How I Tell Your Story as Your Marriage Celebrant

I love a good story. And as a wedding celebrant / marriage celebrant, what I REALLY love is a good love story. Netflix may have killed rom-coms but that's okay, because all the best romantic comedy happens in real life. This is why I ask every couple I meet a bunch of annoying questions, to get all the best stories out of them. It doesn't matter if every last person at your wedding ceremony knows how the story ends, because it's about the journey, not the destination, and as your marriage celebrant I do whatever it takes to make that journey as fun as possible. Here's one of my favourites, from Candi and Jon's 2020 wedding:

"Candi and Jon are the first couple I’ve worked with who really got me questioning whether or not I should be a marriage celebrant. And certainly not because they aren’t a great couple who belong together – they clearly do belong together, and I’d be willing to bet that everyone here today agrees with me on that. But to hear their story – meeting 9 years ago in the punishingly hot, dry, landscape of the Pilbara, working together as polywelders.

A woman, unable to act on her attraction due to her being unavailable at the time, but a woman smitten, taken by the charms of a man with authority, her trainer and assessor, a man she described, and I quote - as “a good-looking rooster.”

A man, who ended up being suspicious enough of what all those cheeky smiles might have meant to place a call a year later, but only 5 minutes after Candi had been discussing said man with her girlfriends, wondering aloud what had become of that gorgeous rooster of the red dust.

The phone rings. It’s an unknown number, but Candice answers the call. “Hey, it’s Jonny!” Although they’d spend the next year speaking on the phone every day, they’d be unable to schedule any serious amount of time together for months due to conflicting schedules. One day at the airport, with Candi just arrived back and Jon on his way out, fate granted them a whopping 5 minutes together. Not one for wasting an opportunity, Candi grabbed Jon by the scruff of his hi-viz and drew him in for their first kiss.

A few months later they were able to finally get time off together, and had their first proper date over on Rottnest Island. So if you’re wondering why Candi and Jon had me wondering whether or not I should be a marriage celebrant, it’s because they had me wondering if I should just give up writing scripts for wedding ceremonies, and focus instead on being the first man to write the great Australian fly-in-fly-out romance novel. I’m thinking something along the lines of “FIFO to Wife-O.” Or maybe not."

Still one of my favourite couple origin stories, from one of the most fun ceremonies I've ever had the pleasure of doing as a wedding celebrant. Here's another of my favourite stories, from Alisha and Luke's wedding at the start of 2022:

"I don’t always tell the story of how a couple got engaged, because sometimes things run a little too smoothly, which is great at the time but doesn’t make for much of a yarn. On a completely unrelated note, here’s the story of how Luke asked Alisha to marry him. Early in the year 2020, Luke made a promise to Ali, that they would be engaged to be married that same year.

Having been together for a decade at the time, this promise couldn’t have come any sooner for Alisha and she proceeded to get her hopes up accordingly. Luke had always hoped his eventual proposal to Ali would be unexpected, but his promise had now robbed him of the element of surprise. How could he be a man of his word without her seeing the proposal coming from a mile off?

Perhaps it was the accountant in him that made him decide he’d get her on a technicality. He first laid the groundwork by concocting a phoney excuse about a delay with the jeweller, from whom he’d already secured an engagement ring.

“Sorry Ali, but it’s not gonna happen this year.” Alisha, seething with quiet rage, maintained her composure for the man she loves. Fast forward a short space of time to the 31st of December, 2020. Luke concocts another phoney alibi, this time telling Alisha he’s off to the gym, when he’s actually off to the home of Brett and Fiona Burns to request their daughter’s hand in marriage. To the surprise of literally nobody, permission was granted, and Brett returned home from the fake gym to take Ali out for a new year’s eve dinner at a Japanese restaurant, which I assume had a lot to do with how much they love Japan.

They got a few sakes’ deep, and the conversation soon turned to all the things they love about each other and how much they love them. Again to the surprise of nobody, this led to Alisha crying tears of joy. Happy tears are still tears, so Luke moved to Alisha’s side of the table to comfort her. This was all a ruse however, and midway through the comforting he dropped to one knee and asked her to be his wife. As you can imagine, this did nothing to stop the flow of tears, but it did allow Luke keep his promise to Ali with seconds remaining on the clock."

I could post so many more of my favourites here, but I reckon you get the picture for now. Weddings are serious enough, so as your marriage celebrant, I always have as much fun with it as I can get away with!