Going above and beyond!

With Brisbane City Celebrants

Brisbane City Celebrants inclusions are incredibly thorough, comprehensive and relevant. We don’t cut corners, and do everything possible to ensure an easy enjoyable, professional ceremony planning process and a smoothly flowing ceremony on the day that is truly reflective of each couple.

From providing our couples with a draft ceremony script within days of the booking being confirmed, to calling the couple the day before to re-confirm all the finer details and providing an informative guide about the name change process.

As a recent bride commented in her 5 star review “everything was thought through, nothing was left to guess or chance”.

With Brisbane City Celebrants here’s what you get:

– Modern, passionate, professional experienced Marriage Celebrants;

– Specialising in modern, simple and meaningful and fun light hearted wedding ceremonies;

– Choice of female or male Marriage Celebrant (subject to availability);

– As experienced and popular Brisbane Celebrants we have a wealth of ideas and can offer great tips and advice to ensure a thoroughly enjoyable and perfectly conducted wedding ceremony;

Female and Male Brisbane Celebrants. Image: Maz Photography

– We provide our couples with their personalised draft ceremony within days of the initial meeting and booking being made. To put this in to perspective, many Celebrants provide their couples with their ceremony a week or so before the wedding not giving hem time to absorb, it review it and make changes (some don’t even give clients an opportunity to review and approve the ceremony at all before the day). We ensure our couples have ample opportunity to review, add and customise their ceremony, and all our couples get to approve the final ceremony before the special day so they know exactly what to expect on the day with no unwanted or awkward surprises;

– Flexibility to perform your ceremony the way you want it: Our motto is ‘Your Day – Your Way’;

– We have both had the great benefit of years of Celebrant mentoring by the most highly perfectionist, knowledgeable and honest critic there is – each other! Most Celebrants don’t get any mentoring so they have no idea what are they are doing wrong or how to improve;

This has enabled us to really excel with creating, coordinating and delivering our ceremonies, ensuring all the finer details are carefully thought through and everything goes incredibly smoothly on the day;

– We are full of great ideas of ways to best include children of different ages in your wedding ceremony;

– Being closer to the age of our couples than the average Celebrant, our couples often tell us that they feel we really ‘get’ them and that we are on the same page as them;

– Initial Meeting: where we get to know each other, discuss the kind of ceremony you have in mind, for the convenience of our couples, this usually takes place on a Sunday morning or weekday evening;

– Unlimited email contact and ceremony script revisions;

– We guide you through the legal process and documents and ensure all the legal requirements are adhered to;

– We provide our couples with a wedding vow writing worksheet to assist them in writing their own vows if they wish to do so;

– We provide our couples with a detailed ‘Ceremony Run Sheet’ so they know exactly what to expect on the day, putting them and your bridal party at ease and ensuring everything goes smoothly on the day;

– We work with your photographer/ videographer to ensure they have plenty of opportunity to capture special moments including the rings exchange, the first kiss and signing of the register (without us in the way, no one wants their Celebrant ‘photo bombing’ the first kiss as husband and wife!);

– We dress appropriately on the day, usually in business attire, or as agreed with you during our initial meeting. We will happily adhere to a black tie dress code for black tie weddings;

– On the day of the wedding we arrive early to set up, confirm everything is in place and the venue is ready and in order for the brides arrival;

– We assist with the coordination and seating of guests on the day so when you arrive everyone is ready;

– We love being Celebrants and we love celebrating love! we are always friendly and courteous to your guests and vendors;

– As a requirement by the Attorney General, we advise all our couples of pre marital counselling services, this is not compulsory to attend;

– Just in case, we even provide a back up Celebrant service so in the unlikely event of an emergency you could expect exactly the same ceremony and professional service, as planned to be delivered on the day;

– Use of highly professional top of the range PA System if it’s required on the day. We have an awesome top of the range PA System which is compliant with the 2015 bandwidth requirements. With wireless microphones, our PA Systems don’t require power so they are perfect for Brisbane park and Brisbane rotunda wedding ceremonies and you can even utilise these to play your ceremony music if you wish;

– You will receive your presentation marriage certificate on the day and we lodge the marriage documents with the registry by registered post the very next business day after your marriage has taken place;

Wedding with Brisbane Celebrant Jamie Eastgate. Image by Andrew Sun Photography

– We provide all our clients with an email notification the day their marriage documents are lodged with the marriage registry for your peace of mind;

– We clearly outline the process of changing your name through marriage and after your wedding has taken place we provide you with a change of name check list of who to contact if the bride wishes to take the grooms surname (or vice versa) we even offer to submit the application for your ‘registry issued marriage certificate’ to births, deaths and marriages for you on your behalf, making the name change process a whole lot easier for you;

– We are completely transparent about our prices and inclusions and we are one of the few Brisbane Celebrants that is happy to have our Celebrant pricing openly available on our website. We are proud to offer an exceptional service at a very reasonable price so why hide it!

