By Rachel Aretakis

Dressed in jeans and a Legend-of-Zelda-emblemed cowboy hat, ordained minister Cyrus Karimian presided over his family member’s wedding.

The cowboy-themed wedding was the second wedding he has officiated.

Karimian, a graduate student working on his dissertation, is just one of 83 UK community members who are ordained ministers.

They are ordained through the Universal Life Church Monastery, a nonprofit organization from Seattle, that gives people the ability to perform legally-recognized wedding ceremonies, according to its website.

Karimian said he wasn’t serious when he became ordained.

“I did it as a joke to make my mom laugh,” Karimian said, “so she could call me ‘reverend.’”

In just a few minutes, anyone can register online to be ordained for free.

“It’s not like it’s a big, long process,” said Eric Gresham, a social work junior, who is also ordained.

All one has to do is create an account at themonastery.org.

“It is a lot more meaningful or touching when a friend or family member performs a wedding,” said Andy Fulton, media spokesman for Universal Life Church.

Fulton, who is a senior at the University of Washington, said becoming ordained is “increasing dramatically” among college students.

Since the church was founded in 2006, the number of ordained college students has doubled, he said.

“People our age are really less interested in having a conventional clergy lead (a ceremony),” Fulton said.

He said there isn’t a “desire to maintain tradition.”

Karimian, who identifies as non-denominational, has officiated two wedding ceremonies and said the bride and groom wanted to “break away from traditional ceremonies.” Both weddings were outside and not in a church.

Gresham will be presiding over his friends’ wedding in a year and a half, and said his friends didn’t want a pastor.

Gresham said since he’s known his friends for a long time, he isn’t nervous.

“Getting married by someone you’re best friends with,” he said, is better than “a pastor you don’t know very well.”

The first wedding Karimian officiated was his cousin’s, and he said he was happy to do it.

He recalled surprising everyone at the ceremony — as the bride walked down the aisle, he moved from his spot as a groomsman to the altar where he was holding a Bible. He said everyone looked shocked, especially his aunt, who is the mother of the groom. He then looked to his mother, who had “one of the biggest grins I’ve ever seen on her face,” he said.

The first thing his mom asked him after the ceremony was if it is legal.

And it is legal.

The nonprofit organization is registered as a church, and there are no laws concerning ordination for church ministers.

All but three states recognize the ministers, Fulton said.

Becoming ordained is most popular for weddings, Fulton said, however one could officiate burials or do hospice work at hospitals.

“They don’t become ordained for religious reasons,” Fulton said about some students. “It doesn’t matter what religious affiliation a minister has.”

It is also a matter of cost, as it can cost hundreds of dollars to get a minister, he said.

“But if you have a friend ordained, they can do it for free,” Fulton said. “It is more intimate and meaningful, and less expensive.”

Karimian said he was honored to do the weddings for his family and friends, but probably won’t for others.

“I’m not going to go out and marry just anybody just because I could do it,” he said. Gresham agreed. “I don’t really have a desire to do strangers’ weddings,” Gresham said.

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