Why Hiring The Right Officiant Is Important-Emergency & Holiday Fee Updates…
This morning I was tagged in a FB Post for North Texas Bridal Vendors Association. The reason? “Our wedding is tomorrow and our Officiant just canceled due to the flu.” The problem? It’s on New Years Eve and I’m already booked.
I love my job but I also love spending time with my family and already have a wedding scheduled tomorrow with plans of spending my evening at home ringing in the New Year with movies and my family.
I can’t stress this enough but the truth is that without a reliable Officiant, you aren’t having a wedding, you’re having a very expensive party!
Holiday Weddings are becoming more and more popular so booking early is essential to ensure you have a vendor secured. Every year, we have more and more holiday weddings on the books. All three of my photographers were booked through New Years months ago.
Emergency Officiant Fees and Holiday Fees are listed on this site for a very good reason, my time is isn’t free. I’m booked months and often up to a year in advance so if I’m willing to drop everything and save the day, I’m not a volunteer. I expect to be paid for my contribution to your event.
Several years ago, while working in my garden I answered a phone call from a mother needing an Emergency Officiant with over 200 guests waiting at TCU Chapel. The other Officiant had pulled an FTA (Failure To Appear). My husband reminds me of the “TCU And You Incident” frequently because he was lit that after dropping everything to save the day, I was never paid.
I’m always shocked that anyone would bail on something as important as a wedding but not everyone conducts their business in the same manner that I do.
I’m OCD and have five other Officiants on my staff to ensure that if something ever happened to keep me from Officiating, I have several back ups. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve never missed a scheduled appearance or even been late but not everyone in this industry follows my strict guidelines!
Often, couples take to Google to search for an “Emergency Officiant” and come across my blogs without actually reading them. No one likes running to save the day and “walking in cold.” You don’t know the couple, you don’t know what they want incorporated into their ceremony, their Religious or Non Religious Preferences or anything else.
I’m posting the blog links to give you a better idea of why I charge extra for Emergency Officiant Services— Special Requests & Short Notice Emergency Officiant Fees outlines my description of an Emergency while my other blog details why Holiday Fees are involved and how Holiday Fees and Emergency Fees are combined on certain days of the year–Holidays Incur An Additional Fee For Event Services.
Wedding Officiants are often viewed as the least expensive element for couples but all too often “cheaping out” isn’t the best way to plan your day. Officiant Fees for a Wedding in Fort Worth/Dallas start at $125 and can go as high as $350 for a wedding ceremony. A wedding ceremony and rehearsal? $275-500. Why do rehearsals “pad” the cost? Because the Officiant is required to travel to the venue or assigned location for both the wedding and rehearsal.
You wanted everything perfect but your florist forgot a bouquet or arrived without the bouteniers? You heard that I provide bouquets, bouteniers, cake trays, champagne flutes and other items? Loaned inventory is for booked clients and, at my discretion.
If you didn’t hire me or my team to provide flowers, please don’t expect me to cover another vendors mistake on location. Talk to the vendor you’ve hired (and paid) to resolve an issue with your floral order.
My twin sister gets her best material from these types of situations for Pawning Planners Apparel “Not My Luggage-Not My Trip.” If you’ve paid someone else, it’s their responsibility to make it right not everyone else’s. I’ve lost inventory that was loaned from my SUV to cover someone else’s “short order.” In return, my inventory was lost or stolen and had to be replaced at my expense for trying to save the day due to someone else’s slip up so I no longer just “fix every problem.”
If we weren’t hired to handle floral needs, we don’t unless you spoke with me personally prior to arriving at your event and I’ve made a “special exception.” Arriving to an event with everyone panicking because another vendor messed up isn’t my problem anymore unless I was hired to coordinate. Why? Because when I’m coordinating, I go over everything with every vendor long before the big day.
When I’m Officiating, I show up check with everyone, perform the ceremony, pose for photos and head to my next event. It’s the coordinators job to check and re check details and vendors not the Officiants.
Over the years, it has become widely known that we create brooch bouquets and custom orders but the timeline of 6-8 weeks along with the required deposit are “planned” months prior to a wedding date.
We do not loan brooch bouquets to anyone for any reason. These bouquets are very expensive to create and not available for loan. For more information on custom floral designs, email wendy@texastwinsevents.com or my partner and twin sister cindy@texastwinsevents.com for more information.
