While a wedding ceremony requires hiring a lot of servicemen, who specialize in different departments and taking care of every little task, it’s also one of the most significant days in your lifetime. Though each one of your wedding vendors and their work is crucial to pulling off a perfect wedding day, your marriage celebrant is an important person of a different kind altogether. He’s the person who handles all the legalities of your wedding ceremony. So, without them, there’s not going to be a wedding at all.
But most of the time, it’s quite confusing for the couples to understand what your marriage celebrant will actually be doing on your big day. So, you should know that there’s much more to the celebrant than just marrying a couple, and a lot of layers go underneath. When you are choosing a wedding celebrant, you are actually booking the main supporting character of your wedding day movie. So, you can’t be messing up or making any mistakes when it comes to choosing a wedding celebrant.
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What a celebrant does from before the wedding to after the honeymoon:
A wedding celebrant is not just someone who just makes a guest appearance on your wedding day and does nothing but a quick ceremony. Your celebrant will be there with you from the day you book him till after your wedding day. Celebrants play a very crucial role in your lives, no matter which occasion you have hired them for. So, just like you need to invest sensibly in a correct wedding celebrant, finding an efficient celebrant at the times of a funeral is equally important.
Planning the ceremony
Now, once you have booked your wedding celebrant, your wedding is all he/she will/should think about. They need to write your ceremony from scratch and so will talk you through different types of ceremonies till you decide which the best one for you is.
Helping with vows
Your wedding celebrant is quite experienced in such matters and can help you in writing your own vows. This will help you get a clear idea of what the tone, style, or even length of the vows should be. Your celebrant will be the sole reason to make sure that the vows of both you and your partner actually match.
Personalized ceremony
Your Wedding celebrant will help you with everything you need when it comes to personalizing your ceremony. Whether it’s something common or anything outside the box, they are happy to help. They can help you choose the style of wedding to go for, as well as the type of reading you should do.
Provide 24/7 support
If you are one of those couples, who don’t have a wedding planner or coordinator to help you, well, your wedding celebrant is all you have. They will be with you throughout the process and be the best support and knowledge giver all along your wedding planning journey.
Legalities
And finally, comes the most important, the legal stuff. 75% of all the marriages in the world are performed by celebrants. Needless to say, if you don’t have someone to get you legally married, you are just having a big party, not a wedding. They worry about all the legal procedures and paperwork such as all your identifications, and forms and marriage licenses, etc. are take care of.
So, these were some of the major areas where your wedding celebrant backs you up during your wedding journey. Planning and executing a wedding is nothing but a roller coaster ride, full of ups and downs, and your marriage celebrant is like the safety harness, keeping you in place.
How to Choose the Perfect Wedding Celebrant
When you are choosing your wedding vendors or the people you want to work with, you need to be absolutely sure of the fact that you connect with them. You need to vibe well and be on the same page with whatever role they are playing on your big day. And it especially applies when you are choosing your marriage celebrant. The role that a celebrant plays is pivotal in setting the atmosphere on your big day.
All that You Need to Know while Booking your Marriage Celebrant
Now, choosing an appropriate wedding celebrant may be quite a daunting task, and if you are doing it for the first time, you might need some help. Well, good news for you, there’s a celebrant for each kind of wedding style or personality. You just need to find yours. And as we said, it’s quite invaluable for you and your partner to find the correct marriage celebrant.
Things that you need to know about hiring a wedding celebrant
You need to have an idea regarding certain things when it comes to hiring a celebrant for your wedding day. You obviously don’t want the risk of unwanted surprise (read shocks) and make a mess out of your wedding day. You just need to truly relax, knowing that you and your wedding are in the best of hands with your hired celebrant. And you should not worry about going for a marriage celebrant cost-wise. The investment is well worth it.
When to book
Just like most other wedding preparations, you should book your wedding celebrant months before the big day. There’s quite a bit of planning required, and if you want to get your hands on a popular celebrant, chances are their booking diaries are already getting filled. So, the first thing you need to do after deciding on the date is to go pick your celebrant.
How to choose
If you want to listen to us, the best theory is to go with what feels good. If you bond well at the first meeting, he’s the one. You could choose a celebrant whom you have seen perform at a friend’s wedding or read up online etc., and just give them a call. There are many kinds out there, choose the one who’s on the same page as you.
What the payment includes
You should have an idea of what your wedding celebrant should charge you and what all it includes. Obviously, a more personalized ceremony will require you to pay a higher amount than one done in a simple registry style. Also, it shall cover all the business costs, legal paperwork, his time during the ceremony, the celebrant’s PA system, wedding rehearsal, etc.
Needed certification
Next, you need to know what certifications or qualifications you need to check before hiring the celebrant. Marriage celebrants undergo a lot of training to become one. Also, they need to register themselves and perform yearly development programs to upkeep their registrations. So, look out for the necessary qualifications, and you could also look them up on government websites or online records.
Paperwork required
Yes, there are certain paperwork and official procedures involved before you take your vows. There are forms that need to be filled and lodged at least a month before the wedding. You need to provide ID proof and proof of your birthplace. Then the marriage certificate starts to get prepared.
So, these are the main things that you need to have knowledge of before you dive into the process of interviewing and hiring wedding celebrants. Following these tips will help you a lot in narrowing down the search and save you heaps of time. And also, don’t forget to go with your gut, and choose the one who makes you and your partner smile. That’s it.
