4 Things I Learned the Hard Way as a Marriage Celebrant
I've always been a good marriage celebrant, but when I started out there was some basic stuff I just didn't know, and it took some firm but friendly feedback from couples and other vendors to learn some stuff that seems so obvious in hindsight.
Nobody wants me in their first kiss photo
I think I scrub up pretty nicely, but no matter how hard I scrub, there's zero chance the bride or groom want to see me, or any marriage celebrant for that matter, standing between them grinning like a fool smack bang in the middle of their first kiss shot. I was a couple of gigs in during my first year in the game when a photographer was nice enough to quietly take me aside and let me know I need to get the hell out of the shot before my couples have their first kiss!
2. I didn't have to dress like a real estate agent
No shade on those guys, somebody's got sell the houses - but it ain't gonna be me. I was confident of being a great marriage celebrant when I started, but being a total newbie made me feel like I had to look as serious as possible, from my branding, to my old website, and what I was wearing at weddings. But I'm fun, weddings are fun, and now I have the confidence to make sure every part of my business reflects that. And now I can squat to pick up a cable without worrying about my skinny-leg business pants busting open at the seams (yeah this actually happened once).
3.It's okay to ad-lib during ceremonies. In fact, it's usually better
People don't want a robot to marry them. Well, not most people anyway. A good marriage celebrant is a professional, but they're also a human being, and the ritual of a wedding ceremony is a fundamentally human experience, loaded with raw emotion. And sometimes nothing helps release the tension of that emotion more than a well-timed observation or off-the-cuff remark that clearly wasn't part of the script. It reminds everyone that we're all here to connect and feel like we're part of something larger than us.
