Celebrity Officiants
In case you hadn’t heard, in January singer Adele married two of her best friends in a private ceremony in her own backyard. The publicity of that act of love and generosity got us to thinking about other famous people getting ordained, which led to inspiration for this week’s blog - celebrity officiants. Apparently, it’s a lot more common than we thought for couples to have celebrity officiants at their weddings. And if there’s anything this Denver wedding planner loves over all else, it’s sharing the love.
In case you’re wondering what exactly an ‘officiant’ is, it’s described as a person, typically a priest or minister, who performs a religious service or ceremony. In this day and age, however, it’s quite easy to get “ordained” (or rather, legally certified) to preside over a marital union. Going online, paying a fee, and getting an official certificate is all it took for most of the celebrity officiants on our list.
Benedict Cumberbatch
The first on our list of celebrity officiants is the Sherlock and Doctor Strange star. He got ordained for the special nuptials of his friends Rob and Seth in Spain back in 2013.
Judith Light
It was an all-out Ugly Betty reunion at the 2011 wedding of America Ferrara, not only including co-stars as guests, but having one as the officiant as well.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
This former wrestler turned actor made a surprise appearance at comedian Nick Mundy’s wedding, further shocking the superfan by actually performing the ceremony.
Ian McKellen
X-Men’s Magneto is one of our celebrity officiants because in 2013, he wedded his bestie/co-star Patrick Stewart to singer Sunny Ozell
Jason Segel
The How I Met Your Mother star officiated the wedding of two superfans in attendance during the filming of an episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Ian Somerhalder
In 2012, the Vampire Diaries actor performed his way into our list of celebrity officiants by presiding over the wedding of his assistant.
Jonah Hill
Having been friends since childhood, it was only natural that this jokester on our list of celebrity officiants presided over the wedding of Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine in 2014.
Stevie Nicks
This Fleetwood Mac legend officiated the 2013 wedding of fellow musicians Vanessa Carlton and John McCauley.
Joe Biden
Former Vice President makes our list of celebrity officiants by offering up his services on different occasions for same-sex weddings: first, for two White House staffers in 2016 and more recently for that of a DNC staffer.
Tom Hanks
When it comes to celebrity officiants, this superstar actor takes the cake. In 2015, he became ordained to join together Girls actress Allison Williams to CollegeHumor founder Ricky Van Veen in marriage. If doing one wedding wasn’t enough, he even offered up his services to a couple taking wedding pics in Central Park in 2016 while he jogged by.
Jane Lynch
The humorful powerhouse on our list of celebrity officiants performed the wedding ceremony of Glee co-star Becca Tobin.
Other notable celebrity officiants include Lady Gaga, Blake Shelton, Conan O’Brien, Emma Stone, Kesha, Jimmy Kimmel, Queen Latifah, Kathy Griffin, Kris Jenner, and Russell Brand, just to name a few.
If you’re in the market for a wedding officiant of your own, Blue Linden has wonderful vendor recommendations for you. And while they don’t include a list of celebrity officiants like this one, if you have your own ceremony master in mind, we can definitely help you on your way to making sure everything is legal and binding. Reach out us using the social media buttons below!
