A Little Help from Your Celebrant
How do you imagine your ceremony to be – funny and full of laughter! Serious and formal! The style of your wedding will determine the celebrant you choose. Beyond that, getting along with your celebrant and genuinely liking who they are as a person – as with all wedding vendors, is vital to having a wedding that reflects who you are as a couple.
So the questions you should be asking your Celebrant are:-
1. What are their fees?
Celebrant fees vary widely – varying with popularity and experience of the celebrant.
2. What does the fee include?
A typical celebrant fee includes meeting with the celebrant, the writing of the ceremony, the performance of the ceremony and rehearsals.
3. Are there additional costs?
Some celebrants will have additional charges – like travel, or extra meetings. So it’s a good idea to find out at the beginning.
5. What are their qualifications?
Celebrants in England and Wales can’t perform the registration, this will be done separately as you would a baby’s birth or someone’s death and you will include two witnesses, but you do not have to go through a ceremony with the Registrar. Your Wedding Day ceremony is completely up to you.
6. How many weddings have they performed?
As with the above question, if experience is important to you then this one is a must ask!
7. When is full payment required?
Usually they require a deposit to save your date in their diary? The balance will be paid a couple of weeks before the ceremony?
8. What is their cancellation policy?
If you need to cancel your wedding ceremony or postpone it, your booking fee will not be refunded and depending on how much work a Celebrant has done, you may be required to cover the cost?
9. How many meetings are included?
A lot of celebrants will allow as many meetings, emails and phone calls as you need to get your ceremony picture perfect. Others may only have two or three included in the package to get it right.
10. How much guidance will you be given while writing your ceremony?
Some celebrants will meet-up and have a chat then give out a simple questionnaire and answer form and after being filled out will write your ceremony, others provide an example format and provide you with popular readings and structures to choose from and suggestions on different types of ceremonies. Your wedding ceremony is the part of the day you probably want to put the most thought into, so understanding how your celebrant works with writing it is vital.
11. How do they personalise your ceremony?
Your celebrant will tell your story. They have a chat with you and get to know you and inject what they know into your ceremony. Or should you wish, they just keep it formal.
12. Will you see a draft of the ceremony?
Most celebrants will provide you with a draft of the ceremony beforehand so you can make any changes.
13. Do they require or include a rehearsal?
Celebrants will do a basic rehearsal with you before the actual wedding if required. Others will do a run through either over the phone or by email. Ask your celebrant what they do in respect to this.
14. What actually happens on the wedding day?
Every celebrant has their own way of doing things. Understanding, from their arrival to the handing over of the certificate and the process in between, is important.
15. How long before the ceremony will they arrive?
Most celebrants arrive an hour before guests to get orientated with the venue and brief anyone involved in the ceremony on the proceedings. Double check – it would be difficult if your celebrant was set to arrive only five minutes before the ceremony start time!
16. What happens if the celebrant is ill?
Within the Fellowship of Professional Celebrants there are many back-ups supporting each other.
17. How many weddings do they book in one day? How many will they be performing on your wedding day?
Usually just one, your Celebrant is yours for the day – they may even like to have a drink with you after your ceremony -
if invited!
