Celebrant and Ceremonies

By Vlady Peters

Written by a long-serving marriage celebrant, these three books are meant to help celebrants to put together and deliver the ceremonies in a professional manner.

The major proportion of wedding cermonies, funerals and baby-naming are being conducted in Australia by Marriage Celebrants. The ceremonies offered can be anything from the traditional to the personal, involving many or involving few.

In these books the celebrant will find hints on how to plan, prepare and deliver a ceremony as well as well as many samples to include in the ceremony.

More importantly, the celebrant will learn how to treat his or her role as a celebrant in a business-like way. That is, how to attract the clients, what to learn from other celebrants, how to present themselves in the best possible way, and how to set themselves apart from other celebrants.

How to be a Profitable Celebrant: Practical Tips on Running a Profitable Celebrancy Business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vlady Peters
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005232368

Vlady Peters

Planning a Wedding Ceremony? Vows Renewal? Baby Naming?Budgeting for your Honeymoon Travel or the decorations for your Wedding Day?Looking for Wedding Vows that will exactly express what you feel?Have you been asked to officiate at a Vows Renewal Ceremony for a family member, or a Baby Naming Ceremony for a friend?Whatever the occasion and wherever it is to take place, whether it’s simple or formal, money no object or need to keep the ceremony budget in mind, you will find everything you’re looking for in this author’s books.Whether you want a traditional Wedding Ceremony or looking forward to creating a Wedding Ceremony all your own, whether you intend to have a Wedding Reception at home or leaving all the details to a professional Wedding Planner, whether you intend to spend your Honeymoon just up the road from where you live, or travel miles into the exotic world, you’ve come to the right place to learn how to plan that special event.

Book preview

How to be a Profitable Celebrant:

Practical Tips on Running a Profitable Celebrancy Business

by V M Peters

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Chapter One - What is a Celebrant?

Celebrant and Ceremonies

A celebrant or a celebrant is like the conductor of an orchestra, the compere at a fashion show, the DJ at a disco club, the MC at a wedding reception. Whenever people choose to celebrate a special event in their lives, there is a good chance that there will be one person weaving the various segments of the event together. Call her a celebrant, or call her a compere, she helps to direct the event, maximise its importance, and dramatize its impact.

Celebrations over which officiants have been asked to preside have included the well-known as well as the less obvious events. Some of the more common ones include:

1. Naming Ceremonies

2. Wedding Ceremonies

3. Renewal of Marriage Vows Ceremonies

4. Commitment or Unity Ceremonies

5. Funeral Ceremonies

Not as common are ceremonies such as:

1. The establishing of a new Home

2. House warming

3. Step children or step parent ceremonies

3. Adoption of a child

4. Loss of child in child birth

5. Coming of age ceremony

6. Birthday ceremony

7. Rite of passage

8. Successful graduation

9. Entering the workforce

11. Entering a new career

12. Starting one’s own business

13. Retirement ceremony

14. Engagement

15. Separation or divorce ceremony

16. Anniversaries – wedding and others

17. Pagan

18. A bon voyage or welcome back ceremony

19. Boat naming

20. Memorial

To any event that has special importance in the lives of the people concerned, whether a wholly happy event such as a wedding, or, as in the case of a funeral, which is both a tribute to the life of the departed, as well as a farewell from those left behind, a celebrant adds new life and dimension by drawing together the various elements making up the ceremony.

A ceremony is both a ritual and a message that explains the purpose and the meaning of the event, and is used whenever something happens which is deemed worthy of recognition or remembrance.

Most people recognize the legally appointed marriage celebrants who perform marriages according to law. These government-appointed individuals are the only people who can perform marriages ceremonies. However, there are no legal restrictions as to who can perform other social ceremonies such as naming or renewal of wedding vows etc., Any person can choose to be a celebrant for such ceremonies.

Some people call these celebrants civil celebrants. Others, in order not to confuse these officiants with the legally appointed civil marriage celebrants, call them general celebrants.

Whether she is a civil marriage celebrant or a general celebrant, the ideal officiant believes in the power of ceremony. Being a private person she accepts that it’s the client’s values and wishes that are important. What goes into the ceremony is the reflection of where the client comes from. The officiant does not align herself with specific groups within the community; she is part of the whole community. For religious people, who however cannot have their ceremony conducted in the church – for whatever reason – the ceremony might include spiritual aspects.

The thoughtful celebrant brings substance to a ceremony which might otherwise be superficial. She becomes the advisor as well as the resource person to help clients express themselves in the most elegant and meaningful way. Each ceremony is individual and personal, according to what lies behind the particular client’s situation and needs. And the individual and personal aspects cover the whole spectrum of what affects the ceremony. The place where it’s conducted. The mood which is created through the use of music, poetry, prose, symbolisms and cultural traditions. The way in which familial and community bonds are strengthened and enlarged.

