You found it.

The gorgeous ranch. The mountain property. The little venue outside a Colorado town most of your guests have never heard of.

The scenery is incredible. The venue fee is surprisingly reasonable. And you’re already imagining the photos.

Then you Google: “Wedding officiants near ________________, Colorado.”

And things get interesting.

Finding a local officiant isn’t always as easy as it sounds

The obvious solution to avoiding travel fees is to hire someone who already lives near your wedding venue.

We agree!

In fact, that’s usually the first place we’d start, too.

Unfortunately, when you’re getting married in some of Colorado’s smaller or more remote communities, there simply may not be many professional wedding officiants nearby.

Search for an officiant and you’ll often find national wedding directories that make it look like there are plenty of choices. Dig a little deeper, and you may discover that many of those results aren’t actually local at all.

Then you find the professional officiants.

Denver.
Colorado Springs.
Maybe another Denver.

Which doesn’t exactly solve the problem when your wedding is 100, 150, or 200 miles away.

We know because we’ve looked, too.

We actually try to find officiants in these communities

Elevate has officiants throughout Colorado, and we’re continually looking for talented people in areas where couples are getting married.

We’ve specifically recruited people in places like Telluride and Durango because we’d much rather have a great officiant who already lives in the community than send someone across the state every time there’s a wedding there.

Sometimes we find them.
Sometimes we don’t.

And frankly, this continues to boggle my mind.

For someone who loves people and has great public speaking skills, wedding officiating may be one of the best side gigs around.

Especially when someone else is handling the business, finding the couples, managing the contracts and payments—and a bestselling author in the wedding industry is writing the ceremony script for you.

But I digress.

The reality is that Colorado is a very big state, and professional wedding officiants aren’t evenly distributed throughout it.

So what do you do when you’ve chosen a beautiful wedding location and the nearest experienced officiant is hours away?

You have options.

First, try to find someone local

This is still where I’d start.

Ask your venue first. Not a national directory.

Then ask your photographer, planner, coordinator or other vendors who regularly work in that community.

You’re looking for someone who actually officiates weddings—not simply someone whose profile appears when you search for an officiant near your ZIP code.

If you find someone, talk with them.

Ask how many weddings they’ve officiated, how they create their ceremonies, what their process looks like, and what happens if they become ill or have an emergency.

You may find exactly the right person.

If you don’t, that’s when it’s time to look at the other possibilities.

Have a friend or family member officiate—with some professional help

If everyone you love is already traveling to your wedding, one of them could potentially lead the ceremony.

And this can be wonderful.

It can also be terrifying for the person you’ve just asked to stand in front of 75 people and perform one of the most important ceremonies of your life.

That’s where we come in.

Elevate can help write the ceremony and coach your friend or family member through the actual mechanics of officiating it.

Because there’s more to officiating than reading words from a page.

Where do they stand? How do they cue everyone? What happens with the rings? When do they move? How do they handle the marriage license? What happens if something goes sideways?

And how do they make sure they’re not standing directly behind you during your first kiss?

We can help them feel prepared and confident so they can focus on the reason you chose them in the first place: they know you and love you.

Or take advantage of Colorado self-solemnization

Colorado gives couples another pretty remarkable option: You can marry yourselves.
No officiant is legally required.

That doesn’t mean you have to skip having a meaningful ceremony.

We work with couples who want to self-solemnize but aren’t quite sure what that should look like.

Do you still have a processional?
Who welcomes everyone?
When do you exchange vows and rings?
What do you actually say?
How do you create something that feels like a wedding ceremony rather than simply signing your marriage license at a scenic overlook?

We can help you create a ceremony with intention and structure while allowing the two of you to be the ones who actually solemnize your marriage.

For a remote Colorado wedding, this can be a terrific option.

And yes—we absolutely have a professional officiant for you

Maybe you don’t want to ask your brother.

Maybe self-solemnization isn’t remotely what you pictured.

You want a professional.

Someone experienced.

Someone who knows how to command the space without making the ceremony about themselves. Someone who can work with your photographer and planner, calm the nerves, handle the unexpected, deliver your story beautifully and make the ceremony feel effortless.

We can do that.

We have professional officiants who travel throughout Colorado.

But getting a professional officiant to a remote location comes at a literal cost.

And it’s not because your 20-minute ceremony suddenly costs $1,500.

It’s because getting the person who performs that 20-minute ceremony to your location may require an entire day.

I recently officiated a wedding in Gunnison.

• The ceremony itself was about 20 minutes.
• Getting there from Denver meant roughly four hours of driving—each way.
• There was also approximately $250 for a hotel, $75 in gas, additional meals, hundreds of miles of wear and tear on my vehicle, and the better part of two days devoted to one wedding.

And there were long stretches of that drive through rural Colorado without cell service.

That means no consultations. No ceremony writing. No responding to emails. No working while someone else drives.

Just me, the highway and some truly spectacular Colorado scenery.

That’s what a travel fee is paying for.

It’s not about the 20 minutes we’re standing in front of you. It’s about what it takes to get us there.

So, how do you find an officiant in the middle of nowhere?

Start local.

Ask the people who actually work in the community whether there’s a professional officiant nearby.

If there is, fantastic.
If there isn’t, you still have choices.

A friend or family member can officiate with professional support.

You can take advantage of Colorado’s self-solemnization laws and create a ceremony you lead yourselves.

Or you can hire an experienced professional officiant and budget for the cost of getting that person to you.

At Elevate Wedding Officiant, we’re happy to talk through all of those options.

Because our goal isn’t to convince every couple that they need to spend $1,000+ getting an officiant into the mountains.

It’s to help you figure out what makes the most sense for your wedding, your location and your budget.

And if what you ultimately decide is:

“Nope. We want the professional.”

Perfect.

Tell us where we’re going.

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By Denise O’Malley
Owner, Elevate Wedding Officiant