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So what are the 4 wonderful benefits of having a Celebrant at your wedding over a Registrar?
As a supplier in the wedding industry we get to work with all sorts of creative, amazing personalities and none more so than the bubbly, friendly, colourful and very huggable Celebrant Wendi!
I really wanted to understand more about the role of a Celebrant, and more specifically, Wendi, who we are working with shortly at one of our fab couples weddings. I thought I would ask her a few questions, and of course she accepted, (as I just knew she would) and here is how our ever so colourful conversation went:
VICTORIA: What is a celebrant?
WENDI: A celebrant is someone who works with couples to create and deliver beautiful heartfelt bespoke ceremonies.
At present Celebrant Ceremonies in England and Wales aren’t legally binding, but for most couples, this isn’t a problem, in fact, many will choose to have a short inexpensive legal registration ceremony, often on a different day before their wedding celebration ceremony takes place.
Couples may choose to use a celebrant for several reasons; – they cannot have a registrar to their chosen venue
– the venue isn’t state-licensed
– the registrar is not available on their chosen date and time
– they value the bespoke aspect of the service, and really want something more personal to them.
VICTORIA: So why choose to have a Celebrant?
WENDI: Using a celebrant gives couples choices about where they want to get married and how they’d like to get married. As an independent celebrant, I am not constrained by legalities, which can impose limitations with wording or music choice and so on. Couples can select their own readings, have live music, involve as many people as they want in the ceremony, and have gorgeous symbolic actions included, such as hand-fasting, unity candle ceremonies, sand-blending, gin and tonic ceremonies and so on….
“…every wedding should have a Wendi in it!”
VICTORIA: So how does it work?
WENDI: With a celebrant, you can have your wedding ceremony at a conventional venue like a hotel or a town hall. However, if you would like something a bit different, you could have your ceremony outside in a woodland, a tipi, a field, at a music festival, on a beach or even in your house or garden!
As a celebrant I have one of the best jobs in the world, it is such a pleasure for me to be able to get to know a couple and find out their hopes and dreams and share in their special day. I absolutely love it when I meet people and we completely get each other, and by the time it comes to their ceremony, we are like old friends. If you have a strong connection with someone, then the rest is easy. Their ceremony is full of love and laughter and sometimes tears, but for all of the right reasons. I think this is what I love the most about my work, building and making those connections and then sharing their love with their nearest and dearest friends and family.
Couples love to share their stories with me, and this is often a feature in their ceremony. It’s such a precious treasure, and everyone loves to share in their love… I especially love it when I get to tell everyone the things that they love about each other and the things that wind each other up… there is always a lot of laughter and love at this point!
VICTORIA: How do you make every wedding you attend, special to your couple?
WENDI: I love to really get to know the bride and groom before every wedding so that I can talk about them with feeling and sincerity. One thing I always ask is, what is your theme or colour scheme?
The reason for this is because I have a huge range of outfits and shoes and always like to co-ordinate with my couples on their day. If they have chosen pastel colours the last thing I want to do is turn up wearing fuchsia pink or animal print! I also have a wide range of headwear so like to co-ordinate my flower crown with their style too.
Sometimes after I’ve done my bit at a wedding the couple insists that I stay, which would be rude to refuse, so I get to see the rest of their celebration which is wonderful. At one of my weddings, they made me feel so welcome, I even ended up being an unofficial Master of Ceremonies to announce the next parts of the day… which of course I absolutely loved!
VICTORIA: Tell me a story about one of your weddings?
WENDI: I once did a wedding where one of the guests had come over from Poland and after the ceremony, she asked one of the bridesmaids if the wedding was a typical English wedding?
The bridesmaid replied, no… that was a ‘Wendi wedding’… and the lady said, well then, in that case, every wedding should have a Wendi in it! How gorgeous is that?
Another time, there was a couple of ‘Butlers in the Buff’ where I was invited to stay for the Wedding Breakfast but that’s another story!
VICTORIA: Why do you love your job?
WENDI: Every wedding I do is different, personal and special to me, I can’t pick out any one favourite, because, everyone has incredible elements and moments so full of love that they live with me in my heart for a long time afterwards. Lots of my couples keep in touch, and I love watching their lives unfold and their love stories continuing to be written. Every ceremony has stand-out moments that will always stay with me.
I never ever believed people when they said that they loved their job… I didn’t think it was possible, but as a celebrant, I now know that it really is. I’m such a lucky gal!
Thanks so much to Wendi for this and if you would like to know more about Celebrant Wendi and her services, please head over to her website https://www.celebrantwendi.com/ or email Wendi at celebrantwendi@gmail.com.
I hope I’ve managed to get over the wonderful benefits of having a Celebrant at your wedding over a Registrar in this article. If you’d like to talk to us about possibly creating a beautiful gallery of photographs or a stunning cinematic wedding film, don’t be shy….