Whether clients are seeking an alternative ceremony to a religious ceremony which is prohibited to them by their particular situation, or whether they are looking for a non-denominational ceremony, the officiant is equally able to help them celebrate their event by allowing them to articulate the principles and ideals of their relationship and the basis of this relationship. By allowing the client to control the content of the ceremony, clients feel more committed to it.

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Types of Celebrants

A celebrant can be a man or a woman, young or mature, a professional or a stay at home grandma, granddad, mum or dad. There are those people who begin to think of a career as a celebrant when they’ve retired from their normal employment. Anticipating a great deal of time on their hands with very little to fill up their days, they look around to see what is available to them.

They might attend the weddings, and the naming ceremonies and the funerals and watch people, no different from themselves, conducting these ceremonies as officiants. And it might seem to them that not only would they enjoy being involved in the momentous occasions of other people’s lives, but that they are particularly suited for the job of a celebrant.

At this stage, their question might be, ‘How do I become a celebrant? What do I do? Who do I get in touch with? How do I begin?’

To answer these questions we might look at the different situations in which a celebrant might be found.

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The legally appointed Civil Marriage Celebrant

Firstly, of course, is the legally appointed civil marriage celebrant. This person can’t just decide to perform marriages because she thinks she’d enjoy it, and it looks like it could be a good thing to do.

This person must actually have the necessary training or knowledge to allow her to discharge her duties as a marriage celebrant. Apart from other things, she will need to have knowledge of the Marriage Act under which she will be asked to operate. But even if qualified in having the necessary knowledge, this person will need to apply to the Government, filling in a form to show that she is a competent person and there is nothing which might disqualify her from the position of a civil marriage celebrant.

If the government approves her application, she will be contacted and told that she has been placed in a queue and will be appointed once she reaches the top of the list. There are literally thousands of people applying to be a marriage celebrant. Some applicants have known as early as eighteen months beforehand, that their application has been successful and they will be appointed once they reach the top of the queue.

Even though, at this stage, the applicant knows that she will be appointed a civil marriage celebrant eventually, she can’t advertise herself as a marriage celebrant or accept bookings under the assumption that the appointment is just around the corner. She must wait till the appointment is made formal. And this will happen when a government official contacts her and gives her the news.

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The Trainee Marriage Celebrant

The second type of celebrant might be like the first one. She has either completed all the formal courses required for a civil marriage celebrant position, or has proved her competence in that area, has applied to the government, and is now waiting for some response. She has no way of knowing whether her application will be accepted.

Or, she may have applied, and, for any number of reasons, her application has been refused. If there are specific reasons for her application being refused, she might try to eliminate its cause and reapply. But, at the moment, she knows that she will never be a civil marriage celebrant able to perform legal marriages.

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General Celebrant Without Training

This is the person who has no qualification that will lead her to becoming a civil marriage celebrant. Nor is she interested in becoming one. But she is one of those people who enjoys being in the public eye or is often asked by friends and relatives to take the role of a compere, MC, DJ, or even play a significant role at friends’ special ceremonies.

She might often be asked why she, in fact, doesn’t become a celebrant, seeing as she is so good on these celebratory occasions.

And after thinking about it for a while, she may decide to take up the challenge. Loving the work as she does, she decides to become a celebrant not just as a favour to friends and relatives, but also as a means of earning some extra money. In particular, if the person happens to be retired, she might see the position of a celebrant not only as an enjoyable pastime, but as a profitable money-earner.

In short, what started for her as a hobby, becomes a business.

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General Celebrant with some Training

Just for her own satisfaction, this person has taken some courses in the area of celebrancy in order to understand its requirements. This might include study in the more popular ceremonies such as funeral or naming ceremonies. However, she is definitely not interested in becoming a civil marriage celebrant and dealing with the legal aspects which a marriage entails. She simply wants to be a general celebrant who can perform those ceremonies which do not require any specific qualification. Using her talents is what she is interested in, and taking some courses has made her realize how suited she is to this particular career.

Enjoying the interaction with people as she does, she knows that given the opportunity, she can do the job as well as any other officiant she has seen in action. She may even feel that she has other talents that will give her a unique style in the field of celebrancy.

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Celebrant Know-How

Celebrant Attributes

Looking from the outside in, people might see a celebrant as someone who turns up at a venue with her bag of tricks, takes centre stage for an average of ten to fifteen minutes, then goes back to wherever she came from. To many, the role of a celebrant seems too easy and something anyone can do – and get paid for as well!

However, like any successful production, there is a lot behind the scenes that never shows on the day. Before you set yourself up as a celebrant on the basis that anyone can be a celebrant, take a reality check.

We’ve all encountered people who seem to have chosen a business which seems eminently wrong for them. An exaggerated example might be ‘Faulty Towers’ where a man who obviously hates people, is running a hotel where he has to deal with people all the time. So you need to remember that as a business person you might fail not because you are performing badly, but because celebrancy is not the business for you.