– We are centrally located in inner West Brisbane at Indooroopilly and primarily perform weddings in Brisbane, so you can rest assure we have performed hundreds of weddings throughout Brisbane and know the quirks and inclusions of every ceremony location well.

– We are passionate about delivering genuine, meaningful and thoroughly enjoyable ceremonies that every one present loves!

– We are thrilled to each be amongst Brisbane’s most highly recommended Celebrants.

Brisbane Celebrant Ciara Hodge.
Image: Vellum Studios

and here’s what you DON’T get:

– We won’t arrive to perform your wedding wearing inappropriate or bright colours that detract or clash with your whole theme (much to the wedding photographers relief also!) likewise we also don’t over match and wear the same colour as your bridesmaids;

– We won’t be late;

– We won’t mumble through the ceremony, or deliver the ceremony in the tone reminiscent to that of a funeral, instead we take great pride in delivering a strong well projected engaging ceremony and we love to see all the smiling happy guests looking back at us as we deliver the ceremony. We believe that wedding ceremonies are a celebration and that’s the vibe we will create! we also believe a wedding shouldn’t be a dreaded nerve wracking experience, it should be thoroughly enjoyable and special for everyone present;

– We won’t give you an old fashioned ceremony that goes on for too long and is full of icky words like ‘obey’ ‘rejoyce’ and ‘joyousness’ we will give you the option to edit the provided ceremony and remove or change any of the ceremony wording that you wish to change (with the exception of the legal wording) if you are feeling nervous about standing in front of all your guests and would prefer your ceremony to be short and sweet we will tailor a simple and meaningful ceremony for you ensuring all your ideas and requirements are incorporated;

Modern Brisbane Celebrants! Image Maz Photography

– We don’t make you to do any pre marital counselling (however we do advise you that it is available to you and recommended by the Attorney Generals office);

– We wouldn’t dream of being rude to your guests, conversely we do our best to make everyone welcome as they arrive;

– We are true professionals and you won’t catch us wearing sunglasses throughout the ceremony…. like our Celebrant did!

– We won’t leave the guests chatting at the back or propping up the bar for your arrival, we do everything we can to have them seated and in their places in time for the arrival of the bride;

– We won’t get in the way of the photographer trying to get their shot, we believe it is really important to work together with your photographer/ videographer.

– We LOVE weddings, however we never expect to be invited to your reception, we believe this is your special time with your family and friends. Besides we are one of those ‘couple-ley’ couples that like to do everything together (like both becoming Celebrants!)

Thank you for getting to know us, ready to meet? We would LOVE to hear from you. Contact Us.

With Brisbane City Celebrants

2014 WOW! What an incredible year and for so many reasons which make us so happy. So here goes in no particular order here are Brisbane City Celebrants 2014 highlights:

QLD CELEBRANT OF THE YEAR FINALISTS

It was such an honour to be approached by Wedding and Events of Australia (WEOA) and recognised as the industries elite. To go on to be recognised as a QLD Finalist at the black tie awards night was beyond our imagination! For more on this check out our post on the QLD WEOA awards night.

WEOA Awards Night image by Milque Photography

Brisbane City Celebrants Finalist in the 2014 WEOA awards

BRISBANE CITY CELEBRANTS WENT INTERNATIONAL!

When we first became Celebrants the thought that we would one day be in demand for overseas weddings never even entered our minds, so when Danica and Jerry contacted Jamie and said they absolutely had to have him as their Celebrant for their wedding at a winery on New Zealands beautiful Waiheke Island we were completely blown away!

Jamie performed an incredibly upbeat and happy ceremony that had the guests cheering through applause, it suited the couple perfectly and was a huge hit! Here is what the newlyweds had to say about their experience with Jamie:

“Jamie was brilliant from start to finish, from the helpful advice and guidance right up to the ceremony itself, Jamie was such a pleasure to deal with.

