Nearly three months after their summertime wedding, Jessica and Casey
O’Donnell aren’t quite sure if they’re actually married.
In the Peterborough couple’s own words, the newlyweds are “sort of”
spouses.
“Un-frickin-believable,” said Casey, 33, when discussing the events that led
to their marital limbo.
“To be honest, it feels surreal, like — did this actually happen? What the
hell?”
What happened is this: In the rush to organize an outdoor wedding in August,
they took to Kijiji to hire an officiator named George T. Casselman to oversee
their ceremony and legally confirm their nuptials.
That resulted in what Casey calls a “trainwreck” at the altar. As portrayed
in a video of the ceremony, Casselman stumbled over his words and seemed to
utter incoherent sentences. He briefly misplaced the wedding rings, then dropped
them to the grass at his feet. At one point he lost his place in his notes,
prompting Jessica to mutter, “Couldn’t you just make it up?”
That was hard enough, Jessica recalled. But then, on Monday, the couple says
they received a call from Service Ontario telling them Casselman was not
authorized to marry people in the province. The O’Donnells say they now have to
go to family court and apply for an “order of validity” to finally make their
marriage official, an ordeal Casey expects to cost “about $500.”
They have since put out a call of their own on Kijiji, warning others who may
have been married by Casselman that their wedding might not be entirely
official.
“It was all pretty horrible, and I had kind of swept it under the rug,” said
Jessica, 27. “This is just reopening the wound.”
The Star tried repeatedly to contact Casselman, who didn’t return voice mails
or text messages on Friday or Saturday.
The situation isn’t unprecedented in the province. Last year, the Ministry of
Government Services revealed that more than 830 weddings between 1990 and March
2013 had been officiated by people not authorized to oversee marriages.
Cynthia Vukets, spokesperson for Service Ontario, declined to speak
specifically about the Casselman-O’Donnell case, citing privacy rules.
She did say that the agency routinely checks its records and reaches out to
couples when they find evidence of an unauthorized marriage officiator. These
couples are still considered legally married, Vukets said, but they must apply
to the courts to “determine that the marriage is valid” before the province can
recognize the union.
In cases where the officiator believed they had marriage authorization,
Service Ontario tells them how to get registered through a “recognized”
religious institution, Vukets said.
It is a crime in Ontario, however, to knowingly “solemnize” a marriage
without the authority to do so. In August, a Dorchester, Ont., woman plead
guilty to six counts of knowingly marrying people without authorization and was
sentenced to 12 months probation, the Woodstock Sentinel-Review reported.
For privacy reasons, Vukets declined to discuss whether Casselman knew he
wasn’t authorized to marry people. But she added there are websites in Ontario
that aren’t recognized by Service Ontario that claim to “ordain” marriage
officiators in the province.
In a text message to Casey late Friday — which he forwarded to the Star —
Casselman says he was certified by the “United National Church of Canada,” which
has a websitethat will “ordain” people to perform marriages for $139.99.
The organization is not authorized to certify marriage officiants in Ontario,
Vukets said. The United National Church was unavailable for comment
Saturday.
A man named George Thomas Casselman also registered a “ceremonial officiant”
business in July called “Enduring Moments.” The listed address on the business
document is a low-income apartment building in Peterborough.
After dating for a decade, Casey and Jessica got engaged in February. Two
months later they took to the Internet to hire an officiator. They found
Casselman’s post “The Wedding Officiant,” in which he says he is a “family man”
available to oversee weddings and funerals to help create “your perfect
ceremony.”
“We went to his place to meet him,” said Jessica. “He seemed like a pretty
reasonable guy, down to earth . . . a little eccentric.”
The couple says they decided to book him and handed over a $75 deposit on a
total fee of $250.
Everything seemed fine, said Casey, until they contacted him about a ceremony
rehearsal. According to Jessica, Casselman “insisted that wasn’t necessary, that
we’re a young couple and we don’t need to spend the extra money” hiring him for
a dry run. Jessica said Casselman assured them it would be fine, so they had the
rehearsal without him.
In retrospect, that was the first “red flag,” Casey said.
Then came their wedding day, with the ceremony Jessica calls “mortifying.”
Casselman, who arrived at the wedding with a woman Casey described as
“scantily-clad” in “six-inch heels,” is seen in the YouTube video reading from a
book, flanked by the couple at an altar in their friend’s backyard. After
bungling the delivery of his notes and drawing sporadic laughter from the crowd
Casselman concludes: “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you great honour and great
joy and privilege to announce to you, Mr. and Mrs. Jessica O’Donnell.”
Casey is then seen shrugging his shoulders. “I’m taking her name,” he
says.
“He just dropped the ball completely,” Casey told the Star. “It seemed like
(it took) an eternity.”
After the wedding, Casey and Jessica said they repeatedly tried to contact
Casselman. They said he responded three days later with a text message, which
Casey sent to the Star. Casselman explained he now realizes he should have done
a rehearsal. He also refers to “my heart diabetes,” saying he had a “mild heart
attack” after the ceremony, and that he is “truly sorry about that day.”
The couple refused to pay Casselman his entire fee after the ceremony, and
Casey said they demanded their $75 deposit back, but didn’t receive the
cash.
“It’s a little easier pill for me to swallow,” said Casey. “For Jess, she’s
dreamed about (her wedding) her whole life, and for him to make a mockery of it
. . . I’m still kind of in shock about it.”