There are certain attributes that the successful officiant has. This includes:

1. Enjoys people

Ceremonies are all about people. The celebrant needs to be a skilled communicator, able to tease out the needs of the client who may know very little about the ceremony she wants the officiant to perform.

2. Is a great listener

She needs to hear not only what the client is saying, but also what she isn’t saying. Not all clients are able to express themselves clearly and concisely.

3. Is flexible

No matter how experienced she is, she allows the clients to have the type of ceremony they want instead of the kind of ceremony she feels they should want. She will advise but not insist.

4. Is Unflappable

Reacts to the unexpected in a calm manner, especially when the clients themselves are going to pieces.

5. Is a diplomat

Weddings, for example, can be full of tensions. Everyone involved wants his or her say – the mother of the bride, the maid of honour, and even the bride and groom are sometimes divided on the details of their wedding.

6. Is patient

Although she is the expert, she encourages clients’ input and treats their comments and queries with respect, recognizing that what suits one client may not suit another.

7. Is immune to emergencies

The ceremony may be preceded by death in the family, or sudden breaks between one set of family members with another, but the day of the ceremony reflects all the expectations as if none of these things happened.

8. Is always up to date with the fashions and trends of the day

If she wants her clients to have confidence in her ability, she won’t be hearing of a new style of ceremony from her clients. She’ll be already prepared to celebrate it by the time her clients hear about it on television or on the Internet.

9. Is both creative and practical

If the style of ceremony requires props, she will know not only what props are required but how to arrange them in the most practical and visually attractive way.

10. Is aware that details make the difference

Remembers the little things that clients often forget, like the matches for a candle lighting ceremony. It is remarkable how often clients will search far and wide to buy an unusual candle for a ceremony then forget the fact that it has to be lit.

11. Shows initiative

If she is accepting bookings from interstate or overseas, then she is also able to supply the client with a list of other services which they may require. While she may not necessarily recommend these services, she will certainly check them out as to their quality and reliability.

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The self-employed celebrant

Like any other self-employed person, the celebrant, to be a successful business person, must have not only the qualities that make her a good celebrant, but also characteristics that will make her a successful business person. Successful business people are noted for:

1. Initiative

Business people who succeed take personal responsibility for what happens. Action is the key. Whatever you plan to do, you do it in a timely fashion. Any promises you make to yourself or to your clients are kept because you enjoy the challenge of getting things done. You know the importance of promoting yourself as a business person and are active in doing just that.

2. Persistence

No one has ever succeeded without persistence. By focusing on exactly what you want to achieve as a celebrant you will be able to overcome the inevitable challenges that will come your way. You have the self-confidence in not only being ready to undertake a task, but to keep at it until it’s finished.

3. Planning

Essential requirement is that you know exactly the outcome you want in planning every step of the way. This includes making a detailed list of your immediate and long-term goals, and tackling them in an orderly fashion. Knowing where you want to go, and putting in place realistic initiatives which will take you there, is a necessary requirement.

4. Flexibility

Change is inevitable in every aspect of life. It is inevitable in your business. Accept it and use it to your advantage. While having a plan for your business so that you know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, continue to watch what’s happening around you, and revise your own methods and ideas so that you don’t get left behind.

5. Clear, creative and analytical thinking

You need to be an ideas person, aware of trends and fashions, working towards being the first, rather than the last to adopt new ways of celebrating various ceremonies. While as a celebrant you are a people person, as a business person you need to be logical and rational, and perhaps even a bit pragmatic. Feelings and sentimental thinking need to take second place to running your business as a financial success.

6. Communication skills

Celebrancy requires the skill of getting along with people. You need to enjoy working with your clients, networking with people in your industry, gaining their goodwill and support. Competence in human relations, including the ability to get along with others is imperative. Creating relationships with all the people you come in contact includes the ability to mix easily with people, be a person easy to get to know, and be a real asset in social situations. Ability to talk easily, and enjoying talking, is a real asset.

7. Able to describe the services you provide

Unlike tangible goods which customers can see, and hold and touch, your services are very much in the perception of the client. It is you who must be able to communicate the benefits and advantages of your services to the client. No matter how good, or even how much better you are than other celebrants, in order to sell your services to a client you must need to communicate this fact to her.

In effect, you are the product you’re selling. You must be able to communicate your differences from other officiants. Your enthusiasm and passion for what you’re doing. The experience and the training which makes you the professional you are. The qualities that make you and your services unique.

6. Confident

Since you are the product you’re selling, you need to be confident by knowing what you are about. You can only convince others by knowing and believing in your professionalism and your ability to provide quality service.

7. Reliable

Your clients, like everyone else, have experienced the frustration of calls that are never returned, the promised information that never arrives, the waste of time waiting for service people who might arrive today or tomorrow, or hopefully by the end of the week. As a successful business person, you never promise what you can’t deliver and you always try to deliver more than you promise.

