How do you work as a Celebrant?

So today’s mini blog for World Celebrant Week is all about answering your question, how do you work as a celebrant in officiating namings, weddings and end of life celebrations? 

First of all I have my website, social media presence and I attend wedding fayres. I’m a recommended wedding supplier on Hitched, The Celebrant Directory and Rock my Wedding, and also a preferred celebrant for local funeral directors. So normally enquiries come from one of these avenues. I’ll always respond quickly to an email enquiry or social media direct message or pick up the phone to my couples, parents or families. 

Then I will have an initial connection call which is a brief chat through some basics and to pick up on the feels of each other. From there, if the client feels we click (thankfully, so far, we always do) then we arrange a zoom or face to face meeting.

Next step is to have the meeting to chat through the dream ceremony, really getting down to the nitty gritty of who they are as a couple, family or parents. I’ll listen to key stories, how they want the ceremony to feel, who will be there, what elements they’d like to include and why. You might find you don’t have a scooby do of what you want and I can really support you with thinking of ideas and celebrating all that you are. I’ll also advise on the legals if you need this!  Then if the couple or family decide they want to book me, I will send over a questionnaire for them to complete, along with the contract of service and details on how to pay a deposit. 

Once I’ve received the questionnaire back, I will arrange another planning meeting to ensure I have all I need to write the perfect script. I get out my pot of tea, revels and play my tunes as I get stuck into writing the first draft which normally takes about 8-10 hours to craft. I then send this script to the couple or parents within 2 months of the planning meeting (or sooner if the timescale between meeting and their ceremony is tight) or to the family within 3 days if it is a funeral. My couples, parents and families have unlimited email, phone and text contact with me and we exchange drafts as often as is needed in order to get everything bang on so that their ceremony is perfectly about them. I contact the venue and arrange a visit where possible, and I send them my insurance details. A lovely part of my role is supporting couples with writing their vows or families or parents to create poems or readings. Finding meaningful poems, readings or music is something I can lose myself in when working on a ceremony. I support my clients to ensure all chosen symbolic elements are in place and if need be we have a rehearsal if it puts everyone at ease. By the time you arrive at your ceremony, seeing me should help you to feel calm and fully held up by me as we’’ll have built a relationship during the whole process.