How To Perform A Wedding

It is common for the average Universal Life Church minister to perform a wedding for friends, family members, and, in some cases, strangers. ULC ministers are much different from those found in Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox churches in that they are far more open to performing “unconventional” wedding ceremonies. How many Lutheran preachers or Catholic priests do you know who have performed a wedding in a natural history museum, on the observation deck of a skyscraper, or on a mountain top? Therein lies the value of ULC wedding officiants.

The Universal Life Church also does not have restrictive policies that prohibit its ministers from solemnizing certain kinds of weddings. For example, most branches of the ULC will happily allow one of their ministers to perform a wedding for a gay couple; Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox wedding officiants generally cannot say the same.

So, if you want to perform a wedding ceremony that will be fun, highly personalized, and legally recognized by the government of your state, follow the steps below and the ULC will help you become a wedding officiant.

It is virtually impossible to officiate a wedding in America unless you are an ordained minister through a church. The few exceptions to this rule, such as ship captains and officers in the Salvation Army, are recognized only in a handful of states.

One of the major benefits provided by a Universal Life Church ordination is that it allows people to solemnize marriages. The ULC is a real church and thus its ministers are real ministers; this means that anyone from anywhere in the world can become a legally recognized wedding officiant in most of America within the space of a couple of minutes if they get ordained through the ULC.

Why you should get ordained online: It’s...

• Quick: The entire ordination process should take less than five minutes.
• Easy: You only need to provide your full legal name, email address, and mailing address.
• Permanent: The ULC ordination lasts a lifetime – it does not have an expiration date nor renewal fees (though your ordination can be revoked if you decide you do not want it).
• Free: It costs a whopping zero dollars and zero cents to become an ordained minister with the ULC (though it must charge for ministerial documentation out of necessity).

To complete the ordination process, simply fill out the ordination form on our sister site, themonastery.org. In a matter of seconds after completing the form, you will be a legally ordained minister of the ULC! You will also receive an email confirmation verifying your ordination status.

Read the Get Ordained section of this site for more information about the online ordination process.

Once you have confirmed that you are able to perform a wedding ceremony in the county in question, make sure to ask the county clerk about what forms of ministerial and government-issued documentation you will need to file for a marriage license with them. This stage is absolutely necessary; failure to present the right documentation could easily prevent you from filing for the marriage license.

Fortunately, many states do not require ULC ministers to present any forms of identification other than a drivers license or passport. Of the states that do want to see some form of minister license, most only need to see an ordination credential certificate or letter of good standing. On the other end of the scale, a handful of states and counties have very stringent documentation requirements that force Universal Life Church ministers to possess entire packets of paperwork.

Regardless of what the state or county in question requires of the ULC minister, you are sure to find what you need in the Ministry Products section of themonastery.org. Everything, from ordination credentials to affidavits of authority to letters of sponsorship can be found there. The ULC staff has even prepared packages for certain states and cities; Nevada, Wisconsin, and New York City all have their own region-specific materials.