It doesn’t really matter what celebrant you get to marry you – they all do the same thing, right? WRONG! This is the thinking that drives couples to choose a celebrant on price alone. Your celebrant is already one of the cheapest items in your wedding budget and here are some reasons to find the celebrant that you feel a connection with, who can bring your ceremony dreams to life.
Sure, all celebrants know the legalities of marriage and how to sign off on them, but a really good celebrant will add so much to your ceremony and wedding day. They will get the party started, get the love vibe happening, have your guests laughing and crying and immersed in the moment (and not longingly glancing sideways at the bar!).
Finding a celebrant that’s right for you can be one of the hardest decisions you have to make when planning your wedding. Celebrants offer an intangible service that can’t be held or seen beforehand, unless you have watched someone in action at another wedding that you loved! You can try on dresses, suits, and shoes. You can thoroughly research photographers’ and videographers’ portfolios online. You can visit venues, view cakes and flowers and taste menus, but how do you know what celebrant to choose from the vast array out there?
We’ve all been to weddings where the same old verses and generic words are rolled out. We sit there politely, hoping there will be something exciting in the wedding vows to engage us! Wedding ceremonies can be so much better than this.
Here are my thoughts about refining the process and finding the right celebrant for you:
1. Ask around. Recommendations from family, friends and work colleagues can be good and we all do this, especially in a regional city. Another source is wedding photographers and videographers who have seen many celebrants in action and know the vibe they bring. Event managers at venues will often have suggestions about celebrants too, but remember that the final choice is always yours.
2. Read reviews. Reviews can be found in many places – Facebook, Google, websites and wedding directories. How many reviews are there? Are there recurring themes in reviews that appeal to you? Do they seem genuine? Are there photos of the ‘reviewers’?
3. Stalk social media (but never in a creepy way!). How someone presents themselves on social media tells you a lot about them. What do they look like when they are working? How many couples do they marry? What sort of couples do they mostly work with? Do they have creative ideas? Do they offer advice and helpful hints about wedding planning? What do they say on social media? Pay attention to this last point, as a good celebrant is a writer and a storyteller. If you like their writing style, chances are you’ll like how they will write your love story.
4. Look at their website. This is also an important tip to let you know about how seriously a celebrant takes their role and whether it is their profession or a weekend hobby. Do they have a modern, professional website that is pleasing to the eye and contains a useful amount of information? Or is it obviously a home made freebie with not much information or conversely, way too much irrelevant (and boring) information? An investment in a decent website usually means that the celebrant has more than a passing interest in doing the occasional wedding for a family member once or twice a year.
5. Once you have done the preliminary work and narrowed your list down to two or three, call them up for a chat on the phone. You may decide here that you don’t want to take it any further or that yes, they are the one! One thing that I know about celebrants is that they are all easy to talk to. Celebrants love meeting new people so chatting is never awkward.
6. A face to face meeting is the next step and it is here that you will know who to choose. If you have done all of the above, the last step is finding someone you both connect with, who listens to you and takes your ideas on board and who you can trust with your wedding ceremony. If they connect with you, it is likely they will connect with your family and friends too. Enjoying hanging out together is also important as you spend quite a lot of time in each other’s company taking care of the legals and planning your ceremony together - ceremony planning should be fun!
7. I can’t stress enough to book your celebrant early (as soon as you have a date) as good celebrants book out quickly in popular months. You will always be able to find someone to marry you, but you may miss out on the magic that a great celebrant can bring to your day. I want your ceremony to be a highlight of your wedding for both you and your guests. In the back of my mind, I always keep a Maya Angelou quote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
Good luck with your searching! Sue x
Thanks to Wild Romantic Photography for the main image.