We weren’t sure of how to plan a ceremony and he was just brilliant at talking us through the process, giving us ideas and suggestions and then helping us finalise the details. It was all made so easy, even with us being based in New Zealand.

On the day both of us were pretty nervous but Jamie was able to help us relax and enjoy the ceremony. It was delivered with lots of warmth and joy and there were smiles and laughter from everyone!

It was an absolute pleasure to have Jamie be part of our special day and all our friends and family have commented on how much they enjoyed the ceremony and how perfectly it reflected us as a couple. We wholeheartedly recommend having Jamie Eastgate as a Marriage Celebrant.”

Jamie Eastgate Marriage Celebrant performing a celebratory and upbeat Wedding.

BRISBANE CITY CELEBRANTS FIRST SAME SEX WEDDING

Paul and Paul celebrated their commitment in an elegant black tie soiree at Cloudland earlier this year. We were so excited when we received their enquiry and even more excited when we met and they booked us. I say ‘us’ as in an unprecedented move we gave them the services of both of us leading up to their wedding with Jamie performing the ceremony on the day.

Paul and Pauls wedding at Cloudland. Images by Studio Impressions Photography

When they first contacted us, they asked what experience we had with gay weddings, and with the exception of Ciara being a bridesmaid at a wedding for 2 girls several years earlier in Auckland, we had never had the opportunity to officiate a same sex wedding, so it meant so much to us that they trusted in us for their big day.

Our first gay wedding was a huge success. Here is what the grooms had to say.

“Jamie was wonderful! He was professional, warm and caring. His ability to speak in front of everyone was perfect and eloquent.

Communication between us and Brisbane City Celebrants was regular and genuine. A personal and sincere interest in your life and how your wedding plans were coming together was apparent and appreciated during our correspondence leading up to our special day.

We were so, so, so happy we went with Brisbane City Celebrants!”

For more on Paul and Pauls wedding, check out their Real Wedding.

Thank you Paul and Paul, we are so grateful that we had the opportunity to be a part of such a special day.

BRISBANE CITY CELEBRANTS BECAME REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS FOR AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST WEDDING BLOG – POLKA DOT BRIDE

Throughout 2014 we have had a number of our articles published on Polka Dot Bride. This is a real honour for us as it not only confirms we know our stuff when it comes to weddings, but it also gives us an opportunity to share with brides and grooms all over Australia some Celebrant insights, tips and ideas. We believe that being informed with a wealth of insider knowledge and ideas, can assist couples to take their ceremony to a different level and above all else ensure it reflects them as a couple.

Brisbane City Celebrants article featured on Polka Dot Bride

Thank you Polka Dot Bride for always being so supportive and publishing our articles and thank you to the wonderful photographers who have been so kind to provide us with images to accompany our blog posts so perfectly.

For more check out Brisbane City Celebrants articles on Polka Dot Bride.

BRISBANE CITY CELEBRANTS FULLY BOOKED IN 2014

Demand for Brisbane City Celebrants DOUBLED in 2014 from the previous year (lucky there’s 2 of us!) resulting in us being FULLY BOOKED for the first time ever! Best of all we feel so lucky that all our clients have been nothing short of amazing to work with, we truly feel blessed to have met and married so many incredibly lovely people.

It’s been amazing watching our business grow so quickly over the past 6 years and to reach capacity is such a huge achievement.

We attribute this success to all our amazing clients, guests that have attended our weddings and the wedding vendors that have seen us in action, who have all been so kind to recommend us to new clients that they just know we are the right ‘fit’ for. We LOVE referrals!

We are so grateful to each and everyone of our clients who have booked us and trusted us with such an important role on their big day, regardless of how many times we get to do this, it is always a huge honour and we truly believe we get to work with the best clients we could ever hope for!

Brisbane City Celebrants FULLY BOOKED for 2014

A special mention also goes to Google for the fab little spot on the front page that they have allowed us to call home for the past 5 years.

That’s a wrap, thanks to 2014 for our best year yet and we look forward to another amazing year in 2015.

Cara and Jamie – Brisbane City Celebrants

Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

Grooms taking brides surnames, is this a new wedding trend?

With Brisbane City Celebrants

MX Newspaper contacted Brisbane City Celebrants with this question and here’s what we told them.