8. Self-motivation

You need to believe in what you’re doing, in the way you’re doing it, and in your ability to achieve what you’ve set out to achieve. As a self-employed person it is not enough for you to merely have goals which you want to achieve. You must be able to motivate yourself to do whatever it takes to actively promote these goals. Planning is not enough. You need to be committed to what you’ve set out to do.

9. Business like

You might love dealing with people, but you must never lose sight of the fact that you’re running a business and not a charitable institution. Be financially responsible by charging fees that repay the time and money that you put into running your celebrancy business.

Initially, almost all people starting a new business are just a little embarrassed about asking for their fee, and worrying about the fee being too high. Unless you get over it very quickly, you won’t be running a business for too long.

10. Robust health

Look after your health. Celebrancy is about being on time and on the ball. Since stresses are inevitable, make sure you don’t succumb by taking care of yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. Make some rules about how you want to run your business and what time off you would like to have. Some celebrants choose not to perform ceremonies on public or religious holidays because they prefer to spend that time with their family and friends. Decide on your priorities so that you won’t feel that you are wholly controlled by your business.

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The cost of being a celebrant

Perhaps one of the things you need to ask yourself when you first begin to dream of becoming a celebrant is, ‘Can I actually earn an income as a celebrant?’

Some people are taking an early retirement in order to earn their living as a celebrant which is much more appealing than whatever they happen to be doing right now. But, unlike selling items in a shop, people will not decide to hold a ceremony just to satisfy your desire to earn a living as a celebrant. It is therefore important for you to recognize a few things, including:

1. It takes time

You are unlikely to make a large splash very quickly. It could be months before you are asked to perform your first ceremony. It could be years before you are making any money, let alone substantial amounts of money. It is important, therefore, that you don’t invest more money into your celebrancy business than you can easily afford, since the returns may be slow in coming.

2. Making an impact

Most businesses take up to five years before making an impact on the market.

In the case of ceremonies, there is not only a limited market, but more importantly, it is often limited to certain times – in the case of weddings, this is predominately on weekends. There are only so many week-ends, and there is only one of you.

3. Keeping your job

If you are seriously considering making celebrancy business your life, you might hold on to your current employment until you see how quickly you can generate income from your celebrancy business. Some people are so attracted by the perceived glamour and ease of being a celebrant, that they fail to consider the realities of the situation.

4. Generating an income

If you’re looking for financial independence, you’ve got to be a realist enough to know that you might fail to generate the hoped for income, and lose some of the money you’ve put aside as well. To succeed financially you need to do more than place an ad in the Yellow Pages advertising your availability. Before clients flock to you, you must understand the nature of your business, and who it is aimed at. Find out what it is about your services that is valuable and indispensable and then convince your clients that you have something that all the other celebrants can’t give them.

5. Independence

If you’re looking for the freedom of doing your own thing, you need to be aware that supplying clients’ needs must come before your own preferences. It is not useful to be a creative genius by offering your clients services that they don’t want.

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Chapter Two - Where to Start as a Celebrant

As a celebrant starting your own business, you will be in any number of different situations. You might be a legally appointed civil marriage celebrant who is yet to perform a marriage ceremony. Or your application may have been approved, but it will be yet another year or more before you are actually appointed as a civil marriage celebrant.

You might be one of those people who is not interested in being a legally appointed marriage celebrant, but, after performing a few general ceremonies for your friends, you really like the idea of being a celebrant for these social ceremonies. Or you have never performed a ceremony in your life, have little idea of what is involved, but you are definitely attracted to the idea of being a general celebrant.

Whatever your situation, if you’re definitely thinking of performing ceremonies, your next question will be, ‘Where do I start? What happens next?’

It doesn’t matter where you are. There is one thing you need to do while waiting for that first enquiry. Prepare. Don’t wait till you actually get an enquiry or a friend asks you to be a celebrant at his special event and then go into a spin because you have no idea of what to tell your prospective client.

Here are the questions you should have answers for long before you start telling the world that you’re ready, to help them celebrate their special occasions.

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Answering client’s questions

1. How much do you charge?

Even though at this stage you may not have worked out what fee will compensate you for the time involved in preparing and conducting a ceremony, you need to have a figure to offer the potential client. Check what other celebrants charge, and for the time being quote a similar figure. However, as soon as possible, work out what it’s costing you to prepare and conduct a ceremony and be prepared to explain how you arrived at that figure to the potential client.

2. What sort of ceremonies do you conduct?

Some officiants choose to become expert in providing service in one type of ceremony before offering to perform a whole range of other ceremonies. What you decide on will depend on your ability, training, and confidence. If you know that the information is available, even though you haven’t been thinking of that particular ceremony, you might choose to accept the booking and then find the resources for it.