I created an inventory to loan to Pawning Planners Clients who can’t afford to provide their own flowers, a venue, photography or any of the other “extras” that Texas Twins Events Clients can easily afford.
Loaned floral designs are offered in two choices: black, red and white or pink multi. If neither option works for you or “with your colors,” please feel free to provide your own flowers.
I do not create custom bouquets to loan clients for obvious reasons, loaned floral designs are a courtesy that no other wedding Officiant of planner provides other than me so if I’m loaning you something, please don’t dictate the colors.
If you’ve hired me to officiate your wedding, you didn’t hire me as a planner or coordinator. Let’s go over the key differences between an Officiant and Coordinator–time and money. If you need an Officiant AND Planner, I’m happy to give you quotes on providing both services but, if you’ve hired me to Officiate Only, expect me to be on location for 1 hour as I often Officiate several weddings in the same day during wedding season. I’m not going to be on site solving every problem for hours on end or throughout the duration of your event and neither is my staff unless I’ve been hired to coordinate.
If I’m coordinating an event, I never stack other events on the same day to ensure I’m on location with my Team the entire time of your event.
Photography Packages are available at a cost to you. We do not provide complimentary photography to Texas Twins Events Clients. Why? They can afford a venue and everything else for their event so they can afford photography.
Complimentary photography is reserved for Pawning Planners Clients as a courtesy as are Bridal photo shoots for Texas Department Of Criminal Justice spouses so they have photos to remember their wedding with along with loaned floral designs and whatever else is needed. 
Loaned items or props are provided as a courtesy and to help give their photos a “pulled together” look. You can often tell the difference by whether we are at a Park, Venue, AFB Base, Cargo Plane, Karate Studio, Parking Lot or even Prison.
Anyone that can afford to have their event at a rented venue is expected to pay for photography. Venues start at $1-5k so if you’re paying for a venue, don’t pretend you can’t afford our discounted services because you can. My photographers are far less expensive because Texas Twins Events is a People Over Profit Based Business.
That’s right, compare our prices to anyone else in this industry and you will quickly realize that we keep our costs affordable for a very good reason, my goal was to give anyone a beautiful event at prices they can afford.
I’m on staff at Bell Tower Chapel and a few other venues in the Metroplex but my fees are different from what you see listed on this site for a very good reason, I do not control my fees at other venues. A large portion of my fees are donated to charity. This is non negotiable. The contract at the venue cannot be reworked or changed because you found me listed on a site and then Googled me and found out that I might be less expensive by booking straight through my site.
For instance, if you book me at Bell Tower Chapel, my fees are listed at $300. I’m not paid $300, I’m paid $100 with $200 going to the ACH for charity. Please don’t ask me to change my fee if you’ve booked through a venue I’m affiliated with. The contract you signed at the venue “laid out the terms.”
Pawning Planners Clients cannot afford to rent a venue or any of the extras that Texas Twins Events Clients can so there are special exceptions involved for these families because they often need to borrow many items for their event that Texas Twins Events Clients can afford to buy.
From ring pillows to flower petals and baskets, I make special exceptions for TDCJ Clients, LBGTQ Clients and Pawning Planners Clients all of the time because their circumstances are almost always less than ideal as opposed to Texas Twins Events Clients.
I created an inventory for Clients who needed it not for Clients who just didn’t want to go buy items they needed. From complimentary photography to loaned floral designs, I make special exceptions all of the time but my decisions are based on needs not wants.
No one on the events industry loans anything. They rent items but they don’t loan them because items can be damaged or lost. Replacing or repairing lost or stolen items is costly which is why I’m picky about who can borrow this or that.
A few weeks ago, a TDCJ Bride had her Officiant back out the day before the wedding and called me. There are no Emergency Officiant situations in Texas Prisons. If you’ve hired the wrong Officiant, you will need to cancel your ceremony, get a refund from the other Officiant and resubmit your I60 with the new Officiant (who is Approved by the Department Of Prisons) on your paperwork. It often takes up to 3 weeks for a rescheduled or new wedding ceremony request to be approved at a Prison.
Hiring The Right Officiant, Coordinator, Floral Designer or Photographer for your Event will keep your day worry free because you can count on them to show up on time and ready to work to ensure you have your day- your way!
We’ve spent years exceeding client expectations and building our brand and while we would like to make everyone happy all of the time, at the end of the day we operate a business and like to spend holidays at home with our families like everyone else so, additional fees for Emergency Officiants, Coordinators, Photographers, or Floral Designers on short notice will apply…