Approximately 30% of our brides plan to keep their own last name in favour of changing it to their husbands surname.

However we are often contacted by these brides a year or 2 down the track requesting to be reminded of the name change process, as they have had a change of heart and are ready for a change of surname.

One newlywed surprised her husband on their first wedding anniversary with his surname now her surname too.

While the majority of our brides that decide against taking their grooms last name, will commence life as husband and wife with their existing names, a number of grooms have decided to legally adopt their wife’s last name.

MX Newspaper were particularly interested to hear the reasons for this, the most common reasons Brisbane City Celebrants have encountered include:

– With the huge shift in weddings for brides and grooms to do it ‘their way’ and defy tradition, the tradition averse and equality pro couples are simply doing it their way.

– Grooms may have a surname they aren’t too fond of or the brides surname may simply be considered to be a better name by the couple.

– Grooms choosing to disassociate them self and any future children from an absent father, or a father that they choose not to continue the name of.

Thanks to Kellie from MX Newspaper for raising this interesting point and for asking for Brisbane City Celebrants input.

MX Newspaper interview with Brisbane City Celebrants

If you found this article interesting, you may be interested in hearing more about the Celebrants behind it. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.

With Brisbane City Celebrants

We are so excited to share our experience of the amazing QLD WEOA awards night.

Jamie and I were so thrilled to be recognised as finalists for the QLD Celebrant award for excellence, especially considering the high standard and level of professionalism required to be recognised as one of WEOA’s elite wedding suppliers.

Brisbane City Celebrants jumping for joy at being QLD finalists for the Celebrant award for excellence. Image: Maz Photography

WEOA are incredibly passionate about recognising the elite of the wedding industry, the best of the best. More on WEOA, their criteria and how we became finalists in our previous blog post here.

So back to the awards night. The Marriott Hotel in Surfers Paradise was the venue for this event to take place. We booked a room in the hotel so we could ready and make the most of the night, and the Moet!

From the moment we arrived we were so impressed with this hotel, we received the warmest welcome and a glass of champagne and chocolates on check in which was the perfect way to commence the celebrations of the evening ahead.

Shortly after check in my hair and make up angels arrived. While I am familiar with the many amazing Brisbane hair and make up artists as I see their gorgeous work up close every weekend on my beautiful brides, I was at a loss of who from the Gold Coast I should book, until I remembered a recent ‘Real Wedding’ testimonial from one of Jamie’s brides Louise, absolutely raving about her hair and make up artist Closeup Hair and Make Up.

I was so excited that they were kind enough to agree to give up their Sunday afternoon to get me red carpet ready.

Mel created beautiful big curls in my hair which I adored, once she had finished she popped a hair net on to keep my hair out of my face while Amelda did my make up. Meanwhile, Jamie who had been getting ready, stepped out of the bathroom looking dashing in his black tie attire, if you ask me he was definitely channeling James Bond!

Ciara of Brisbane City Celebrants getting glamed up by Closeup Hair and Make Up. Image: Maz Photography

Looking like a nanna with the hair net still in place I spun around and said ‘da da, all finished what do you think?’ he immediately showed about 10 drastically different facial expressions in about 2 seconds flat, from confused to awkward and a vast array of other various expressions, then the 3 of us burst in to laughter and he figured the hair net wasn’t really staying on, which he was pretty relieved about, I think he was also pretty relieved he didn’t have to find a way of telling me I looked ridiculous without offending me or the hair dresser with his brutal honesty.

While Jamie began on the champagne, Amelda began on my make up.  She told me how she teaches make up artistry at TAFE which was evident in her level of professionalism. I really enjoyed chatting and getting to know Amelda as she airbrushed my face, painted my eye lids and applied a set of luscious lashes.

We quickly realised we had a lot in common, including a passion for animal welfare, an appreciation for Ricky Gervais humour and an obsession with our super cute Maltese X Silky Terrier pups!

It seemed fitting to wear my sparkly wedding shoes for the awards night, for the first time since our wedding 6 years ago. Image: Maz Photography

Once the girls had worked their magic I added the most beautiful sparkling head piece that was very kindly gifted to me by Begitta who was a finalist for ‘Bridal Gown Couture Designer of the year’ however she was unable to attend so she gave me the huge honour of representing her beautiful brand for the evening.

I proceeded to receive so many compliments on this gorgeous head piece throughout the night.