3. Where would you suggest would be a good place to hold a ceremony?

As soon as you decide on being a celebrant you should investigate the public parks and gardens in your locality, where ceremonies are being conducted. Check out also local reception centres and clubs which have suitable venues.

4. Do you provide a ceremony venue?

How many people does it accommodate, and what are your charges?

It is unlikely that you will be ready to offer a private venue of your own in the early stages of your celebrancy business, but it will do you no harm to discover which of the local officiants do actually have a venue of their own. Be prepared to recommend the particular celebrant or at least let the client know of his existence. At the same time, discuss with the client different public venues that you are familiar with and suggest that the client looks at those if he decides that the officiant’s venue is not quite what he is looking for.

After this, ring the celebrant himself, informing him that you have recommended his venue and could you have a look at it so that you will be able to know how to explain it to the next potential client who is looking for a n officiant with a venue. This will give you an opportunity of seeing the venue and deciding whether you, too, can do something similar in your home. This might be your first step in networking with other celebrants.

5. Do you have sample ceremonies for me to choose from?

This is the easiest part of your preparation, and you certainly should begin preparing the ceremony material once you have decided to become a celebrant. If you’ve joined a celebrants’ association, you may be able to get standard ceremonies from the more experienced officiants. Otherwise the Internet is full of ceremony samples that you can adapt for your own purpose.

6. How far will you travel to conduct a ceremony?

If you haven’t given too much thought to that question, draw a circle around your locality, and choose a distance that you think you’ll be happy to travel within. Learn a little about the various locations so that you sound as though you know what you’re doing when you need to discuss it.

7. What are your traveling charges?

To find out what the normal traveling fee is, contact other celebrants, or your accountant. Some celebrants choose to have an inclusive fee, and simply factor their traveling fee into the complete fee. If this is what you intend to do, quote a figure, explaining that this covers everything to do with the ceremony including traveling fee of a particular distance.

8. What is the total range of the services you provide?

If you’re only providing one type of ceremony, dissect everything that goes into that ceremony when explaining it to the potential client. If you are performing a whole range of ceremonies, you may enumerate these to show your versatility. And you never know, the wedding ceremony you perform this year, might be followed by a naming ceremony two years later.

9. What are your appointment hours?

Daytime, night time, week-days, week-ends? Here you need to consider your particular situation. Are you a full-time worker? Do you share accommodation with your family and have only limited access to a suitable room? Do you have other commitments which limit you in some way? Work this out beforehand so that you know exactly what to tell the client.

10. Do you have an office?

Celebrants who are not quite ready to have clients in their home might like to offer to visit the client in his home. Have a serious thought as to how far you’re prepared to travel and how this affects your fee. On the other hand, there’s nothing to stop you suggesting some neutral place convenient for you both, which will cut down on your travel. You often see a bit of business going on in the isolated corners of popular coffee shops. Nothing to stop you from doing the same until such time as you’ve worked out the most suitable appointment venue.

11. Do you charge for these initial appointments?

You’ll have to take into consideration whether this appointment will take place at your office or in a private home? Normally officiants think of this first appointment as their opportunity to convince the client that the celebrant is the right one for them. You might think of it as a customer dropping in at a shop to see what’s there. If they see what they like, they will buy.

12. How long do these appointments usually last?

Before you can know how long an appointment will last, you need to decide what exactly the appointment will consist of. If you’re already pretty busy you may time this appointment to an hour or so, and have your script ready to give the client all the necessary information. If you’re just starting, you might think of this appointment as both a business and a networking event where you can show the potential client both your business and your social skills.

13. When do you perform the ceremonies?

Do you perform ceremonies during working hours, at night, weekends, public holidays? You might feel that your family commitments are more important than performing ceremonies.

For example, it might be your practice to spend your time with your family on such public holidays as Christmas Day, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Work out your priorities. You don’t have to perform a ceremony on a day that you have something else planned.

14. Do you have different charges for different times?

Do you have different charges for different times, including public holidays? If you decide to perform ceremonies on public holidays, but charge an extra fee, how are you intending to set that fee? While it is easy to decide to charge double fee, or whatever, when asked to perform a ceremony on a public holiday, you need to explain the reason for it.

Some of these questions can’t be answered just by thinking about them and will be looked at later in the book. For the moment we will tackle those things that you can prepare for long before you are ready to conduct your first ceremony.

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Compiling resources for the ceremonies

Getting together the resources for compiling a ceremony is something that you can do irrespective of how far down the line you are in conducting your very first one. No matter how brilliant a speaker you are, most people expect more from a ceremony than for you to turn up and be your off-the-cuff brilliant self.

On the contrary, usually they want to have some idea of the meaning of the ceremony itself, and have some input into it. You will need to know what you’re doing, instead of just winging it on the day, and also be able to explain to the client what you’ll be doing.

