Tips to ensure a professional Celebrant experience
We are genuinely passionate about being professional Marriage Celebrants, so we have dedicating our very first blog submission to providing some helpful tips to assist couples with choosing the right Celebrant for them and some pointers on how to avoid some of the common issues couples experience with some Celebrants.
This could potentially be some of the best advice you will hear to ensure you dream wedding is exactly that.
- Getting the Names right: One of the worst Celebrant horror stories we have heard about is Celebrants not getting the couples names correct, or using the wrong persons name in the ceremony. This is absolutely not acceptable and could potentially jepordise the legalities of a marriage. This is easily avoided if the couple simply requests to see (approve) a final draft of the ceremony that will be read on the day.
By viewing the final draft this also prevents the issue of the Celebrant reading the wrong ceremony which is what happened to one Brisbane bride. Her Celebrant read a completely different ceremony to the one they had chosen and didn’t include the reading the brides best friend was expecting to present (while I won’t disclose the Celebrants name I can assure you it was neither of us!). Before we became Celebrants, we happened to be present when Jamies brother and fiancée met with their Celebrant, the bride to be’s only request was that there were no ‘obeys’ in the ceremony, low and behold as the ceremony took place and the couple went to repeat their vows after the Celebrant, I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard her repeating that she will obey him etc. While the Celebrant in question may have needed to work on his listening skills (and perhaps his ceremony writing skills), again, this could have easily been avoided if a final ceremony had been proof read/ approved by the couple.
What we do: At Brisbane City Celebrants we LOVE being Celebrants and we would never jeopardise our clients special day, we provide couples with the initial draft of their ceremony (usually within days of the initial meeting), we encourage changes to be made and the couples own ‘love story’ to be included, several drafts of the ceremony my go back and fourth and we ensure couples ideas are incorporated. Finally, we always provide our couples with their finalised ceremony for them to confirm before the special day.
2. Dress code: If you haven’t already done so confirm the dress code with the Celebrant (e.g. let them know if it’s formal so they know to suit up)
What we do: Typically Jamie wears a freshly dry cleaned tailored business suit and Cara always wears a business suit or dress but more importantly we check with our clients what is appropriate, occasionally we dress it down a little at the couples request for example for surprise weddings when we are posing as guests.
3. The Kiss: The first kiss as a married couple is a moment in time that you will treasure and an image that the photographer will be keen to capture, most couples prefer not to have the Celebrant awkwardly floating in the middle of this special photo. Just in case they are unaware of this etiquette, we suggest you kindly check with (or ask) your Celebrant to step out of the way for when the kiss takes place.
What we do: If the couple have requested that we are stood with them for the ceremony, we simply step to the side out of the frame before the kiss takes place allowing the photographer to snap away as the guests applaud in excitement!
If you are looking for a professional Brisbane Celebrant for your wedding ceremony we would love to hear from you. Contact Brisbane City Celebrants for more information and to confirm availability for your special day.