Tennessee’s legislature has passed a law that takes away the rights of non-traditional ministers to officiate weddings. The new law, SB1377/HB0213, is the sort of government overreach that our founding fathers warned of, and represents a massive step back for religious freedom. 

Effective July 1, 2019, the government of Tennessee has made itself the arbiter of which ministers can, and can’t perform marriage in the state, stripping away the rights of tens-of-thousands of online-ordained ministers.  

And that’s not all. With the same stroke of his pen, Governor Bill Lee turned Tennessee’s thousands of bureaucrats, government officers, and elected officials into wedding officiants. You heard that right: the new law literally strips private citizens of their rights to officiate weddings, and hands them directly to government bureaucrats. ...(continued)

One of the biggest sources of stress for couples planning their wedding is (no surprise here) their guest list, which always seems to cause headaches no matter what sort of wedding you’re planning. Whether it’s your crazy cousin, screaming babies, a co-worker that’s always trying to sell her life-changing essential oils - we’ve all got a list of people we would rather not have in attendance, even if they think they deserve a seat at the table. 

We’re not going to pretend that we’ve got the perfect solution for dealing with folks like this, but what we can do is provide some examples of common problem areas. That way, when you’re drawing up the guest list, you can plan ahead. We reached out to our friends in the wedding industry, as well as former brides and grooms, and these are some problem guests to watch out for. 

1. The Food Diva

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Wedding Disasters! Nightmare Vacations! Restaurant Fails! Do we have your attention now?
 
If you’re still reading, that’s because we all love a good disaster story, but that’s not what we’re going to talk about today. As anyone who works in the wedding industry, or at a resort, or in a restaurant can tell you, most folks have great experiences. Almost all weddings are beautiful and memorable, most vacations are great, and almost every time I go out to dinner, I’m pretty satisfied – but that doesn’t get those clicks!
 
That’s why, after seeing hundreds-of-thousands of happy couples married by friends and family members (who happened to be AMM ministers) I still wasn’t surprised to see an article that ran on Brides.com titled, ...(continued)

We love non-traditional ministers, and nobody embodies that ethos better than hairdresser, podcaster, figure skater, television personality and wedding officiant Jonathan Van Ness. That’s why we were so excited when we found out that the star of the Netflix series Queer Eye is coming to Seattle on June 4th to officiate the wedding of one lucky couple at the world-famous brewpub Elysian. Over the last month, couples have competed to get married by arguably one of the most famous officiants in America.

Now, that lucky couple has been selected. The winners of the contest were Washingtonian couple Megan and Haden, and they are in the final days before their big day....(continued)

Guest Column by Matt McMurphy

My path to becoming a wedding officiant was an unexpected journey, and I am so thankful for this adventure. It is a journey that only happened because of good friends, perfect timing, and my ability to comfortably say “Yes” and “I don’t know” to new experiences.

I had already been in love with weddings for about five years when I became a wedding officiant. I did not choose to become a wedding officiant originally - two very good friends chose me. When my lifelong friend Jenni and her amazing boyfriend-at-the-time Hosam got engaged, I had given them my favorite wedding planning advice, which my wife and I had received from a wedding planner we met during our engagement. ...(continued)