Diverse Services Couples Receive and Usual Stipend Offered

1. An emailed "Complete Uniquely Yours Wedding Resources Template" is sent with options for wedding texts as well as suggested sources found online from which to choose wedding texts. These helpful aids are meant to complement whatever sources you may find on your own. And for those overwhelmed by the amount of material online, this is a simplified resource.

2. A complimentary practical "do-it-yourself" marriage preparation guide, or an alternative optional self-administered pre-marriage survey to add to your communication, understanding and mutual growth in love.

3. Preparation of the set-up of the texts you have chosen for your Wedding Ceremony.

4. The text of the readings you choose, prepared in large type-face for your readers—one as a practice copy, another in a binder for use during your ceremony.

5. Two optional features:

• a personalized wedding message [reflection, sermon or homily] within the ceremony, using vignettes shared by family and friends.

• the set up of your wedding ceremony formatted as a "Wedding Program" folder, camera-ready for you to take to your copy center for copying on your chosen folder stock and offered as a service guide to your guests.

6. A clear and concise rehearsal orientation based on the format you have prepared so your bridal party will be well prepared and feel at ease.

7. A prepared Marriage Certificate, in calligraphic typeface on parchment paper for your witnesses to sign and suitable for framing,

8. A keepsake copy of your wedding ceremony presented to your parents and grandparents following the ceremony.

9. A post-ceremony email from Uniquely Yours with attachments of mementos of the process of your composition of your wedding ceremony:

• a copy of your completed marriage license—the original I complete and submit to the Town clerk—as a keepsake [not official but nice to have as a keepsake].

• a file with the communications emailed in the process of composing your wedding ceremony

• copies of the final text of your wedding ceremony, including readings and texts you chose to include in the process

• Links to clerk of town/city and state sites for use in obtaining your certified record of marriage  

10. In general, a collaborative planning of your complete wedding ceremony

Unique Services

These wedding ceremony/marriage preparation services are unique and beyond value. 

Few in the New England area offer these extensive services.

Uniquely Yours in No Way Identifies with the Wedding Industry

It needs to be indicated at the outset that this ministry in no way associates itself with the $76.3 billion (2020) wedding services industry. You know better than anyone how you are bombarded with offers of all kinds of peripheral items to surround your wedding--items which the industry seems to dictate as "necessary for you to have the perfect wedding." Your love, and the public expression of it, is not to be commercialized. Sure, it's important to prepare to receive your wedding guests with the honor and dignity they deserve. Making couples feel that they just "must have these things" to have a really "perfect wedding" is not what marriage or a wedding is about. 

What this ministry endeavors to bring to your wedding, and your preparation for it and your marriage, is the help to make your wedding the celebration of what you have discovered in the hearts of one another. There is no price that can be put on that and all the accouterments offered by vendors are accompaniment to that essential proclamation.    

The Role of Presider and the Offering of a Stipend

Since I offer a ministry—unlike a “vendor looking for business”—I recognize that you are inviting me into an intimate life-moment. 

It is important to me that you see me in my role of presider at your wedding as one you know you can trust to assist not only in composing your ceremony and in leading you through this special moment of life, as you proclaim your love publicly before all your family and friends, but also in offering you a way to prepare for marriage. That trust relationship is a role I accept as sacred in serving as officiant. You are seeking someone you know will assist you to make the public nature of your proclamation of love not only unique to you, but also a beautiful moment!

Chat Before Any Consideration of Stipend 

In this ministry, in our first chat, couples have the opportunity to see what a unique approach is offered to them to create a wedding ceremony that is their own, rather than a “canned” service. And only after that first chat, do couples consider what gift is appropriate. Whatever they offer has always been well within their wedding budget, and most assuredly considerably less than the services demanded by vendors. And when one considers that the services of the presider/officiant are essential to having a wedding--unlike all the services offered by vendors--whatever is offered might be called a "bargain."      

