What is included for your fee?

A question that comes up frequently is “what does your fee include?”. This is an excellent question and one that should be posed to all of your wedding suppliers to ensure you are getting good value for money.

For you to achieve the individuality of your wedding ceremony you are striving for you must choose a wedding celebrant who is the very best that you can afford and who is the perfect match for you.

This does not mean that the most expensive celebrant will be the best for you. Equally nor will the cheapest. Do not choose your celebrant on cost alone.

To truly understand the cost of a wedding celebrant you have to understand exactly what they do in the first place. This is the only way that you’ll see that the value they offer, matches the price that they ask.

Contrary to popular belief the job of a wedding celebrant is not just about turning up on the day and presenting a wedding ceremony. There is a whole lot more to it.

With a fully trained professional wedding celebrant such as myself you will achieve a ceremony that is completely unique and will fulfil that brief of personalisation and authenticity.

One of the main differences between a wedding celebrant and a registrar is the relationship. You will meet your registrar for the first time on the day of your wedding whereas with a wedding celebrant we will work closely together in the lead up to your wedding, sometimes months before. The reason being is that for a wedding celebrant to create the personalised ceremony of your dreams they need to get to know you both well.

With a wedding celebrant you must trust them and feel relaxed and happy to share personal elements of your lives and amusing anecdotes. Your wedding celebrant will use all the information they have personalisation gleaned from you at these meetings to craft your ceremony.

Of all your wedding suppliers it will be your wedding celebrant who will definitely know you best of all. On the day of your wedding, you will not be strangers. A professional wedding celebrant can invest up to 20 hours work on a ceremony and a fair amount of that time is in preparation.

They are personally invested in your wedding and this work done in the background prior to your wedding is what will result in a fabulous wedding ceremony experience for you and your guests.

The list of work that follows is by no means definitive but describes some or most of activities that a wedding celebrant carries out.

• Getting to know you and your partner through in-person meetings, telephone calls and video chats

• Providing an in-depth questionnaire with specific questions relating to you both (and your ceremony)

• Planning, research and writing your ceremony (with unlimited revisions)

• Offering guidance and support on vow, readings, music and completing your M10 form

• Co-ordinating and collaborating with other wedding suppliers on the day and in advance if necessary

• Liaising where necessary with the wedding venue

The results of all this preparation are all too clear during the 40 minutes or so of your wedding ceremony.

As a guest you’ll notice how relaxed and happy the couple are. How well-crafted and super personal the ceremony is, reflecting their story, their relationships with friends and family their personalities and also plenty of laughter.

None of this can be achieved without investing considerable time in the preparation and this will be reflected with a wedding ceremony that is memorable for its personalisation and remarkable for its sincerity and authenticity.