Being human together

I had the absolute pleasure and honor of officiating an intimate wedding for two ladies this afternoon. We executed the ceremony in the living room of their beautiful home while two of their friends witnessed. These ladies are in professions where they are not able to be completely out to the world. I respect their privacy and will not use their names or any photos. That’s cool – and it’s something I’ve come across before. There is nothing wrong with asking any of your wedding vendors to respect your privacy. I use social media with pictures of smiling brides, grooms, wedding hashtags, and my own impression of the ceremonies to promote my services, however, there is no self promotion more important than the privacy of those I serve.
This couple invited me to share in their celebration and I am so glad that my schedule allowed for it because I had the most marvelous time. As the wedding officiant, I never assume that I am invited to the reception and am delighted to attend if my schedule permits. The only time I’ve ever had to decline was due to scheduling. Whether to invite your wedding officiant to the reception is completely up to you and your comfort level. Your wedding officiant is not going to have their feelings hurt if no invitation is extended. If you do invite your officiant, you are in no way obligated to entertain them. I’ve attended plenty of wedding and memorial receptions and I always find a connection or three, in fact, it’s my favorite part of receptions.
I love being with people. I like to be human with them – to hear stories, to share my own, to listen to what’s going on in people’s’ lives. I really dig people. Recently I attended a wedding that I didn’t officiate (that was a wonderful experience – it was a Star Wars themed wedding and served as a friend reunion with loved ones we hadn’t seen in 10 years or more) and as guests we were asked to write advice for the grooms. My advice to them was to always try and consider their husband’s point of view and to never turn down a dinner invitation.
Today I took my own advice and had the most wonderful afternoon with these ladies. They are people I would love to spend more time with – just loving and open, the kind of people you want to surround yourself with. We spent time just being human together and it was such a rewarding experience. I am a believer that if we take the time to just be human together, we can learn so much about others and ourselves and little by little – the world will become a much better place.