage or civil union for legal purposes.

Officiant's duties and responsibilities, as well as who may be an officiant vary among jurisdictions

In the United States, Canada and many other countries around the world, a celebrant is a person who performs religious or secular celebrancy services for weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies, and other rituals.

Most Celebrants are ordained clergy, while some are legal officials (usually judges), and others are Officiants empowered by the Humanist Associations around the world.

Celebrants may perform alternative and nontraditional ceremonies in places, and under circumstances where mainstream religious clergy will not. Some Celebrants perform same-sex weddings and commitment ceremonies. Celebrants, also called Officiants, often perform ceremonies in parks, on beaches, on mountains, on boats, on hiking trails, in hotels, in banquet halls, in private homes, and many other places.

Laws in each state of the United States vary about who has the ability to perform wedding ceremonies, but Celebrants or Officiants are usually categorized as "clergy" and have the same rights and responsibilities as ordained clergy. In the United States, celebrants are professional ceremony officiants who believe in the power and effectiveness of ceremony and ritual to serve basic needs of society and the individual. They collaborate with their clients to create and perform personalized ceremonies that reflect the client’s beliefs, philosophy of life, and personality, not the celebrant’s. See Celebrant (United States) for more information.

In Scotland, since a June 2005 ruling by the Registrar General, humanist weddings are now legal, providing that they are conducted by an Authorized Celebrant of the Humanist Society of Scotland making Scotland one of only three countries in the world where this is the case. (The other two are the USA and Norway.)

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