Incidentally, as your presider, it is my responsibility to complete the marriage license you obtain from the Town in which your wedding take place and return it to be officially certified by the legal authority, making the wedding legally recognized. Most municipalities indicate on their websites that there is a four-week turn-around time for registering and returning to you the certified marriage registration of your marriage. Following your wedding, you may obtain that from the office of the Town/City Clerk of the municipality in which your wedding took place.

First, the Initial Meeting with No Obligation

Once we have arranged to meet at a mutually convenient venue, our conversation gives both you and me the opportunity to feel comfortable with one another. Meeting with bride and groom also helps me understand how I can better assist them in making your wedding ceremony everything you want it to be.

You can be assured that meeting together puts neither you nor me under any obligation to accept each another for the special relationship implied in your role as the marrying couple or in my role as your presider.

Then the Agreement and Stipend Consideration

We enter into an agreement only after meeting and reviewing together what kind of wedding ceremony you want, and only after you and I recognize that we are a "fit."

Most couples planning their wedding in the New England area find offiants who charge a fee that varies for each type of ceremony and range from $300 to $800. And, sometimes, there is even a measured “fee-for-services” scale—"the more you want, the more you pay." The approach of Uniquely Yours Marriage Preparation & Wedding Celebration Services, however, is to give equal and full attention to couples in the preparation for marriage as well as the complete process of the composition of their ceremony as outlined above, no matter what is offered as stipend.

For those wanting to know what to offer as stipend, it may help to know that most couples have offered between $400 and $750 for the intensive collaboration offered in the process of their wedding ceremony composition. In this way couples show their appreciation and the level of confidence they've had in my work. If I could offer these services gratis, that would be my desire. However, the stipend offering allows me to dedicate time and effort to a couple, accept serving as officiant at only a limited number of ceremonies each year and cover costs of resources. This also enables me to offer couples the special values of the services listed above and gives them full access to me.

No One Turned Away Because of Budget Limitations: Any true ministry is meant to be accessible to all who seek it. I would never want two people who love one another to conclude they could not have me as presider because they couldn't "afford" it. In some cases, couples, because of a limited budget, have chosen to forego some of the listed services. Nor have I ever had a couple take advantage of my role of service. 

It’s important to me that both bride and groom feel completely comfortable with me as the person whom they are choosing to lead them through this very special moment in your lives!

The link When We Meet . . . offers an outline of the suggested format of our first get-together and what direction our chat can take. At the conclusion of this meeting, you have the opportunity to make a choice:

1. You may sign an agreement and offer part of the stipend to confirm your wedding date on my calendar. 

or

2. You may choose to take time to consider your decision together privately before the agreement is signed and returned by mail with the a partial stipend to reserve your date on my schedule.

If you wish to get started, proceed to Creating a Uniquely Yours Ceremony 

Or you can just contact me now with any questions you may have about the services offered by Uniquely Yours or about setting an appointment:

John P. Wentland

348 Spring Street Ext.

Glastonbury, CT 06033

860-888-2502

uniquelyyours1138@gmail.com

Following Your Wedding: The Return of Your Completed Marriage License

Incidentally, when you go to the office of the town clerk of the place where your wedding is to take place, you may hear that it is your presider, not you, who has the responsibility to complete your marriage license and return it to be officially registered by the proper legal authority. That makes your wedding legally recognized. Most municipalities in Connecticut indicate that, at the time of applying for your marriage license, you may pre-pay a $20 fee--in addition to the $50.00 application fee--so that your copy of the certified marriage registration can be mailed to you as soon as your completed marriage license has been recorded. Most municipalities also indicate on their websites that there is a four-week turn-around time for registering and returning to you the certified marriage registration of your marriage. Following your wedding, you may obtain that from the office of the Town/City Clerk of the municipality in which your wedding took place.

If No Pre-Payment has Made Up-Front, Following Your Wedding: A Checklist for Obtaining a Certified Copy of a Marriage Certificate

☐ Complete the application

☐ Order your vital records online (additional fees may apply) through VitalChek, or

   ☐ Complete the State application and mail your order in to the State Vital Records office, or

   ☐ Complete the Town application and mail your order in to the town of occurrence

☐ Include the applicable fee