Series: Celebrant or Registrar? 3. You get your very own unique ceremony from your Celebrant!

Celebrants have creative freedom and flair to craft your wedding script to suit you, registrars have a set of ascribed words they must follow. Some councils are offering limited personal touches and options to their format but, let’s be realistic, councils cannot afford the time, energy and investment in considering all that you want for your day, to explore your unique story and history and they often require additional payment to their initial package to go there. ​A Celebrant, on the other hand, at the very core of their service offer is to create a ceremony dedicated to you. After booking I offer up to ten further consultations, although rarely does it take that many, usually two or three, but I make myself available for that much just in case family or friends would like to meet me or if I’m supporting them with readings or speeches. I have a genuine interest in getting to know you and give you what you want for your day. I am invested in the couples I marry, I wrap myself in your story, your narrative, the things that make you smile and continue to love each other regardless of the niggly little annoyances we all have! During your Celebrant-led ceremony, you won’t be restricted by formalities (unless you want them) you can have a ceremony that is personal and totally unique. You may not know what you want for your ceremony but no bother, we have all of the ideas up our sleeves. You can choose meaningful rituals, tell your story and make it your own. We are a mixed tribe us Celebrants - some of us are creative writers, some excel in the performance, some (like me) relish in conveying the warmth and care for our couples, however quirky or nuanced you want your ceremony to be, I will support it! I am proud that your wish is my instruction. For example, a couple I had the pleasure of marrying recently, during their initial consultation said they wanted to loudly and clearly say to the world ‘we love each other’, they are an experienced couple, both women have children and successful careers. They equally love the outdoors and city life, they love their food and drink and each week they enjoy their Friday night discos in the kitchen while a hearty dinner is being made for their family. For their ceremony, on welcome, I made it clear to the congregation the couple’s loud and clear agenda and encouraged guests to let their hope and joy be heard. Their pride, jubilance, and reverie as the couple entered was a welcome disruptor of the peace at their venue. They chose to marry in their local Botanical Gardens using a couple of different parts of the garden for their ceremony. So, after hearing their love story, their beautifully meaningful sharing of vows and rings (the abundant and heartfelt joy was such that there was not a dry eye amongst their loved ones), to get from one part of the garden to the next, we all sang and danced our way to the next ceremony space, all 85 of us. Guests recording on their phones from their viewpoint and so they had their very own disco moment, to a song that best describes their love, which made a wonderful keepsake when the professional videographer edited in some of the guests’ footage. They went on to have a tree planting, in which their children participated and created a landmark of their union to visit and watch it grow in years to come. Even for their cocktails which were raised by guests during the couple’s first kiss, with loud and clear cheer, the ingredients had been specially selected to represent flavours of their family or drinks they shared on their first date, also representing the bitter and sweet of life, a shared life they were jubilantly celebrating. At registrar-led ceremonies alcohol is prohibited and they would be pushed to design a ceremony so non-traditional and in keeping with this couples’ thoughtful, dynamic and fun nature. With a Celebrant your ceremony is the tale of the two of you and I support your guests - the people who are going to enrich and support your marriage through all of your future adventures - to get on board with your feelings, your reverie, your euphoria that you love each other!