What is an Independent Celebrant?
An Independent Celebrant is someone who will write and officiate ceremonies for the momentous events in people’s lives.
There are different types of Celebrant and officials who can perform these roles.
I trained through the Academy of Modern Celebrancy which is a fantastic training body who encourage each celebrant to be themselves and each course delves deep to ensure that each of their qualified celebrants is ready to provide the best, individualised ceremonies.
Independent Celebrant
I am an Independent Celebrant which means your ceremony will truly be a celebration of you and your special event.
An Independent Celebrant will take the time to get to know about you and your relationship and/or family and ask you relevant questions so that they can write your personalised script for your special day.
An Independent Celebrant led ceremony can be held anywhere and has no limitations on what can be included or said. Any faith, religion, spiritual beliefs or secular beliefs etc can be included in an Independent Celebrant led ceremony. You really can have your ceremony your way. This means that you are able to include any symbolic elements that you wish, such as handfasting, a sand ceremony or even a cocktail ceremony…the possibilities are endless!
A celebrant led wedding is currently not a legally binding marriage. There is a marriage reform proposal going through parliament at the moment which may enable celebrants to legally marry people in the future but that is still a while off unfortunately. However, this does mean that you do not have to be confined to a licenced wedding venue for your wedding ceremony. Most people who choose to have a celebrant led wedding decide to have a small registry office marriage ceremony a week or two before their bigger wedding ceremony. Some people refer to this as their “wedmin” (wedding admin) and often it involves just the couple and their two witnesses (known as a “2 by 2” ceremony). This can be done at any point before or after your Celebrant led wedding.
Humanist Celebrant
A Humanist Celebrant is a Celebrant who conducts non-religious ceremonies. A Humanist is someone who purely believes in the human experience and not any religious or spiritual elements therefore they can’t include any of these elements in their ceremonies. An Independent Celebrant however, is able to include whichever elements you should wish in your ceremonies be it religious, non-religious or spiritual etc. as long as all parties involved are happy and feel comfortable with the arrangement.
A Humanist Celebrant can still write bespoke ceremonies and create a beautiful celebration. Currently all Celebrant led weddings are not legally binding so would require having the legal ceremony at a registry office separately too.
Registrar Ceremonies
Registrar led ceremonies can be beautiful and meaningful, however, there are many more restrictions to bear in mind. For reference I got married in a licensed hotel venue with a registrar officiating the ceremony. I have fond memories of our wedding day, however, if I knew then what I know now I definitely would have gone with an Independent Celebrant led ceremony.
Registrar led wedding ceremonies must be held in licensed venues and they have a set wedding script that they must follow which cannot be adapted and personalised other than your name. It is very unlikely that you would get to meet your registrar more than a few minutes before the ceremony and the registrar is usually on a tight time schedule as they will have multiple weddings in any one day.
A registrar led ceremony is non-religious. It is possible to make these ceremonies a bit more personalised with a reading, poem or music but these should only be considered secular.
A registrar led ceremony in a licensed venue is legally binding so that is a positive, but it puts a lot of restrictions on where and when you get married.