Your wedding planning journey has a long-list of suppliers, timelines, coordination, and aesthetics to make your day absolutely perfect. However, it is easy to get caught up in the ‘fluff’ of the wedding and lose sight of what is truly important and that is YOU as a couple! Coming together, professing your love to one another in front of your closest family and friends, and making a promise of a lifetime. Your ceremony is at the core of your wedding celebration.

It is very important that the ceremony with its content, feeling, and emotion is not only a highlight of the day but also a cornerstone of your lives together. When ‘life’ starts to kick in you will look back on your wedding day and realize it is the ceremony, the vows exchanged, the commitment professed, and love shared on this truly remarkable day that you should reminisce about and remember why you chose to be together. The champagne has been drunk, the music faded, the guests have gone their separate ways but your promise to one another is everlasting. It is the words and love on your wedding day that will carry you through life.

Your ceremony content and design can be seen as the foundation of your lives. Deciding who will help you present your ceremony and marry you is one of the key factors to consider.  The choice between the Clergy, a registrar, or a celebrant can be confusing. 

So, what is a celebrant?

Whereas the clergy will perform a ceremony containing religious wording, prayers, and hymns, and a registrar must adhere to statutory words, a celebrant is not bound by any religion, statute, or doctrine.

Symbolic ceremonies performed by a celebrant can contain any wording, music, and content the couple desires. Ceremonies are about those the ceremony is for, telling the story of the couple, their personal journey, expressing their values in life, beliefs, and future vision of married life. Worthy celebrants are merely the mouthpiece and reflection of the couple’s outlook on life. 

How does it work?

Once you have shortlisted your celebrants, (most wedding planners have recommendations), an introduction is made via email. After an initial visual consultation via Skype, the couple decides whether the celebrant is a good fit for them based on the feeling, personality, humor, wit, eloquence, and presence of the celebrant.

The celebrant will send questions to the couple to understand the background and personalities of the individuals, and of them as a couple. These are questions that are to be reflected upon and time given to the responses. Often couples will take the time to answer the celebrant’s questions individually, then come together and share their answers with one another, before then passing them along to the celebrant. 

A draft ceremony will then be written, taking into account everything the couple has shared regarding their past, present, and future. Ideas will be exchanged, advice will be given, and any modifications will be made over the following months.  Music, readings, and symbolic acts (such the Candle Unity, Celtic handfasting, Chinese Tea Ceremony) will be integrated into the ceremony design. Once both parties are happy, then the final draft will be created.

A rehearsal will take place the day before the wedding to make everyone comfortable with where to stand, how slowly or quickly to walk, speak, get comfortable with microphones, etc. And then, after months of preparation, it is time for the wedding day!! 

Vive Les Mariés! (Bring the tissues, and make sure to capture everything on video!)

What will it cost?

Fees vary from country to country, and in the complexity of the ceremony. Expect to pay between 850 and 2000 EUR, plus travel and accommodation expenses if required. 

We highly recommend our in house planner Charlie. Read more about him in our about the team section!