So now you have read our earlier blog about what a Celebrant actually is and why you need one for to make your ceremony totally unique….how does it work?
Well if you have decided to engage the services of a Celebrant you are about to be taken on a very special journey in the build up to your big day. As one of the main reasons for engaging a Celebrant is having your ceremony totally bespoke and personalised you will be asked to take time to think about what marriage means to you and the reasons you are getting married. These are two things that often become lost in wedding planning fog.
So to begin with a good Celebrant will meet with you and get to know you both as a couple and individually. At Embrace the Day we have face to face conversations with couples and ask lots of questions about their background, how they met, how they became engaged, what they like to do as a couple, their relationship with their families, how important their friends are to them and, of course, what marriage means for them personally. The conversation can really take some interesting turns and we love hearing about the couples “story” as we call it. It is a privilege for us, as Celebrants, for a couple to let us into their journey and for them to reveal so much about themselves. It does help if you and the Celebrant have connected and we work hard to ensure that we build up our relationship with our couples over the time with work with them.
We also share with our couples a host of resources including sample vows and pledges, readings, poems, quotes, blessings and ring declarations. We discuss these with them and make a note of any they like so that these can be built into the script. If a couple want to have readings (and they usually do!) we help them to select these and think about who may read them on the day, sometimes that may be us as the Celebrant.
Another reason people often use Celebrants is to be able to have the freedom to include a symbolism such as a hand fastening, a sand ceremony or a unity candle. We usually have long chats with our couples about what they would like included, what it means to them and how they want it to be done.
We like to meet couples at their chosen venue so that we can get a feel for how the day will flow and so that the couple can describe their wishes for the day. We discuss practical issues such as how will the couple enter the room? How will they exit? Do they have any bridesmaids? Will they be seated or stand? And a personal favourite of mine….do you want to kiss at the end!
Once we have all of this information (and more!) we go away and begin to build a personalised and bespoke script. We really do start from a blank page. We build in all of the elements that couples have asked to be included and if couples wish to write their own vows we help them by providing wow openers to get them started. We create a first draft to share with the couple to get their first impressions. We then move through a series of drafts until the couple are completely happy with the script. We ideally like to have the script signed off well in advance of the ceremony date. We like to give couples a chance to “forget” the script, the last thing we would want is for couples to be reciting the script along with us on the ceremony day!
We keep in touch with our couples in the run up to their special day to ensure that all arrangements are running smoothly and that there are no last minute changes at the venue. On the big day itself we arrive in plenty of time to ensure that everything is set up as they couple have requested and basically we will not leave until the ceremony has been conducted. Most Celebrants, well us for sure, will only take one booking per day and this allows for a relaxed atmosphere on the day as there is no time pressure.
To us a relaxed wedding day couple makes for a happy, special day!
So now you know how it works….what really are you waiting for?
