I selected Men In Black wedding officiants because I wanted to have an outdoor wedding with some traditional Catholic ceremony elements. Shortly after locking into a contract, MIB sent 23 emails to our entire wedding party-whether or not a give...n topic applied to them. Those were the last emails sent to the broader distribution list…until a few days before the wedding.
A few days prior to the wedding, my fiancé is disgusted to see an email sent to the wedding party about how much to tip officiants. They recommend $90 – $195. That was sent to our wedding party twice the week before the wedding. Now, we expect to tip all of our vendors for their good service. Bad service even gets some tip. None of our other vendors sent emails asking for tips prior to the service, yet all of them earned good tips. It was very off-putting to receive those emails, and I am putting that mildly.
I wanted it to a simple, Catholic-oriented ceremony to include a reading and a prayer I selected. What I got was very different. The priests added in a Jewish prayer. That is not normally an issue, but neither of us is Jewish, and we paid a Mariachi band to show up at a certain time, but since the Priests added in a Jewish prayer which I didn’t request, it was actually eating into the Mariachi band time that I paid for. Consequently, the band left mid-way through the cocktail hour since they had another engagement they had been paid to attend. In addition, they added in other wording absolutely not discussed beforehand. Thankfully, only a few guests noticed. Most loved our vows, and that is what they focused on.
Two hours before the wedding start time, they sent a text indicating they were in hours of traffic and are at least 45 minutes away and still need to dress. With less than an hour until start time, my husband responded inquiring about their ETA. They never responded, but thankfully showed up on time. They insisted on having a handheld mic despite my experienced DJ's advice. Sure enough, this caused interference with the mic on my husband's lapel.
During the reception, we planned to have a brief blessing. The blessing was brief. Unfortunately, the self-promotion was not. The Bishop told a lengthy story about MIB, and eventually remembered why he was there.
As the groom and I walked around to individual tables, I couldn’t help but notice business cards strewn about. Again, in and of itself, this is not a big deal. However, adding all the pieces together creates a picture of two insurance salesmen (their primary occupation-I found out later) who came up with a great way to make extra cash and have a great meal on others’ dime. I wouldn’t knock it, if they made providing a great service their priority. However, cash was clearly theirs.
One of them glared at me as he outright asked if I "had an envelope for the Bishop". I gave them less than the exorbitant tip they demanded. However, I thought it was fair. Apparently, they disagreed. As we settled in to ur hotel room at the end of the night, we received atext. sating that we should "take etiquette classes." Yes. ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT! All I can say is, if you want a somewhat amusing story, and don’t mind paying twice the IRS-approved price for mileage, two full guests meals, and 75% of what you asked for in your ceremony along some aggravation, hire these guys. Otherwise, do your research and save your tip money for deserving professionals who care about their clients.