Series: Celebrant or Registrar? 5. With a Celebrant you stay in your warm and happy glow!

Often a registrar can create jarring intermission or dulls the sparkle for a couple. Of course, you have carefully chosen the schedule of your day and want it to run on time so guests are not waiting with hungry tummies and children don’t start getting too restless. Let’s not lose sight of this day being about your joy, being amongst your tribe and staying in that happy headspace for the whole day. I have heard of people being pulled away from getting ready, rollers in hair and lippy unfinished by a time pressured registrar who needed to get their pre-ceremony interview done. Couples have also had the cheer and joy of being freshly wed, riding the wave of joy that their guests have so jubilantly cheered in celebration to then be pulled away to sign a register with your witnesses, when all your guests want to do is give you a hearty hug, bask in how wonderful you look and make memorable moments for you, instead though they have to wait. With a Celebrant your day runs seamlessly to your schedule, you and your loved ones can remain in the glow of joy for the whole day without formalities yanking you away and dulling that glow. However you want your day to flow, it can! How the legals fit in is up to you, some pop off during their lunch break on a Mon-Thu, (this is when Register Office slots are cheaper, my local charge £57). One of my couples chose to, on their wedding day, prior to getting ready, go to the register office in their PJs and did the legals then the rest of the day was theirs, seamless in flow and glow. Another of my couples chose to go to the register office on their 1st year anniversary, after all it is a milestone traditionally marked by paper, so they felt it fitting to get that piece of paper then. Afterward they shared a lovely lunch back at the venue where their ceremony and reception took place the previous year with immediate family members (who were also witnesses) and jovially marked the occasion of the governments’ recognition that they are actually ‘in-law’. But they had a more meaningful, joyful ceremony to regale and reminisce over from that day last year. They had already bound their family in a more heartfelt sense, the important way for them and for most that is what marriage is actually about!