A Very Unboring Blog

7 Steps to Responding Well to a Negative Review

I got my first-ever negative review this week. I'm at my Macbook writing a wedding love story, when "bing!" - in comes an email from Wedding Wire saying I've received a review from "Spencer." Right away, I'm a bit disoriented. Because I've never officiated a wedding for someone named Spencer. I open the email, and I'm met with the subject line: "Look elsewhere if you want someone who respects you as a customer and isn't only after your money." Um. That's the title of the review. It only goes...

5 Details to Consider for Ring Bearers and Flower Girls in the Processional

When we're talking about ring bearers and flowers girls coming down the aisle, the "when-do-they-enter" question is only half the conversation. We also need to consider how the kids are going to feel and how they might respond when their big moment comes. (For that other half of the conversation - my post on all the "when-do-they-enter" stuff - just click here.) As a professional officiant, I've seen plenty of kids - hundreds - nail it with flying colours. I've also seen kids sit down in the...

Ring Bearers and Flower Girls: When They Walk in the Processional

Weddings are a family event, and that means our wedding couple will often ask some little ones to walk as ring bearers and flower girls in the wedding processional. Over the past couple of weeks, we've covered how the officiant comes in and how the couple's parents come in. It's time to talk about the children. Ring bearers, flower girls, junior bridesmaids, junior groomsmen: how and when do we include all the kids in the processional order? It's a common question that couples ask me in our...

Seat the Parents: 4 Options for How and When They Enter in a Wedding Ceremony

In my wedding ceremony planning session with the wedding couple, I always ask, "Which parents will be attending the wedding?" (This is how I phrase it to allow for disinvited, estranged, or deceased parents to be omitted without too much discomfort for the couple.) Almost always, there will be at least one parent at the wedding. What do we do with the wedding couple's parent or parents? In a traditional wedding ceremony, it used to be a no-brainer: Dad walked daughter down the aisle. And even...

5 (But Really Just 4) Ways for the Wedding Officiant to Take the Front

Every wedding ceremony has one thing in common: the wedding officiant has to get to the front somehow. When we officiants conduct our wedding ceremony planning session with our couple, we want to succinctly lay out the options for them: "Here's a few ways we can kick this thing off." To do that, we've gotta be well-versed in those options ourselves. Now, the number of ways to get to the front of a room is limited only by our imagination - and maybe your imagination is way more animated than...

How to Add a Quaich to Your Wedding Ceremony

Confession: I'd never heard of a quaich before until I had a couple with Scottish roots ask me if we could add it to their wedding ceremony. "Uh, yeah! Of course... sure we can do that! ...What is it? And how do you spell that...?" Are you wondering how to add a quaich to the wedding ceremony for your couple? Technically, a quaich (pronounced "quake", but with more saliva) is a style of cup or bowl that traditionally originates in Scotland. So really, we would properly call this a quaich...