Brisbane City Celebrants Awards night – Head piece by Begitta

Once we had finished getting ready we took a walk around the grounds before heading to the Moet bar for pre drinks.

Brisbane City Celebrants on our way to the WEOA awards night

The Brisbane City Celebrants team, Ciara & Jamie

We made our way down the red carpet where we paused for a photo at the media wall. Once the photographer finished taking his photo and moved the camera away from his face, Jamie and the photographer Aaron from Milque immediately recognised each other from a Mt Cooth-tha botanical gardens wedding that they worked together at just 2 weeks earlier.

WEOA Awards Night Media Wall. Image by Milque Photography

Aaron is super friendly and all round nice guy and Jamie had really enjoyed working alongside him. Milque Photography were also a finalists and went on to win the award for photographer of the year, they are all such lovely people and we were so happy for them.

We proceeded to mingle at the pre-drinks where we met the founders of Candy Addictions. It’s always interesting hearing what motivated other businesses to come to fruition. We also met the lovely Sarah from Studio Cakes who was accompanied by an awesome support crew who we later ended up dancing much of the night away with! Sarah was also the cake sponsor for the event so we got to try her delicious cake which was amazing!

WEOA Awards Night at the Marriott Surfers Paradise. Image by Milque Photography

We made our way to our table to find we were seated with the lovely Pauline from Limoso Limousines, Jordanna Regan a couture designer and her sister, the lovely girls from Sugar and Spice and also the Owner of Silk Hair and Make up. It was amazing to see we actually had connections to all of them from previous weddings, shoots or other industry professionals.

The evening kicked off with a presentation from Jessica the founder of WEOA who shared her vision of how the system will evolve over the coming year.

Then before we knew it we were straight in to the awards, first off was the award for ‘Bridal Gown Couture Designer of the Year’ they read the shortlist and then the next thing we heard was “and the winner is…….. pause………. Begitta!” the whole room filled with applause and cheers and Jamie elbowed me to head up to the stage to accept the award on Begittas behalf.

I was handed the award plaque and directed to the lectern to say some words, I introduced myself as Ciara from Brisbane City Celebrants and explained that I was accepting the award on behalf of Begitta as regrettably she was unable to be here. Then I looked up expecting to make eye contact with all the friendly smiling faces but instead I was faced with the brightest of lights staring back at me, it was blinding and totally caught me off guard. Momentarily feeling like a deer in the headlights, I quickly wrapped up, congratulated Begitta and the room filled with applause for the very passionate and deserving winner while I swiftly made my way away from the limelight, award plaque in hand.

WEOA Awards Night image by Milque Photography

Several more awards were presented then a short recess took place while entrees were served, after which the Celebrant award was announced. We were so happy when Bill Scurry from the Sunshine Coast won for QLD and not just because it meant I didn’t have to make my way up to the stage again (Phew!). Bill is a very well respected Celebrant in his local area, as we are in ours so we believe the judges did a wonderful job.

After several more awards there was another recess before mains were served, a seriously awesome band called ‘Sex and Chocolate’ were warming up the dance floor so it was great having our hotel room at hand so I could quickly switch in to my dancing shoes to hit the dance floor!

All the wonderful WEOA finalists. Image Milque Photography

Brisbane City Celebrants loved meeting Billy Scurry, a lovely Sunshine Coast Celebrant. Image: Milque Photography

When we returned we met Bill and had a great chat with him, he really is a lovely chap. The moment the awards concluded the band went off! It’s not often you see more people on the dance floor than in their seats but no one could help themselves, they really were that awesome!

WEOA Awards Night. Image by Milque Photography

We spent the rest of the evening, mingling, dancing, laughing and having so much fun!

We jumped ‘In the booth‘ for some photo booth fun, then before we knew it the night drew to a close, well they do say time flies when you’re having fun. It was such a fun night and we had a blast!

Brisbane City Celebrants having some photo booth fun

Big thanks to Jess from WEOA for all your hard work in putting an amazing night together, to the band ‘Sex and Chocolate‘ for the rocking night, and to all the lovely professional wedding vendors we had the pleasure of catching up with or meeting for the first time.

Images of Brisbane City Celebrants kindly provided by Maz Photography.

If you enjoyed hearing about this wedding awards evening and are looking for a Celebrant for your Brisbane wedding, Cara and Jamie would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.