American Marriage Ministries Celebrates 16 Years of Ordinations & Service in 2025

American Marriage Ministries turns Sweet 16 with the support of our incredible ministers

 

It’s our birthday! American Marriage Ministries was incorporated on July 4th, 2009 – 16 years ago today. We’ve grown a lot over the years, ordaining nearly 1.5 million ministers and helping countless couples celebrate their love.

 

We’re so proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far, and we know we could never have done it alone. Our ministers are what make our work possible, and we're deeply grateful to all of you for your support over the years.  

 

We’re also very excited about the projects and adventures that lay ahead! As we step into our next year as an organization, here’s a look back at everything we’ve accomplished, and a glimpse at what’s to come.

American Marriage Ministries: Timeline of 16 Fantastic Years of Service (and Counting!)

2009: American Marriage Ministries is founded on July 4, 2009 by Glen Yoshioka in a humble basement apartment in Capitol Hill, Seattle. Our three guiding tenets are simple and essential:

 

• All people, regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation, have the right to marry.
• It is the right of every couple to choose who will solemnize their marriage.
• All people have the right to solemnize marriage.

 

2010: AMM is already making headlines as more people choose friends to officiate their weddings! Early mentions in Louisiana’s The Houma Courier ask, “Friend, will you marry us?” At that time, we had maybe 10,000 ministers in the AMM family. 

 

We knew we were doing something truly special – helping people create personal weddings on their own terms.

 

 

2011 & 2012: More headlines and more happy couples! Like this one in the Observer, “I Officiated a Big Gay Wedding—and I Liked It” and this one, one of our earliest mentions in The New York Times Weddings section. Little did we know then that there would be hundreds more over the years! 

 

Of special note, two Cleveland orchestra musicians were married by a third orchestra player – a flutist ordained with AMM for the big day. And thousands more happy couples took their vows under the care of AMM Ministers. We were on a roll! 

 

 

2013: This is the year we hit the big time. That’s right, Stephen Colbert got ordained online with AMM and gave us a shout out on late night tv. (We love you too, Stephen Colbert!) We were helping couples spread love and get hitched amidst the government shutdown, and getting name-dropped in The Hollywood Reporter, TODAY, and People. 

 

Then, as if we couldn’t swoon any harder, Lisa Vanderpump was photographed carrying her AMM ordination credentials by paparazzi, leading to this unforgettable Daily Mail article: “I now pronounce you... legally ordained! Lisa Vanderpump flashes American Marriage Ministries certificate as she checks in on new bar P.U.M.P.”

 

 

 

(Stephen Colbert, ordained clergy! Scenes from The Colbert Report)

 

2014 & 2015: National support for same-sex marriage was becoming an undeniable force, and couples started demanding wedding officiants who would support their love and honor their values. (That’s what we’re all about!) Millennials were also less likely to belong to a church, and more likely to ask friends to conduct their marriage ceremony. At this point, AMM had ordained about 200,000 ministers. 

 

And then…

 

The Supreme Court decided in favor of marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges – and same-sex couples around the country could finally marry! AMM welcomed thousands of new LGBTQ+ ministers and allies from all walks of life. 

 

Dylan Wall, AMM’s Vice President, told reporters in Alabama: "We try to make it as open and accessible as possible. If there's a loving couple has a friend they want to perform that ceremony, we see that as something that an individual should be able to do and our goal is to make that possible."

 

 

Check out this funny AMM commercial from 2017. 

 

 

 

And this heartwarming one from 2018. 

 

 

2018: A lot of incredible things happened this year: We continued to expand our State Marriage Laws Library, added new tips for first time wedding officiants to our Officiant Training pages, and ordained thousands more ministers. 

 

As more people began to embrace friend officiants, and asked parents, siblings, favorite teachers, and best friends to officiate their weddings, American Marriage Ministries became an increasingly trusted source of information on the legal requirements for ordination and new wedding trends. 

 

Lewis King, AMM’s Executive Director (then AMM’s new Director of Communications), told The New York Times, “Because the wedding officiant plays such an important role in communicating these aspects [of life and spirituality] to the guests, many couples ask friends or family to do the honors… They want someone officiating who understands who they are, and who has a past and future with the couple.”

 

This is also the year we launched AMM’s American Weddings Blog. With more first time wedding officiants in need of practical tips and advice, this blog quickly becomes an important industry resource. We’re covering everything from wedding trends to marriage laws – anything and everything that can help our ministers perform a one-of-a-kind wedding.

