Ok, so what should you do to make them feel welcome and
to make them feel that you are really happy that they are willing to travel to
see you get married?

There are several things that you could do for your out-of-towners depending on your budget of course as well as your time budget.

First, are your guests travelling via air?  You could arrange for a rental car at the
airport for them to complete their trip to the site where they will be staying
and for the remainder of the wedding festivities.  Note: if you are reserving more than 1 or 2 cars you should be able to receive a discount.
You can either pay for the car rental(s) yourself or just advice your
guests that you are making the reservations for them and that they will need to
contact the rental company to make payment arrangements.

Now you are going to need to book a block of rooms at a
nearby hotel for your out-of-town guests unless you are prepared to put them up at
yours or a friend or family member’s home.

Depending on the number of rooms that you book you will
receive a discount that your guests will appreciate.

For a special “Thank You for Coming” you could
drop off a little gift for your guests to the hotel that you have booked.  Anything personal that says “We really are happy that you consider our wedding special enough to come this far to join us”  It could be a greeting card
that you make yourself, a special picture of you and your soon-to-be betrothed
signed by the both of you, or a small gift basket filled with candy or
incidentals that they may not have thought to pack such as hand sanitizer,
travel tissues, aspirin, or whatever you choose.  A map to the wedding and reception sites would be helpful and says “I wouldn’t want you to get lost and miss
joining us on our special day”.

Once you know that your guests have arrived at the hotel
give them a short call to welcome them and to tell them that you can’t wait to
see them again.

In 2006 I received my commission to be a NH JP.  Since I had no idea on how to BE a JP, I scoured the internet looking for information.  To my dismay I couldn’t find any how-tos on being a Justice of the Peace in NH.  So I shadowed an experienced JP at 2 wedding ceremonies that she performed.  Or at least I was suppose to shadow.  This JP told me at the very last-minute that she wanted me to perform the ceremony and handed me a piece of paper with the vows.

I was petrified but went through with the ceremony and to my amazement I handled it just fine.  I didn’t miss a word and I actually felt comfortable.  I did feel bad for the couple though because they didn’t know they weren’t having the JP that they hired until the same moment that I found out I was performing the ceremony.

This sort of unprofessional behavior made me even more possessed to find information on being not just a JP but a professional JP.  Even though this was my very first ceremony I knew it wasn’t handled professionally by the “experienced” JP.

Still no luck finding that perfect article “How to be a professional JP”.  That is when I decided that it was time for NH to have an organization of Justices of the Peace that could share experiences with each other which in turn would help all of us become better at what we do.  End result, a group of JPs that the public can depend on being professional in every aspect of their wedding.

After doing more and more weddings I began seeing what was important to the wedding couple and how to best handle all the fine details.

In 2007 I began the NH Justices of the Peace A-List Organization or better known as the NHJPA.  I sent e-mails to a list of JPs that I found online and invited them to join the NHJPA.  Now, in 2011 we have over 20 wonderful members, both male and female.