Every officiant assures the clients that they can have the type of ceremony they want. But this sort of promise is unhelpful unless the client is actually given some idea of what that means. For every client who will research his own ceremony and brings it complete to the celebrant, there will be many more who have no idea what they want and expect the officiant to help them select an appropriate ceremony. This the celebrant can only do if he has resources to share with the client.

So one of the first things a celebrant should do is gather appropriate material for his sample folder. The type of material the celebrant will choose will depend on the type of ceremonies he intends to conduct.

Trained officiants will already have some idea of how to gather the necessary material by understanding the origin of the ceremony, as well as knowing where to find the various material pertaining to these ceremonies.

Celebrants, who have no training besides their ability to perform well in public, will need to research the ceremonies which they hope to conduct.

With some ceremonies this will be easy. If you intend to be a funeral officiant or a baby naming celebrant, for example, you might get hold of religious books which will include formal rituals for those ceremonies used by the minister concerned. This will be for example purposes only to show the officiant how the ceremony flows from the introduction, through the hymns and prayers, specific rituals such as cleansing with water and anointing with oil, various blessings and the conclusion.

Spending a few hours on the Internet is bound to uncover some material useful for what you want to do. And then there are books in shops or in libraries full of poems and inspirational material. Even at a newsagent store some of the cards for different occasions will help you find something useful.

Tell your friends far and wide that you’re a celebrant and ask them to keep for you any mementos they collect when attending ceremonies. You might start with the invitations themselves. They will give you an idea of themes, colours, graphics, fonts and venues clients tend to choose. Ask your friends also to collect any programs of the event so that you can adapt them as part of your own repertoire of samples.

No matter what the ceremony – blessing of a house, or naming of a baby - there is an underlying reason for it. And the ceremony is used to recognize or highlight the significance of the ceremony. To be truly meaningful, the ceremony must include something of value.

Crafting a ceremony in a meaningful and creative way, will include a number of elements. It may begin with a theme which will permeate the whole ceremony. For example, in a baby naming ceremony the theme might be the communities’ commitment to the welfare and growth of this new human being, as represented by relatives and friends of the baby’s family.

Any reading or songs or symbolic rituals might be used to inspire or encourage an attitude of concern for the baby.

To help to put across the message in a dramatic fashion, some of the elements of the ceremony might be the lighting of candles or offering of gifts, or some ritual to give dramatic visual aspect to the ceremony. All actions and readings should be rehearsed so that they performed naturally, and are clearly understood by those gathered around.

In every ceremony there is usually a high point expressing the whole reason for the ceremony, and an ending that is completely natural and expected. In a wedding, this will be the exchanging of vows as a commitment made by the partners to each other, and the exchanging of rings as a concrete symbol of those vows.

Simply, a ceremony will have an introduction to explain the purpose of the ceremony and to catch the attention of those present. This will be followed by the body of the ceremony developing the theme and building towards a climax which may very well be a symbolic ritual. Then the conclusion which summarises what has gone before.

When thinking about the ceremony, you might like to consider it in terms of:

1. The theme or purpose of the ceremony

1. What resources you will need to be make this theme or purpose come alive – readings, songs, rituals

2. Any cultural or religious implications

3. What people will be involved

4. Any need for specific settings or props – tables for candles, receptacles for flowers or ribbons

5. Audio equipment to ensure that everyone hears the words of the ceremony

6. A rehearsal to make sure those involved know exactly what is going to happen

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Preparing sample ceremonies

The concept of ceremonies implies an occasion or occurrence important enough for people to want to celebrate.

Some ceremonies are formal with hundreds of people in attendance. Others are less formal with just a few guests, or perhaps no guests at all. Just two witnesses. A celebrant must regard each one as important and treat every ceremony with the utmost respect.

Many people find it difficult to express their inner feelings even to themselves. Let alone a celebrant who they have only just met.

A celebrant should not be taken in by a prospective groom or bride who shrug the ceremony off a something they might as well have. Seemingly attaching little importance to it.

It is the celebrant’s task to draw out their true feelings and embody them into the ceremony.

Just because the clients have difficulty expressing themselves does not mean that the officiant should be any less conscientious in the way the ceremony is prepared and presented.

Whether the celebrant’s mode of operation is serious or light-hearted, the ceremony should be given careful consideration both in its compilation and its presentation.

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Compiling ceremony folders

There are a number of ways celebrants can present the ceremony material to their clients. They can put together half a dozen different styles of ceremonies, complete from the introduction to the conclusion, in one folder, from which clients choose the one ceremony which appeals to them most. In order to inject personal and individual interests or sentiments, the client should be allowed to make any changes in wording which makes the ceremony meaningful for him.

When preparing for a wedding ceremony, the ceremonies might be put together for the young couple marrying for the first time, the couple marrying again, possibly with children from a former marriage, and the mature couple. For the baby naming ceremony, the ceremony might give consideration to ceremony of the first child and first grandchild, the baby who has siblings, the baby of a single mum, or even the baby who has been adopted.

