Help - need to know requirements for officiant

[RobinKS]

We are going on a cruise in January for some friends' wedding and the officiant they had previously arranged is no longer able to go. My husband is willing to get ordained and perform the ceremony, but don't know the legal requirements. Can anyone help? They were supposed to get married during one of the 'Sea Days", will this be possible, or do they need to change it to embarkation day to be in Florida? Thanks!!

[6rugrats]

We are going on a cruise in January for some friends' wedding and the officiant they had previously arranged is no longer able to go. My husband is willing to get ordained and perform the ceremony, but don't know the legal requirements. Can anyone help? They were supposed to get married during one of the 'Sea Days", will this be possible, or do they need to change it to embarkation day to be in Florida? Thanks!!

You don't provide a lot of details, but from what you've written, it's probably not possible to have a legal ceremony under these circumstances. You can certainly get ordained online, but that doesn't allow you to perform legal marriages at sea.

 

The easiest solution is for your friends to get legally married at home first, and then just have a symbolic ceremony, if that's allowed by the cruise line.

[HeatherC430]

If you get married through a cruiseline, they provide an officiant as part of the package (at least Carnival does).

[TraceyP]

Only a couple of the cruise lines even offer legal marriages at sea because of legal limitations. Celebrity is one where they do, but there's a lot of paperwork in advance, and $$. I think the best you could do is symbolic as stated above.

[RobinKS]

Thanks everyone. I also suggested this to the couple, thanks for confirming.

[CarnivalDreamWedding]

You could still officiate for the couple. My husband and I had a friend officiate for us and we ran into a residency snaffu. So we got a license in FL and he married us legally on the balcony of our room the day before he peeformed a symbolic wedding in the Bahamas. It was perfect.