My plan today is to encourage you to use me as your Celebrant. We are just beginning to see a glimmer of light at the end of a long tunnel of uncertainty where all the hooks on which we hung our plans were dashed to the ground and trampled on.
Trust
Just recently my treasured dog has gone blind. He has been with me for 9 years and we do everything together. You might ask what has that got to do with choosing a celebrant?
It is all about trust – he relies on me to navigate in unfamiliar places. My voice and reassurance gives him the confidence to walk quite narrow paths and we use a harness to keep him safe in traffic.
I want you to choose someone that you trust, someone who has experience and who is confident in helping you to identify what you want from your day.
Many couples have had to postpone their day until next year and that is very disappointing. You will need to have the confidence that what you had planned can be delivered; I really hope that the venue you have chosen will still be there, but there are so any factors and so many blue chip companies are facing really tough times that there is no certainty.
Realise your wedding dreams
My advice is as follows; if you are able to have your wedding this year in the Church or the Registry Office that you had planned but with restrictions, take it. Do as Princess Beatrice has done, scale your day back to the smallest and most intimate that you can and plan for a celebrant led celebration in your dream dress with all the guests and attendants you had planned and saved for once restrictions have been lifted.
It maybe that you can no longer have your first selected venue but those that survive will be crying out for business. It doesn’t matter what your dream was, dream bigger.
A celebrant led wedding can be anywhere, you hold all the cards. It is a bit like being a cash buyer in an inflated housing market, there will be a celebrant in your area that has the same outlook and who is prepared to help you to realise your dream.
Outlook and vision
When you start to look for the right celebrant for you, think about your values and what you want your day to look like. You will find that there are some fabulous, very niche celebrants – but be realistic, if what they are offering doesn’t chime with your ideas then they are not right for you.
There are all sorts of celebrants, look at their websites and if you see things that appeal to you then the chances are that you can work with them.
I make no bones about it, I am a country person through and through and my couples are looking for a proper, old fashioned country wedding with hand-crafted elements and zero plastic and waste.
Honesty and Authenticity
You will have heard the expression “fur coat and no knickers”, style over substance. You two are the only ones who know what the budget is and within that budget what is important to you; be straight with those you are working with – we all have a budget and we know how stressful it can be to try and manage all the elements of a successful wedding day.
Most couples these days are saving for a house, managing to bring up their children and coping with the grind of budgeting.
Your family and friends will love to help in any way that they can, be it with the catering or the decorating, you might know a seamstress, older maids of honour often chip in with their dress (as long as they can wear it again) and you don’t need fleets of little beribboned tinies who wriggle about and cause their parents all kinds of difficulties.
It’s about you!
This is your day, your love being celebrated – if you want to go barefoot on a beach, eat fish and chips from a van and dance under the stars then that is what you should do.
The key to the day though is the ceremony, it needs to be the pivot on which the day turns, and you and your guests need to immerse fully in your celebration. It is my goal to write and deliver a ceremony that could not be about anyone else.
Happy ever after
I hope that what you have read has given you plenty to think about. Be brave and ask for what you want, you will find the people to give it to you and at a price you can afford.
Be realistic, if you can’t afford a sit down meal, can you do afternoon tea and a glass of prosecco?
Your wedding ceremony is the beginning of your adventure together, it is about you two and what makes you content. Your friends, the ones that count, will support you and the rest of them don’t matter.
I would love you to have a look at my website and I hope that we can work together at making your day just as you would like it to be.