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Registrars do their best to personalise their marriage ceremonies but they are restricted to only a couple of places where you can choose alternative wording, as the majority is legally prescribed, so including your own vows is not generally an option.

You can include a Ring Exchange, however this is typically the only symbolic ritual that can be included. There will also be restrictions on the content of readings and music that you can include, as the legal ceremony must not have any religious or spiritual content.

It is highly likely that you won’t have been able to meet the registrar who will be marrying you before you arrive at the venue and they will often have several appointments on a given day – especially on weekends in the summer – meaning that they cannot be flexible over timings.

With me as your celebrant, you will have a ceremony where the words are chosen by you to be all about you, your values and your love. The wording is completely unique to you and you can even include your own personalised vows…

And let me tell you, when I say that your story is woven through your ceremony, I mean from the first word to the last!

You can include any family members or friends that you wish.

You can include whatever readings or music you wish – there are no limitations.

There is an array of symbolic rituals that we can include, many classic and traditional. We can also design bespoke ones based on your lives together.

You will know exactly who will be there to welcome you in your ceremony space and the chances are we will know each other pretty well by then!

And I only book one wedding ceremony on any day, so if timings need to change all you need to do is keep me in the loop.

Just as we register a birth separately to having a naming ceremony or christening and register a death separately to holding a funeral, celebrating your wedding with a celebrant separates out the legal registration and the ceremony.

Currently, in England and Wales you will need to legally register your marriage at a Registry Office (the law is different in Scotland and currently under review in the rest of the UK). This can be done at any time, but is usually done in the weeks leading up to your ceremony with your celebrant.

This takes places at a ‘Registration of Marriage’ appointment, which is a simple, low-cost process and usually mid-week.

It simply requires you to declare that you are both free to marry and that you are both marrying willingly, in front of two witnesses.

Once this is done, you are a married couple for all legal and financial purposes, leaving your celebrant ceremomy to be the place where you make your own unique commitment to one another in your own words and create a joyous celebration of you both with those special to you.

You do not need to exchange rings at your Registration of Marriage, as this is a purely symbolic ritual. Although you can if you wish and they can be dedicated at your celebrant ceremony, perhaps with a Ring Warming.

Couples approach their registration appointment in different ways – I think my favourite was the couple who went along in jeans and t-shirts and popped in to the library next door and asked two ladies that they found choosing books in the romance section to be their witnesses… I like to think that those ladies are still telling that story!

You can hold it absolutely anywhere!

That’s one of the beauties of having celebrant-led ceremony – it’s your choice…

As the legal documentation is already taken care of, you are free to hold your ceremony in any licensed venue or any unlicensed venue. This could be a hotel, Country Club, a marquee in a field or garden, your favourite restaurant, a hall, a campsite, on a beach, clifftop or in a woodland… It could even be at your home or that of a friend or relative!

And if you have already booked your licensed venue, you should be able to alter any booking already made with registrars to a much cheaper, usually mid-week, ‘Registration of Marriage’ appointment, leaving you all ready to celebrate with your bespoke celebrant ceremony at your venue with all your guests.

 

 

You can book with me as soon as you have a date, so 2-3 years in advance is not uncommon.

We will start the process of working on your ceremony together about 4-6 months before your date, as lots can change in your lives over a couple of years.

Having said that, my shortest time from booking to ceremony has been under 2 weeks!  So, it’s always worth getting in touch no matter how close your wedding date – if I have the day free in my diary, I would love to help or, if I’m already booked, help you find another wonderful celebrant who can.