Apart from collecting whole ceremonies for different situations, the celebrant might choose to store the material divided into various segments from which a ceremony is compiled. This might include:

1. Introductions/greetings

2. Conclusions

3. Readings

4. Cultural and Ethnic traditions

5. Various symbolisms

6. Songs or hymns

7. Blessings

8. Rituals

In the beginning, when your financial resources are slim, you might be inclined to offer a very small selection of material. However, be aware, that all clients are getting more savvy about what is around, and do a lot of shopping before making their choice. So be constantly on the lookout to increase the resources you’re offering to the client.

As your resources grow, you can subdivide your broad segments into smaller compilations. For example, in the case of introductions for a marriage ceremony, you might end up with introductions for young couples marrying for the first time, introductions for couples previously married, introductions for couples with children from current or former relationships. You might even include introductions based on themes such as a ceremony held at the beach, at dawn, at the beginning of spring, or at night when the moon is at its brightest.

Similarly, in the matter of readings or rituals, these can also be subdivided under appropriate headings. For the rituals this could include candle lighting, exchanging roses, handfasting, scattering of rose petals, water blessing etc., For the readings, these could be under such headings as love poems, poems about marriage, inspirational poems etc.

For the baby naming ceremony you might compile readings appropriate for parents to state their intentions towards their child, readings for grandparents on the joy of being a grandparent, and more general readings of inspirational, spiritual, or practical nature.

Whether you decide to present your material as complete ceremonies, or as segments which go into making up a ceremony, have them bound in an attractive manner. If you have desktop publishing facilities, create and print out the front cover in an attractive and appropriate way.

If you are into the Internet – and who can afford not to be – make a point of spending couple of hours a week to search the web for free, and highly attractive fonts and graphics with which to make your samples attractive.

Every ceremony, because it involves different people, should be unique. So apart from giving the client the most extensive resources the officiant can, he should take every opportunity to allow the client to tell his own story. Finding out why the client wants the ceremony in the first place, why he has chosen the setting or involved the particular people in the ceremony, why he wants to include the particular material that he has chosen, will help the celebrant to help the client personalize the ceremony to suit his particular situation.

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Producing ceremony programs

This brings us to the point of ceremony programs. Should a celebrant provide everyone with a ceremony program so that friends and relatives can follow the ceremony proceedings?

Although paper and printing of programs is expensive, providing each guest with a ceremony program is worth considering. Especially in the case of ceremonies that are strange to the people concerned, the ceremony program allows them to participate in a way which just listening to the ceremony won’t do. It is also a way of educating these same people who are being exposed to the ceremony for the first time. Today they are onlookers, tomorrow they might be your clients.

The other reason for providing everyone with a ceremony program is more self-serving. In printing out the ceremony program, your name, as the presiding celebrant, will figure prominently on the cover and throughout the ceremony itself. It is one way of advertising yourself without seeming to do so.

This, of course, presupposes that you have a computer and a printer and intend compiling and printing the programs yourself. Some clients, who are computer literate, will be happy to set out the ceremony, and even provide you with appropriate graphics. For the most part, though, you’ll be on your own. You can start off with a few templates to show your client, adding to these as your business expands.

Needless to say, if you can’t provide this service yourself, the most you should do, by way of self promotion, is compile one program for the clients themselves. You can do this by either having the copy prepared by someone with a computer and a printer, or ask a professional to do it for you. Make this a highly decorative copy that the recipients will want to keep as a memento of the occasion. You might even like to provide a presentation folder and include in this not only the program of the ceremony, but also the appropriate certificate.

In the matter of how many programs you need to prepare for the individual ceremony, on the one hand you will want to make sure that you have enough. On the other, you don’t want to have them running out of your ears. Just remember that when you ask clients how many guests will be present at the ceremony, they are more than likely to give you the maximum number of people whom they’ve invited or who they think will attend.

The actual number that attends might be significantly smaller. The other thing to remember is that many of those attending will be couples and children. Supplying about two thirds of the number the client quotes, will probably cover all those people who really want to keep the program. The rule of thumb is, that if guest number is small, you should have enough for everyone. If the number of guests is large, a substantial number will not want one, or will be happy to share with a partner.

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Drafting ceremony certificates

As a marriage celebrant you will be purchasing standard marriage certificates issued by the appropriate authorities. In the past, many celebrants chose to have the certificates completed in calligraphy by hand.

With the advent of personal computers and printers, celebrants can complete the details in a variety of attractive fonts by using templates to place the information in the right place. There are now companies which will provide computer software specifically designed for the marriage celebrant. However, by dint of perseverance, you can create a template of your own to help you place the text in the right position on the certificate. With regards to the fonts, there are many websites which allow you to download numerous attractive and unusual fonts for free. Take advantage of them, but make sure that they are readable on the certificate itself.

