Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Officiant & Ceremony

In Washington, DC: This category lists two officiant businesses for this region. Two, and that is the honest count rather than a gap in the research. The clearly labeled entries beneath the listings are congregations, not officiant businesses; they are where to start if your ceremony is a religious one. Otherwise this work is done through the courts, and three opposite regimes sit inside one region. In the District, celebrants and judges other than those of the DC Courts must be authorized by the Court and registered by the Marriage Bureau; a friend applies as a temporary officiant on a notarized form, and the District is the only one of the three where you may elect to officiate your own marriage. Maryland requires no officiant registration at all: once the license is effective, any authorized official may perform the ceremony. Virginia requires authorization by a Virginia circuit court before the ceremony, and that includes clergy affiliated with a church outside the Commonwealth. A friend who can legally marry you in Bethesda cannot in Arlington. For a civil ceremony, Arlington's court provides a celebrant for a $50 cash-only fee, Prince William charges $60 at check-in, Alexandria's clerk marries couples most Fridays, and Fairfax County does not offer the service.

2 listings · checked August 2026

• H&A Wedding Officiant — Chevy Chase · haweddingofficiant.com · (240) 672-7700
• Wedding Officiant 4 Love — Gaithersburg · weddingofficiant4love.com · (240) 780-8444

Churches and congregations

These are places of worship rather than for-hire officiants. Many will marry members of their own congregation, or couples willing to join and complete a marriage preparation course, and some will not marry non-members at all. Several also price the building, the clergy and the musician separately. Ask early what they require of you — policy varies widely between denominations, and between individual congregations of the same denomination.

• Christ Chapel Church — Woodbridge · christchapel.org · (703) 670-8481
• Church of the Holy Comforter — Vienna · holycomforter.com · (703) 938-6521
• St. Alban's Episcopal Church — Annandale · wearestalbans.org · (703) 256-2966

Details change constantly — confirm directly before booking. Something wrong? Update or remove a listing.