 

2019: American Marriage Ministries leapt into action this year to head to Tennessee, where we ordained hundreds of ministers in-person in the wake of an unconstitutional new law. This law would have prohibited online-ordained ministers from performing marriage, but a judge quickly suspended it – allowing AMM Ministers and others to officiate.

 

For days, we met with extraordinary people all across Tennessee who believe in marriage equality, and the right for all people to marry and perform marriages. There were hugs and handshakes, sighs of relief, and many proud photos with new ordination certificates! 

 

 

 

Folks from all across Tennessee lined up to get ordained by AMM staff in person.

 

 

2020: AMM Ministers come to the rescue this year as something unthinkable happens – a global pandemic shuts down government offices, wedding venues, schools, and businesses across the country and around the world. 

 

In the midst of unprecedented uncertainty and loss, our ministers stepped up to officiate hundreds of tiny COVID-safe elopements in backyards and parks. Working from home offices and small shifts at the warehouse, AMM’s team continues to ship out the necessary ordination paperwork to ensure these marriages can happen.

 

And in the middle of it all? We ordained our 750,000th minister! 

 

2021: Like many people in the wedding world, we were immersed in Skype weddings, Zoom weddings, hybrid weddings, and live-streamed weddings this year! We called clerks’ offices and city officials, scoured legislative reports, and kept up with constant changes to the pandemic safety guidelines, emergency executive orders, and virtual wedding trends. Because no matter what happens, love and marriage won’t be stopped. 

 

With also launched a fully-online wedding officiant training course designed for professional wedding officiants, and friend officiants who wanted to perform weddings like the pros. This virtual course made it possible for people to learn how to officiate a wedding from anywhere in the country without ever leaving home! 

 

And as if that wasn’t enough wedding tech for us already – metaverse weddings start trending and we become the unofficial experts in video game weddings. As in, "Can you legally marry someone in a video game?" Once again, we were getting name-dropped in some lofty places: Business Insider, Fortune, and Daily Mail.

 

But true to our roots (and our love of all things analog), we published two new books this year too - Navigating Your Wedding Ceremony and Handfasting: From Ancient Rituals to Modern Ceremonies – and released a brand new Handfasting Wedding Officiant Package for officiants and couples! 

 

 

 

 

 

2022: This was a busy year, but one of our favorite things about it? We started publishing articles and wedding ceremony scripts in Spanish this year!

 

Since then, AMM's Spanish language resources have continued to expand to include state-specific information pages, Spanish marriage certificates and more. This has enabled us to support more ministers and families as they celebrate their weddings in a personal, meaningful way.

 

Check out our Spanish wedding blog articles here: AMM Articulos en Español 

 

2023: American Marriage Ministries and IAPWO launched “Officiant Accelerator”, a unique live training seminar for wedding officiants. Our first event in Atlanta was a huge success, and we couldn’t wait to get back on the road! Little did we know that this one-day seminar would lead to many more – in Chicago, New York City, Columbus, and many other great cities across the country.  We made a fun appearance at Wedding MBA that summer with a few of our favorite people, to celebrate this incredible new part of our ministry! (See the video below!) 

 

We also launched “AMM Talks” this year – the virtual officiant training webinar that would later become our immensely popular “Officiants Online” educational series. This unique virtual series gave our ministers the opportunity to grow their skills no matter where they lived, with presentations from some of our most beloved and trusted professional officiants. 

 

Wedding MBA was such a blast this year!  And check out the killer promo video below. 

 

 

 

2024 & 2025: One of the best things to come out of this whirlwind period might be “The Book of Wedding Vows and Ceremonies.” This unassuming book quickly became a best-seller, filled with full length wedding ceremony scripts and sample wedding vows for all kinds of celebrations. 

 

But honestly, who can choose when so many incredible things happened – and are still happening? Officiant Accelerator is still on the move, Officiants Online is more popular than ever, our blog is chock-full of informative and entertaining articles, and we’ve ordained nearly 1.5 million ministers! 

 

All while continuing to provide the most robust and trusted non-denominational online ordination available.

 

 

So what’s next for AMM? More of the same, we hope! And a whole lot of new adventures too. 

 

We're so grateful for the support of our ministers and to be on this journey with all of you. Best wishes and here's to many more! 

 

- Your Friends at American Marriage Ministries

 

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