Judge as officiant?

I had a judge officiate. I loved it. The judge was actually my husband's former boss, so it was more personal. It sounds like this judge actually does weddings regularly, so there isn't much that you need to tell him/her. For ours, our judge had only officiated one other wedding, so we wrote the entire thing ourselves (which I preferred, actually). I would ask him/her about any preferences, and if there's space for personalization in the ceremony if you choose. If you want to have some religious language in there, a judge can do that - though it's obviously not a religious ceremony.

Every state is different when it comes to having judges officiate, but I think it's legal everywhere. In Nevada, only state court judges can do weddings -- not federal -- which is weird, but in CA (where I married) even a notary public can be the legal officiant.

DH's uncle who is a judge performed our ceremony and did an amazing job. Just like an officiant, there's going to be a huge variety in judges, so I would meet with this guy and make sure you guys click and that he understands the kind of ceremony that you want. We worked with DH's uncle on the ceremony and the 3 of us came out with something that DH and I were very happy with.

Judges can officiate weddings, as long as you didn't want anything religious in your wedding.

Its odd that a reverend would suggest a judge?

I'd want to see a ceremony script first.

We are not religious and the Reverend we were looking at was for a universalist church, one that we are not a part of, but she was the only person I could find at all...WeddingWire, Thumbtack... The first judge she recommended is going to be out of the country for our date but HE recommended this other judge that IS available. I just had no idea where to start on questions to ask him. The only thing he asked me was if we needed our ceremony translated into spanish and if we were exchanging rings. Thanks for all your input guys!

One of my destination couples wanted a judge (family friend) to officiate their FL wedding. He was not legal outside of his home state, so I was there for the legalities (I signed the license, but made up an unofficial wedding certificate that he and I both signed).

My brother and SIL had the mayor of my mom's hometown officiate (he retired and wanted to officiate weddings going forward) So it wouldn't be too weird to have a judge do it.

This was our backup plan if FH's friend who is a minister wasn't placed in a church before our wedding. The judge is a family friend who was already on the guest list and had already offered to do the ceremony if we needed him, but luckily Fh's friend was placed and is going to be able to do our ceremony.

Son is in law enforcement in a fairly small community and works with the judges on a regular basis. He has asked his favorite to officiate their wedding and he's agreed. I anticipate that the ceremony will be very traditional with little personalization, but I would bet that's how the bride and groom want it anyway.

I was able to get a copy of his script and its very sweet and simple and modern. I like it a lot! I think I've finally found my officiant! And with booking my DJ on Saturday, I'm on the road to getting things done!! Thanks everyone!!