Wedding Celebrant: Couples go to great lengths in every aspect of their wedding planning to make their wedding personal, elegant and bespoke. Hours are spent in their wedding planning, choosing the right venues pouring over dresses, décor, and colour palettes striving to achieve their unique vision for their perfect day.
But what about the ceremony itself? And I’m not just talking about where it’s going to be held or the decoration. I’m talking about the ceremony.
A wedding celebrant provides a 5-star service from start to finish, resulting in an entirely bespoke experience, reflecting the tone and style they wish for their ceremony and, of course, individuality.
This is how it’s achieved.
5 star service provided by a wedding celebrant
Contrary to popular belief, a wedding celebrant doesn’t just turn up on the day and officiate. That’s a registrar.
Similar to every other aspect of planning, it is not unreasonable for couples to expect niche-wedding experts. Like registrars, wedding celebrants are professionals in their field. A couple will have chosen a celebrant whose style aligns with theirs and who will have designed a bespoke script to reflect their wishes.
The best ceremonies are entrenched in personality and authenticity. Wedding celebrants work closely with their clients over the months leading up to the wedding itself to achieve just that. It is a very close collaboration, and the rapport that develops is essential so that clients feel relaxed and happy to share personal elements of their lives and amusing anecdotes.
The alternative is the ‘on duty’ allocated officiant with the best will in the world will process the couple with a templated generic script and move on to their next ceremony. There’s nothing bespoke about it at all.
What makes a celebrant-led ceremony bespoke
Every couple and their story is unique. These two main factors elevate celebrant-led ceremonies from the normal run-of-the-mill civil ceremonies. The ceremony should not be an endurance test. It’s a celebration, and by omitting the dreary rules and regulations, there is room to focus on what’s important.
There’s no need for it to be considered the obligatory and formulaic preliminary to a glorious lavish wedding reception—more the prelude to a magnificent party.
A wedding celebrant will ensure that guests leave feeling enriched, talking about it, laughing, inspired and fulfilled. Importantly they will be reminded of why they are there and what they are celebrating.
Personalisation of the content of your ceremony
These are exciting times for all modern couples who want more choices for their ceremonies and marry the modern way. The new wave of personalisation is strong. Civil ceremonies are on the up. Statistics show that religion is increasingly less important in society as weddings are ‘becoming more social and less sacred’.
This is not really news. Back in 2019 in an article by Katrina Otter, a wedding planner based in Suffolk was asked about trends for the coming year she said “2019 is all about the celebrant-led service. “Next year, all of my weddings are celebrant-led ceremonies,” she says. “None of them have got a church.” This means couples have a civil ceremony a couple of days before the wedding with just one or two witnesses, leaving them free to customise their big day even more.”
“They want it to be personalised to them,” Otter says. “They want to say what they want to say and don’t want to follow the rules and regulations. It’s breaking free from someone telling them what they have to say about their life, love and commitment to each other. Making it about the two of them.”
And it’s not just the vows that can be changed. With a celebrant-led service, you can seal the deal with a hand-tying ceremony by planting a tree, lighting a unity candle or even burying a time capsule. The options become endless.”
Independent celebrants are also free to offer couples the right to include religious or non-religious and spiritual content.
With a growing number of mixed heritage couples having the freedom to be inclusive and recognise heritage is all the more important. And it’s not just beliefs and values; you also have the freedom to choose your readings, anything from the Bible to Harry Potter, similarly with music choices.
There is still a massive shortfall of knowledge on the possibilities that a celebrant-led ceremony can offer. Step into the world of modern 5-star wedding ceremonies—present guests with some surprises. Anything is possible with a celebrant, and a feast of ideas awaits to make the ceremony and the rest of the day a truly bespoke, memorable and 5-star occasion.
Frances Cave, Celebrant at Fanfare Ceremonies https://fanfareceremonies.co.uk
