How to Officiate a Wedding in Rochester, Minnesota

Minnesota is probably best known for its boundless prairies, brutal blizzards and wild wilderness. If you’re planning on getting hitched in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, you’ll find that the wedding options are about as unique and varied as the untethered landscape itself.

Whether you’re envisioning a ceremony in the middle of the Scotch Pine Forest or on the rocky shores of Lake Superior, you’re bound to get an epic start to married life. And the best part? If you do a little digging around, you won’t have to break the bank.

But before you dive into planning the Minnesota wedding of your dreams, or prepare to officiate one, let’s get some of the legal to-do’s out of the way first, starting with getting your officiant of choice officially registered.

STEP 1: Get ordained with American Marriage Ministries

Let’s start with the ordainment process. In Minnesota, licensed or ordained ministers of “any religious denomination” may perform marriages, as long as you are at least 21 years of age. You can get ordained with us to become an official minister of AMM. The process takes just a few minutes!

Next, you’ll need to file your credentials of ordination with any Minnesota county of your choosing, which will make you valid to perform marriages anywhere in the state. 

To register in Olmsted County, download and print off the Certificate of Filing. You will send the completed form, a copy of your credentials (which AMM will send to you for a small fee), and a $20 payment to Olmsted County. Cashier’s checks, money orders, personal checks, or credit card numbers are all acceptable forms of payment (no cash.) 

You can bring these documents in person or fax them to 507-328-7965, or send them by mail to the vital records and licensing department at 151 4th Street SE, Rochester.

STEP 2: Prepare for the Ceremony in Olmsted County

Now that the easy part is out of the way, we can help you prepare for the wedding ceremony itself. Being asked to officiate a ceremony is an honor, but can feel like a lot of pressure. You will appreciate our wedding training pages, which are a library of information to help you prepare for your first ceremony and ensure that it goes smoothly. 

Here you can find everything from sample wedding ceremony scripts, to brainstorming prompts, tips for preparation, and more.

STEP 3: Officiate the Wedding and Complete the Marriage License

It’s the couple’s responsibility to obtain the marriage license. Just make sure that they have it in their possession before the ceremony and help them complete it afterward.

The last thing to do is to decide who will return the marriage license. If the couple is heading off on their honeymoon, you might want to return it for them. But there’s no rush -- in Minnesota, you have six months from the date the marriage license was issued to return it to the government center so it can be filed.

Now let’s turn our attention to the couple’s responsibilities. You can start your marriage application online on the Minnesota government’s website. The link is available here. After you have completed the online portion, you have 90 days to appear at the government center with your partner to present your IDs and complete the marriage license application.

When you go, just remember to bring:

• State issued ID (driver’s license or passport)
• Marriage license fee of $40-115
• Premarital education educator’s statement*

*If you have completed a premarital education course, which is optional, make sure you’ve obtained an educator’s statement, which is the proof that you’ve completed it. Bonus, if you’ve taken a state-approved course, the fee for the marriage license will be lowered from $115  to $40. You can find a link to the template for the educator’s statement here.

The Basics

When choosing your wedding date and location, it’s smart to avoid overlapping with the highly-attended events that take place in Rochester, which really start to pick up when the weather gets nice -- and also happens to be peak wedding season. You don’t want to choose a venue in-town during RochesterFest and end up competing for parking. So just check your wedding date and location against the annual events calendar here.

As far as venues go, we have some ideas. Our favorite location in Rochester is the Plummer House -- an English Tudor style historic mansion that draws in flocks of tourists to photograph its acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, formal gardens, quarry, and water tower. You can rent just the house or both the house and the grounds, and the rates are surprisingly reasonable. Plus, it’s right in the middle of town so guests won’t have to travel far out of their way.

But if you are willing to venture outside of the Rochester area, there are some absolutely stunning venues and other kinds of sites across the state. Stonewall Farms is popular for its picturesque natural grounds located in the Scotch Pine Forest, but it also has great amenities, like its bridal suite, sound equipment, 300-person capacity tent, and shuttles for guests. It’s about three hours outside of Rochester, so if you choose this one, you’ll obviously need to look into hotel or Airbnb accommodations in the area.

The Mill City Museum is another favorite of ours. It’s just an hour and a half drive from Rochester in Minneapolis and is a true one-of-a-kind venue. You can say “I do” in its courtyard in front of the building’s weathered masonry walls and then take the party inside to one of the museum’s elegant event spaces. You just have to see the photos for yourself to understand the majesty of this location.

Transportation

If you’re a Rochester native, you already know that the public transportation here isn’t the best -- but what can you expect from a low-key Midwestern town? If you’re flying in to attend a Minnesota wedding, you’ll be most comfortable either renting a car, relying on Lyft and Uber, or carpooling to get around.

Weather

Part of the beauty of the Midwest is its four distinct seasons. Minnesota’s winters are long and unbearably cold, but they sure make you appreciate its beautiful summers. The weather starts getting nice in mid-May and stays beautiful until about September. In the southern part of the state, humidity is part of the deal during the summer. Tornadoes are also known to happen in Minnesota, peak season is June, so if you’re worried about potential weather problems, you may want to choose a date between July and September.