In the matter of other ceremonies, celebrants have the opportunity of creating personal certificates, decorating them with attractive fonts, and appropriate graphic, and making them uniquely your own.

They can adapt the formal wording of the marriage certificate, or work-place certificate, or create wording suitable for the particular situation. Some of these will be Renewal of Vows which might also mark a wedding anniversary, or Baby Naming which might take place on the baby’s birthday.

The place to look for ceremony templates will be on the Internet, and stationery shops. Check also with various celebrants’ associations, some of whom have certificates for the more common ceremonies such as Commitment, Renewal or Naming ceremony. Usually these will be comparatively plain, so that creating your own certificates will be worthwhile and fulfilling.

Consider also whether you want to personalize the certificates for the different participants. Using the naming ceremony as an example, you might create one type of certificate for the Godparents, another one for the Grandparents, and another one still for the baby. You might even produce a certificate for all the guests as a memento of their being present at the ceremony.

Similarly, if you are performing a naming ceremony for a brother or a sister of a child whose ceremony you performed some years ago, you might like to do something different with these certificates. Instead of each grandparent receiving the exact type of certificate that they received at the naming ceremony of their previous grandchild, you might like to change the look of the certificate by using a different border or a different graphic or a different font.

The easiest form of personalization of all ceremonies, is the inclusion of photographs. The venue might suggest other differences; sea elements for a beach ceremony; the theme of the day when it is linked with something easily recognisable. For example, a baby naming may take place on the child’s birthday, so that the decorative motif of the certificate may have something to do with birthday themes. Similarly, a renewal of vows or a commitment ceremony can focus on the day it took place – wedding anniversary, St Valentine’s Day, birthday or birthplace of one of the partners.

In preparation, create half a dozen certificates and place them in a folder for your clients’ selection. Try different wording and different graphics on each one. Continue to add to your folder.

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Cost of stationery

When you first begin your career as a celebrant you might be happy to purchase your bits of stationery anywhere and everywhere. However, as soon as you have some idea of what sort of stationery you need on a regular basis, do a little research. Buying small amounts of envelopes or copy paper from a local newsagent may be a lot more expensive than buying it in a slightly larger quantities at an office supply shop. If you see paper that you like that is being sold by sheets, and you’re intending to use a lot of it, ask if you can buy it in 50 or hundred sheet bundles and see if you can get a discount on it.

If you are supplying your services in a remote area and use the post office stationery, check out if there is any discount on bulk buying. For example, the express overnight bags will cost you a little less if you buy them in ten lots, than if you buy them singly. If you are using them constantly, think of buying more and paying a little less in the long term.

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Suitable stationery

If you’re trying different types of decorative papers with unusual finish for your program covers or for your certificates, buy single sheets first to try out how they will print on your computer. Some of these shiny or metallic finishes, though suitable for all sorts of home printers, won’t give you as sharp finish as a less treated paper.

The most popular sized stationery is in the A4 category. You’ll find yourself using it for your certificates, correspondence, programs, and covers for programs and booklets. You’ll probably notice that there are a lot of decorative paper around which comes in different sizes. If you want to go to that trouble, buy yourself a paper trimmer which will allow you to cut the stationery to fit whatever size you need.

You will also find the trimmer useful if you want to try your hand in designing and printing your own business cards. Instead of printing on those pre designed business card paper, you can use any sort of paper, and then cut it into appropriate sizes. You might even consider laminating the page before cutting it up to give your cards more durability.

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Equipment used in a Ceremony

If you’re an appointed marriage celebrant, you know that part of your professional performance is to be heard when conducting a marriage ceremony. In many small, informal weddings – especially those being held indoors - being heard will not be a problem for the celebrant who has some public speaking experience. When the venue might require amplification, the celebrant will either advise the couple that they should hire a system for the day, or provide a PA system himself.

Ceremonies like baby naming are not nearly as formal as weddings so as a general celebrant whether you decide to invest in a PA system is very much a personal choice. However, there are such general ceremonies like the renewal of vows and the commitment ceremony which might be conducted with very much the same formality as a wedding. Under such circumstances, being heard by the guests will be just as important, and as expected, as it is for a wedding ceremony.

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What sort of PA system should you choose?

For the celebrant the best PA systems will be a portable one, since often you won’t be able to park close to your venue. Sometimes you might be parked quite a distance away so anything that isn’t portable is not an option unless you have a partner willing and able to carry your PA system for you.

Before deciding on any one particular piece, ask for literature from the various manufacturers or retail outlets. Check with friends and establishments who use PA systems. If you know any celebrants who are using a system for their ceremonies, ask for their advice. The options are many, prices varying from hundreds to thousands of dollars, so be exhaustive in your research.

Ideally the PA system should allow you to move around. However, don’t be