By the power vested in me

Everyone stands as the woman in white glides down the aisle, escorted by her father. She looks forward, locking eyes with her husband-to-be. For the happy couple, the world narrows to just the two of them as they say their vows. But they aren’t alone on the stage.

Facilitating every moment, reading passages from scripture, telling funny stories to help shake off the nerves is the officiant. Words said to create a lifelong partnership are uttered first by this person before being repeated by the bride and groom.

It’s one of the most important facets of a wedding, and a privilege Chris Roberts of Greenfield takes very seriously.

“It’s a huge honor to have a big part in those people’s day,” Roberts said. “I’ve done some friends’ weddings. I’ve officiated a cousin’s wedding, two of them actually, and it’s a pretty unique honor to officiate that.”

For Roberts, officiating weddings is a joyful side gig, contrasting with his full-time job as ambulance director for the Adair County Ambulance, a hospital-based ambulance owned and operated by the Adair County Hospital in Greenfield.

“A lot of paramedics and EMTs have multiple jobs and stuff, so it’s one more thing to do, but this is a fun one,” he said. “A lot of times in my line of work, we see people maybe on not their best day and to be part of somebody’s happiest memory or happiest day is pretty cool.”

More than a decade ago, Roberts was working as a paramedic at Greater Regional Health. It was during a particularly slow night shift when a group of them began talking about ordained ministership.

“We kind of just on the spot researched it, figured out we could become certified and did it,” he explained. “And honestly did it very fast, faster than I thought it could be done. And so about five of us became certified that evening. And of course back then you put everything on your Facebook. So I put it on my Facebook because I thought, ‘Hey, here’s another certification I can add to the resume.’”

Officiating weddings was what he had in mind when he got ordained.

“I had a lot of friends that were of the age that we were getting married, and I just kind of thought it was an interesting concept,” Roberts said. “Not everyone wants that one-denomination minister or something to officiate.”

It wasn’t long before the mom of a bride in the Earlham area reached out to him.

“Mom and dad were on the fire rescue; I knew them very well,” Roberts said. “They said, ‘Hey, our daughter’s getting married. We need an officiant. Are you legit?’”

From there, it took off. Since then he’s officiated 15 weddings, choosing to officiate weddings with couples he has a connection with.

“I haven’t turned very many people down, but I am a little selective,” Roberts said. “Of the 15 weddings that I’ve officiated, I know 14 of those couples, and I don’t know of any that are divorced, so that’s pretty good odds.”

Roberts recognizes one of the biggest rules of wedding planning — it’s the bride’s day.

“Sometimes the groom has some input as well,” he said. “When I first started, I just had a sit-down meeting with them and I said, ‘What do you expect out of me? What would a good ceremony look like to you?’”

Maybe it’s reading the classic verse from 1 Corinthians, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Or maybe the couple wants to light a unity candle. Perhaps, the couple has an out-of-the-box idea tailored just for them. No matter the oddity of the request, Roberts will try make it work.

“I’ve done more traditional stuff and I’ve done some eccentric,” he said. “I’ve said some eccentric things, I’ll say, that they put in their scripts.”

When he knows the couple well, he’s able to throw in a personal story, especially about their character.

“If I know one of them, you bet I’m going to speak about that and wish them the best in their relationship.”

Time spent on weddings outside of work includes the initial communications, practicing the script on his own, ironing out the details prior to the wedding, making last-minute edits and then the actual ceremony itself.

It hits him personally when he has the opportunity to share the story of their family or talk about a loved one who has passed away and how they might be involved in spirit that day.

“Those always get me in the feels a little bit,” he said.

While nowadays it’s more accepted for someone outside of a pastoral role to officiate a wedding, it wasn’t always that way.

“I had some conversations with maybe of a grandma of the bride or something at the first wedding reception just about my pathway to getting it, and maybe they wanted something different for the bride and groom than me, but it was all in good conversation and I’ve met a lot of interesting people throughout the process,” he said.

The joy of witnessing the moment two individuals become one married couple had to be paused for a bit as Roberts and the rest of the Greenfield community dealt with the immediate aftermath of the May 21, 2024, tornado that devastated the small city, including the hospital.

“There was a time where we did not have an emergency room in Greenfield to bring a patient back to,” Roberts explained. “So our trips to the emergency room were a little bit longer going down to Creston with a patient, maybe over to Winterset. And really the past year has been a process just in order to plan our new facility and then get into our new facility and kind of have business as normal or what was normal before.”

Since the tornado, however, he has had the opportunity to get back to standing behind the happy couple, and he has another one on the docket.

“I know I at least have one the first weekend of September,” he said.