Why choose a celebrant led wedding ceremony?

Lots of our wedding couples choose to have a celebrant lead their wedding ceremony – but what does this actually mean? What is a celebrant? How do they differ from a legal registrar?

Here we feature a Guest Blog Post by Julie of Treasured Words Celebrant, whom we love as a caring, down to earth and very friendly celebrant to lead your personalised wedding ceremony. I would like to thank Dearest Love Photography for the fabulous images used in this blog post, and of course Julie for explaining what is often a misunderstood choice about your wedding!. So, over to Julie …

What is a Celebrant?

Planning your wedding day is both exciting and daunting with lots to think about and lots to organise.  Top of your list will be finding the perfect venue, the catering, along with choosing a dress, sourcing the best music, and also lots of cake tasting… it has to be done!  All of these decisions are personal to you both,  and reflect your personalities.

What about your actual wedding ceremony?  Did you know that you have a choice with this too? More and more couples are choosing to have a ceremony that is personal to them, and tells their love story, and engages all the guests.

You may choose to have a church ceremony or your local Registry office, and then have your reception at a local venue.  Alternatively, you can have a civil ceremony where the Registrar will come to a licensed venue, and perform the ceremony there.    A civil ceremony is very ‘cut & paste’ and are restricted in what you can say.  This is all done online, with no interaction with anyone until the day of your wedding.

Choosing to have a celebrant led wedding, means that you can  throw away the rule book as there are no rules and no regulations! I will create a ceremony that is personal to you both, telling your love story to all your family and friends.  This is the one of the most, if not THE most important part of your day, and should be filled with memories

What can I include?

I will guide you and suggest different ways that I can personalise your wedding ceremony, and include family and friends too, even your four-legged friend!  To have them involved in the ceremony, whether a handfasting, ring warming or candle ceremony (there are too many to mention!).  You may tell me something that would be great to include in the ceremony.  These precious moments are then captured by your chosen photographer, and are memories to last forever

What is the process?

• A deposit is taken to secure the date in my diary. I only hold one ceremony per day, so no other ceremony will be booked.  If for any reason there is a delay in starting on time, as long as the venue are happy to wait, then so am I!
• About 4-5 months before your wedding day, I will send over a questionnaire which gives me the ‘groundwork’ for creating your ceremony script. This can either be completed together or as some couples have done in the past, have completed separately, so kept a surprise to what your partner has written, definitely making things more interesting.  Meetings in person or video calls follow to ‘fine tune’ everything.  All this time, building a trusting relationship together.
• On the day of your wedding, I will arrive about an hour beforehand, to check out the venue (if I have not visited before or we have not had a dress rehearsal).  If the bride is getting ready at the venue, then I like to pop my head in to reassure that everything is ok, and to enjoy a sneaky sip of bubbly sometimes too!  I like to mingle with the guests, and ask the groom to point out any ‘unsuspecting’ guest that may be mentioned in the script, so that I can ‘eyeball’ them.   All these details add to that personal touch.
• Once the ceremony is about to start, this is my time to reassure the grooms nerves, while we wait for the bride. Having guided couples to this moment, I have to say that when I first see the bride standing at the end of the aisle, my eyes well up with pride knowing that I have guided them both to this moment, and that I have been a huge part of their wedding day, and their journey, however long or short it has been.

It is always nice after the ceremony, when family & friends come up to me and say how wonderful the ceremony was, and that they have never been to anything like that before.  Even my couples say that their ceremony exceeded their expectations and so pleased that they chose to have a celebrant led ceremony.  I will then ask for a picture with the two of you, and leave everyone to enjoy the rest of the day.

As I tell my couples, ‘it is your day so have it your way’!

Remember at the beginning, I mentioned the most important wedding suppliers to have on your list to book?   I hope that you will agree, that choosing to have a celebrant, is now top of your list too!

If you would like more information, then please contact me on the details below.

Jules x

 

Treasured Words Celebrant

07368 493498

https://www.instagram.com/treasuredwordscelebrant/

 

*A celebrant does not perform a legal ceremony, so you would have to make an appointment at your local registry office to sign the official papers.  This can be done any time before or after your wedding day.