What does a wedding celebrant do?

You’re engaged, congratulations! Now it’s time to start planning the wedding and one of the first things to do is to decide who will perform the wedding ceremony. A celebrant led wedding is a wonderful way to have the day of your dreams, but what is a wedding celebrant and what do they do?

The role of a wedding celebrant is to work with you to create your perfect, personalised wedding ceremony and lead that ceremony on the day.

Wedding celebrant ceremonies are a wonderful way to create a unique, memorable and meaningful start to your married life.

Let’s look at what a wedding celebrant does and how they can help you create an unforgettable wedding.

Creating a unique wedding ceremony

Your wedding celebrant will meet with you and work with you to create a unique wedding ceremony.

An independent celebrant has more freedom to create a one of a kind ceremony than a registrar, humanist celebrant or religious officiant. We can include spiritual elements and prayers if you wish but aren’t constrained by any one belief system or orthodoxy.

The ceremony can include the usual things you might expect at a wedding; the telling of your love story, an exchange of vows and rings, readings and music. It can also include symbolic rituals like hand-fasting, a sand ceremony or a candle lighting.

Because wedding celebrants aren’t constrained by tradition we can be as creative as your imagination allows.

The wedding questionnaire

Before meeting with you, your wedding celebrant will send you a questionnaire to complete. You can do this together as a couple or individually. The more detail that you can add at this stage the better it will be [link to post about what a celebrant will ask]

The questionnaire is important to make sure that we have the right information – names, dates, etc – and gives us insight into you as a couple and the style of wedding you would like.

The first meeting with your celebrant

In the first meeting it is time for me to get to know you. We’ll spend a couple of hours together and use the questionnaire as the starting point to create a plan for your wedding ceremony.

It is a time for me to get to know your love story and what makes you tick as individuals and as a couple.

We can play with ideas for your wedding and what elements to include in it. I want to create a meaningful service that represents your love and commitment to each other and the promise of your life together.

What kind of things can we include in our wedding ceremony?

You can stay as traditional or as quirky as you like, here are some ideas.

If you have pets you might like to find a way to include them.

If you are merging families you might want to have a moment in the ceremony that represents the joining of two families into one.

Beloved friends and family may have a special role to play in reading a poem or playing music.

There may be cultural traditions you’d like to include from your spiritual practice.

You may be huge comic con fans and represent that through music choice and costume

The only limit to your creative wedding ceremony is your imagination.

You may want to choose a more traditional style of ceremony with a love story, readings, vows and music.

Whatever your style, we create a ceremony that represents you, your relationship and your commitment to each other.

Writing your personalised wedding ceremony

After the first meeting I will go away and write your wedding ceremony. First I write the running order; from the first look at each other, to your first kiss as a married couple. I then create a service that includes all the elements agreed in our meeting.

I’ll write up your love story, create symbolic rituals and make sure all the choreography (what happens when) is included. I’ll source music and readings and work with you to make sure any contributors are staged managed and have all the information that’s needed.

Once I’m happy with the first draft I’ll send it to you to review and make any revisions.

Can a wedding celebrant write my vows?

I always encourage couples to write their own vows. In that moment, your words are far more powerful than mine are. But, putting emotion into words doesn’t come easily to everyone and I can help you with writing your vows.

Where can we get married with a wedding celebrant?

Wedding celebrants don’t perform the legal bit of a marriage, this means that you can choose to have a celebrant led wedding almost anywhere. Which is great news if you’ve always dreamed of getting married outdoors or are on a budget as you wont need a licensed venue.

Of course you can choose a venue that is licensed, but you don’t have to. Perhaps you have a beautiful garden that’s perfect for a small, intimate service, or a friend with a farm that can host your day.

Is a celebrant led wedding legally binding?

Independent wedding celebrants can’t do the legal element of a marriage. If it is important to you to have the legal element of a marriage or civil partnership, you can do so before or after your wedding or include a registrar in your wedding day.

For guidance on legal marriages and civil partnerships in England and Wales see here.

How long does a celebrant stay on the wedding day?

All celebrants are different, this is how I work.

I try to arrive an hour to 90 minutes before the service starts and stay for up to 90 minutes afterwards. This gives me time to make sure everything we need is set up and generally make sure everything is perfect.

It gives me time to spend with you as a couple to answer questions and calm nerves. Some couples like to take some quiet time together before the ceremony starts.

After the service I’ll be available for any photography that you’d like with me and then make a quiet exit so you can continue celebrating your wedding day.

Choosing a wedding celebrant

Finding the right person to be your wedding celebrant is a personal journey. Who is right for one couple won’t be right for another. Here are some tips on how to find the perfect wedding celebrant. If you’d like to find out more about me and how I can help you, fill in the form at the bottom of the page.

So, we can see that wedding celebrants do a lot and work hard to create your one of a kind, personalised wedding service.