Can a friend officiate your wedding in Ontario?

Can a friend legally marry you in Ontario?

Only if they are already authorized. Ontario's Marriage Act allows two kinds of people to perform a marriage:

• a registered marriage officiant, recognized by their religious body, or by a band, First Nation, Métis or Inuit organization or community, and registered with the province;
• a civil officiant: a municipal clerk or their delegate, a judge, an Ontario associate judge, an Ontario justice of the peace, or a Member of Provincial Parliament who has given written notice to the minister.

Nobody else can. Ontario has no one-day permit that lets a friend or a relative perform a single wedding.

Why can't a friend lead it while an officiant signs?

Because the person who signs must be the person who married you. The province's guide for officiants says it plainly: someone who is not authorized cannot perform a marriage and have an authorized officiant sign the licence. The officiant who performs the marriage completes the licence, records it in their marriage register and sends it for registration within 2 days.

A marriage that doesn't meet the legal requirements may not be registered, or could be found invalid by a court. That is a lot to risk for a few minutes of ceremony.

What about getting ordained online?

Being ordained online doesn't, by itself, allow anyone to perform marriages in Ontario. To be registered, a person must belong to a religious body, or to an Indigenous organization or community, that is on record with the Office of the Registrar General, and that body asks for them to be registered. A person can't register on their own.

If your friend belongs to such a body and wants to become an officiant, they should start by asking it. Once a registration is made, it generally takes up to 4 weeks to appear on the province's public list.

What if your friend is a minister in another province?

A religious representative who doesn't live in Ontario can apply to the Office of the Registrar General to be temporarily registered, with the sponsorship of a religious body on record with that office. Ask early: the registration has to be in place before the wedding day.

How to check that an officiant is registered

The province publishes a list of registered marriage officiants on its open data site, with each officiant's name, location and affiliation. It is updated weekly. Civil officiants, such as judges and municipal clerks, are authorized by their position rather than by registration.

Every Celebrance officiant is registered.

How your friend can still be part of it

There is still a lot a friend can do:

• Welcome your guests. Open the ceremony with a few words, then hand over to the officiant.
• Tell your story. A few minutes on how you met, in their own words.
• Give a reading. A poem, a passage, a letter.
• Lead a ritual. A ring warming, a handfasting, a unity candle.
• Be one of your witnesses. Every marriage needs 2 witnesses, present at the ceremony, who understand what they are witnessing and sign the licence with you. Your friend can be one of them.

Your officiant performs the legal part: the legal words (see what must be said at an Ontario wedding) and the signing. Tell them early about your friend's part, so the ceremony flows as one.

Who must be there

The law requires five people to be physically present: the two of you, your 2 witnesses and the officiant. Proxy and virtual marriages are not permitted in Ontario. Other guests, including a friend who can't travel, can still follow the ceremony online.

What does an officiant cost?

Registered religious officiants have no set fee under the Marriage Act, though their religious body may have its own. A judge or a justice of the peace charges a set fee of $75. Municipalities set their own fees for civil marriages performed by their clerks.

With Celebrance, the price of a registered officiant is all-in and shown before you book, and if your officiant can't make it, we send a replacement at no cost. See our wedding officiants in Ontario. For the rest, from the licence to the certificate, see how to get married in Ontario.

Sources: ontario.ca: getting married · data.ontario.ca: registered marriage officiants · forms.mgcs.gov.on.ca: on00459e.pdf