What is the difference between a celebrant and a registrar?

Celebrant-led weddings are getting more and more popular as people fall in love with the idea of having a personalised wedding ceremony. This is a very good thing for Independent Wedding Celebrants like me. But before we get carried away with all the fun, creative planning stuff, let’s answer an important question; “what is the difference between a celebrant and a registrar?”

The short answer is that, at the moment, a celebrant, like me, cannot do the legal bit of a marriage. Only a registrar or religious minister can perform a legal marriage or civil partnership that provides legal recognition of your relationship.

Understanding the difference between a celebrant and a registrar is important, because it dictates the style of ceremony that you are able to choose. The place where you can celebrate your wedding and what elements you’re allowed to incorporate.

A celebrant can perform a non-legally binding wedding ceremony that is unique to the couple and their community. We do the creative bit, registrars do the admin bit.

Skip to the end of this post for a handy visual comparison of registrar vs celebrant and how that affects your wedding day.

What happens at a registrar wedding?

A registrar led civil ceremony will take place in your local registry office and you can have either a super simple “2 and 2” ceremony with just 2 witnesses or a service with more guests

The actual ceremony will only take around 15 minutes. The Superintendent Registrar will say a few formal words about marriage. Each partner has to repeat a standard set of vows, which you can add to but has to include the approved phrases.

You can also include non-religious readings and songs in the ceremony.

You don’t have to exchange rings but you can.

After the civil ceremony the couple, witnesses and registrar sign the wedding registry and marriage certificate.

What happens at a celebrant led wedding ceremony?

A celebrant led marriage service is created by you with your wedding celebrant. So, honestly, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN at a celebrant ceremony.

In reality, the vast majority of couples include familiar elements such as exchange of vows and rings that are recreated in a deeply personal and meaningful way.

Your bespoke ceremony is a time to make promises together for your new life and there is a deep symbolism in making vows, exchanging rings and including family traditions, spiritual content and acts of spiritual significance and community into your service.

A simple celebrant led ceremony might be

• Entrance of couple
• Their love story as told by the celebrant
• Music or readings from friends and family
• Symbolic element such as a sand ceremony or a promise jar.
• More music and readings from your friends and family
• Making vows
• Exchanging rings
• First kiss
• Dance down the aisle as a married couple

Every couple and love story is unique and so every ceremony will be unique. My job as your celebrant is to get to know and tell your love story and represent your love and commitment to each other in a way that is spellbinding for you and your community.

Yes we can include alpaca ring bearers and Aunty Joan singing an aria. All ideas are welcome.

With a celebrant ceremony you’re aren’t restricted to licensed venues either, you can get married in your front room, at your favourite pub, or have an outdoor wedding in a friend’s back garden.

I want to get legally married AND have a celebrant led wedding service

If having a legal recognition of your relationship is important to you, brilliant, let’s do this.

You have a couple of ways to organise this;

• You can have a civil partnership or civil ceremony at your local registry office before or after your celebrant-led wedding.
• You can choose a licensed venue for your wedding and have both ceremonies on the same day.

A word to the budget conscious – having a registrar attend a licensed venue is quite a bit more expensive than popping along to the town hall with two witnesses.

Having the legal wedding and celebrant-led wedding on different dates is a popular choice for people having destination weddings and elopement style weddings. As it allows them more flexibility in the wedding location and avoids the stress of navigating the legal system in foreign countries.

Should I have a legal marriage or civil partnership before or after the celebrant-led wedding ceremony?

That’s entirely up to you. 

Some couples prefer to have their legal union done and dusted before the celebration day and others prefer to get the Big Day out of the way first and have a legal union when they are feeling more relaxed and after they’ve made their emotional commitment to each other.

Do I have to do “the legal bit” to have a wedding? 

Absolutely not.

For some people it is incredibly important to have their relationship recognized legally as happens in civil ceremonies or religious ceremonies, but it isn’t a prerequisite to celebrating your relationship with a personalised wedding ceremony and celebration with your family and friends.

A legal recognition of your relationship may have financial implications as well legal rights and responsibilities. 

If you’d like to know more about the legal aspects of getting married or a civil partnership, Citizens Advice have some excellent help pages. Information on the legal aspect of getting married, information on the legal aspect of a civil partnership.

Independent celebrant vs Humanist celebrant – what’s the difference?

Humanist Celebrants, like Independent Celebrants, will craft a personlised wedding ceremony for you at the venue of your choice.

Humanists are non-religious, and in simple terms this means that they won’t lead any religious content in a Humanist ceremony. 

This means that if you want a favourite prayer or hymn, or to include a religious ritual of some kind then an Indepdendent Celebrant is probably a better choice for you.

Understanding the difference between a celebrant and a registrar and what that means to you

Choosing the right officiant for your wedding ceremony is a decision only you can make. Understanding the difference between an independent celebrant and a registrar and how that difference affects the choices you can make for your wedding day is a good place to start.

A part of that is thinking about what a wedding and a marriage means to you and the importance of the legal aspect of marriage. It’s also good to think about what you want your wedding to feel like. I’ll write more about my ideas on that another time.

I want to finish by saying that one of the reasons that I am a celebrant is to give everyone access to a wedding ceremony that represents their love and their life.

Civil Partnership convey some of the same legal rights and responsibilities as legal marriage, however they aren’t the same. Being a celebrant allows me to give EVERYONE that works with me a wedding ceremony. A day of commitment and celebration that recognises them and their love in a ceremony that is unique to them and witnessed by their loved ones.

To find out more about working with me for your wedding, fill in the form below or email me at [email protected]

Registrar Vs Celebrant Led Wedding Comparison Chart

A handy infographic that shows the difference between a celebrant and a registrar…