If you’re wondering how to be a truly great wedding officiant, you’re my kind of person. There are too many “okay” officiants. But true greatness is right within reach.

So now that you’re on this quest with me to be the best (high five!), let’s get right down to it: what does it take? Whether you’re about to officiate your first wedding for a friend or you’re building a professional wedding officiant business, one thing is clear: being a top wedding officiant isn’t about being the funniest, the flashiest, or the most extroverted person in the room.

After officiating hundreds of weddings and coaching thousands through Unboring!Wedding Academy, I’ve seen exactly what separates an average officiant from one guests rave about, vendors love, and couples remember forever.

Here are the 5 must-have qualities that define every top wedding officiant—qualities you can learn and develop, no matter your starting point.

1. Organized: Set the Stage for a Smooth Ceremony

Wondering what makes a wedding officiant successful? It starts with being organized. You don’t have to be naturally Type A, but you do need a clear, repeatable process for how you guide couples from first contact to walking down the aisle.

Top officiants plan the full client journey: initial meeting, forms and questionnaires, ceremony workshop, script delivery, and day-of checks. When couples know what to expect, they relax. And when you know exactly what’s next, you relax.

Being organized builds trust, eliminates chaos, and helps create a seamless ceremony day—whether you’re doing one wedding or building a thriving officiant business. Everyone will notice and thank you. (Especially the wedding planner.)

So it’s important to understand the whole process yourself. That way, you can describe it to your couple. When you do, you give them a sense of what to expect in the weeks leading up to the wedding day as you build and craft their ceremony.

2. Responsive: Build Trust and Win More Bookings

One of the most important skills for wedding officiants? Responsiveness.

Timely, thoughtful replies to emails, inquiries, or last-minute changes show couples they’re in good hands. Even a quick “Got your message—will reply tomorrow!” goes a long way.

Responsive officiants get more glowing reviews, more referrals, and more bookings. And if you’re just officiating one wedding for a friend, responsiveness still says, “You’re important to me. I’ve got this.”

Pro tip: Use email templates or CRM tools to speed up your response time without sacrificing personalization. Gmail is great for this.

3. Tech-Familiar: Embrace Simple Tools That Make You Look Pro

Today’s couples expect communication and planning to happen online. The best wedding officiants are tech-familiar—not tech experts, but comfortable with tools that keep the process smooth.

Use tools like:

Google Docs to collaborate on scripts

Google Forms for collecting ceremony details

Google Meet for virtual wedding workshops

Calendly for scheduling meetings

Docusign for delivering contracts

Stripe for collecting payment

Gmail templates or auto-replies for your convenience and speedy replies

If you’re using legal pads and post-it notes to write and read your ceremony, it might be time for a bit of a tech-skills upgrade. A tech-familiar officiant looks professional, organized, and easy to work with—exactly what modern couples want.

4. Confident: Show Up Calm, Clear, and In Control

Confidence is one of the top traits of a successful wedding officiant. But it doesn’t mean being loud or over-the-top. It means being clear.

Confidence comes from preparation—knowing your process, knowing your couple, and knowing your script. When you’re calm and in control, everyone else relaxes: the couple, the wedding party, even the vendors.

The secret to confidence? A great ceremony script and a repeatable workflow. With those in place, you can stop worrying and start enjoying the whole process.

5. Fascinated: Be Genuinely Curious About Your Couple

Here’s what sets extraordinary officiants apart: they’re deeply fascinated by the couple and their story.

This curiosity fuels every part of your work—from writing a personal, emotional ceremony script to asking great questions in your workshop. Couples feel seen. Guests feel engaged. And you feel fulfilled.

If you’re going to stand up and lead one of the most important moments in someone’s life, it helps to actually care. And when you do, it shows.

Bonus: What You Don’t Need to Be

To be a top-rated wedding officiant, you do not need to be:

Hilarious

Outgoing

A born performer

You can be introverted, calm, even quiet—and still knock it out of the park. It’s your preparation, presence, delivery, and professionalism that make the difference. Even if it’s your first time.

Wedding Officiant Success Checklist

Whether you’re preparing for your first ceremony or trying to grow your officiant business, ask yourself:

Am I organized?

Am I responsive?

Am I tech-familiar?

Am I confident?

Am I fascinated?

If you want to fast-track your growth as an officiant, the single right tool can make all the difference—and that’s where Officiantly© comes in.

Officiantly© is Unboring!Wedding’s only-one-of-its-kind, purpose-built platform designed specifically for wedding officiants. It’s more than just a place to build and store wedding scripts. It gives you the tools to stay organized with ceremony timelines, to-do lists, and couple-specific workflows. You can be more responsive with all your couple’s info in one place—no more digging through old emails or Word docs.

The interface is clean, intuitive, and made for real humans—so if you’re not super tech-savvy, you’ll still feel right at home. And because it walks you through each stage of the ceremony process, it gives you the clarity and structure to show up with real confidence on the wedding day.

Most importantly, Officiantly© helps you stay fascinated—with built-in tools to capture your couple’s love story, track important notes from your couple, and craft a ceremony that’s truly personal. Plus, the built-in Love Story Caster© writes your couple’s love story for you using their replies to your questionnaire!

If you’re serious about growing as an officiant, or just want to knock your first ceremony out of the park, Officiantly© is the assistant you wish you had—and now you do. It’s included in our Unboring!Wedding Academy Ceremony Course. And it gives you the 5 Qualities of a Top Officiant… all in one place, all at once.