After performing over 2,000 marriage ceremonies, there isn't a wedding location, vow, outfit or event that Don Perron hasn't seen.
Like the time two Waterloo police officers surprised everyone by exchanging nuptials at a late-night Halloween party. Or the guest that went into labour mid-ceremony. Or the father of the bride who fainted.
"But I've never had anyone left at the altar," chuckles Perron, although someone did call 11 days after their wedding once to ask about an annulment.
"I told him 'sorry,' you're going to have to talk to a lawyer,'" said the quick-witted 70-year-old Montreal native who has lived in Guelph for the past 30 years.
As a lay minister for hire, Perron is a very busy man these days. On a busy summer weekend it could mean he presides over 12 weddings or so.
"I love it," says Perron of his role.
"It's a job, in a way, but I'm giving them what they want and I hope their marriage lasts longer because they did it the way they wanted."
Perron, who just celebrated his own 50th wedding anniversary, offers non-denominational services of a wide variety: from the somewhat traditional religious to same sex marriages or marriages of people of different faiths.
He has one rule: "as long as they keep the dignity of the service, they can pretty much do what they want."
Perron is a stickler for the rules of the marriage act, including no alcohol during the service, but he gives a wide berth as to what type of ceremony people can have.
Which is why he found himself squeezed between two horses on a Cambelleville farm one sunny afternoon.
"The people were really into horses and wanted to do it on horseback," he said. "I was stood between the two horses and they kept coming in closer and closer."
He's married people at every venue you could imagine, from union halls to the middle of Medieval Times in Toronto with everyone dressed in costume.
There was also a pagan ceremony on the University of Guelph campus one time.
He's married first, second and third timers. He's married people who have lived together for decades. He's married terminally ill patients looking to tie up legal loopholes.
From four people to 400, he's done them all.
"Some churches run down guys like me," Perron says. "But the way I see it, we're there for your day. It's about what you want."
Perron said people chose non-church weddings for various reasons other than the obvious, including convenience, second marriages, mixed faith marriages, same sex marriages and preferred location.
"What we do is a unique service. They have a lot of say in the matter and people appreciate that."
Perron was working in the clerk's office at the City of Waterloo when the minister that did weddings there asked him why he didn't get into it himself, given his in-depth knowledge of the process.
The son of a former church Deacon, Perron took a two-year mostly online course through the All-Seasons Church of Canada.
He can't do Catholic marriages and he's not allowed to council the couple or hear confession.
"I'm more of an officiant than a minister," he says.
He allows, and encourages, people to write their own vows and include children in the ceremony if wanted.
"Little kids can be the number one issue at weddings. I tell them 'let the kids run free, you've got 150 babysitters here!.'"
