With Celebrant Cara Hodge of Brisbane City Celebrants
Tips for new wedding vendors from a Celebrant
We are huge believers of working together as a team with fellow wedding vendors and we love meeting and working with the fabulous ‘dream team’ of suppliers that our couples have meticulously selected.
If you are new to the wedding industry and wondering what little things you can do to enhance the couples experience and work well with other vendors here are a few tips for new wedding vendors from the Celebrants perspective as a general guide.
Celebrants
- Get the guests seated and the Grooms men in place, no one else is going to do this for you. Before you know it you will have mastered being politely assertive in order to have everyone in their places ready for the arrival of the bridal party.
- Once the bride has arrived and taken her place, ensure you ask all the guests to be seated. At weddings people tend to wait for instructions, and without you telling them to sit, it is quite possibly they will remain standing for the entire ceremony!
- That bit where the bride and groom kiss, step way out of the photographers shot. As much as the couple adore having you as their Celebrant, that’s one photo they would probably prefer not to have you in, the photographer will love you for it too.
Florists
- Consider including a little 2 step ‘how to’ guide in the pretty box with the Groom and Grooms mens boutonnieres. Grooms ALWAYS struggle with pinning these on. Even better, offer an upgrade to a pin free, clip on boutonniere – my new favourite thing!
Wedding Stationers
- Consider offering name signs for the ceremony chairs that correspond with the wedding stationary. Not only will they look divine but guests will appreciate being provided with an allocate seat plus it will encourage them to be seated. Guest names on the first 1 – 2 rows would be ample.
Wedding Hair Stylists
- During most civil weddings, the bride will be stood facing her groom with the right side of her face to the guests, so consider placing that beautiful hair accessory on this side, or having the side swept braid, swept to the right so this is visible and can be perfectly captured by the photographer.
Wedding Ceremony Musicians
- Be mindful of the bride as she progresses down the aisle and takes her place with the groom, so you can be ready to fade out the music at that point (unless of course the couple have specifically requested that you play the song in its entirety).
Wedding Venues
- Celebrants love it when venues that hold multiple ceremonies in a day, stagger the ceremony start time. While many venues currently do this anyway as it assists with the logistics of managing guests movement around the venue, Celebrants appreciate this too as ceremonies held in close proximity risk being inadvertently broadcast through each others wireless PA System. Even if one Celebrants audio wasn’t broadcast through the other Celebrants PA System, there is still potential that the neighbouring ceremony may still be heard by the other wedding party if they are in close proximity. Staggering the scheduled ceremony times reduces the risk of interruptions.
Wedding Photographers
- Some wedding photographers like to take traditional ‘posed’ signing photos, after the actual signing has taken place. At Brisbane City Celebrants we secure all the legal documents in neat folders to protect them from the elements but also so they won’t get blown away in the wind. Naturally photographers setting up the posed certificate signing, like to remove the official marriage certificate from its folder. We kindly ask photographers to be mindful that this is a legal document that is unable to be replaced if a gust of wind sends it up and off for a swim in the Brisbane river. So please ensure while this document is unsecured that this is being held, or held down at all times while the ‘posed’ signing takes place.
- Please avoid standing on the signing table chairs (or on the signing table as one photographer did) to take the group shot, accidents really do happen!
Wedding Decorators
- Sometimes wedding aisles can be a little skinny, particularly if the bride has chosen to be walked down the aisle by both Mum and Dad in her beautiful A line dress. Likewise be really careful with candles in vases lining the wedding aisle. The combination of candles, flowing dresses and cathedral veils makes me nervous.
- Consider the practicalities of glass vases at outdoor ceremonies. Now I’m not in the slightest a superstitious person, however something about a glass vase getting blown off a pedestal and smashing mid vows would surely feel like a bad omen.
- Signing Tables: As pretty as little round ones are, they still need to perform a necessary function and be big enough to hold the marriage documents and signing pen without being too wobbly so the signatures are eligible.
We look forward to continuing to work together with all you awesome wedding vendors together creating magical days for our brides and grooms.
Cara – Brisbane City Celebrants
If you found this article useful and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.
