Frequently Asked Questions

A registrar is allocated to you by the local council to your chosen wedding venue (should it be a licensed wedding venue). You will be sent a service script to choose your ceremony from which is pretty formal and regimented and while it may allow you to add readings but doesn’t leave much room for personalisation or to add material with religious or spiritual content. Furthermore, many couples do not get to meet their registrar prior to their wedding day, meaning they haven’t had that chance to get to know you both and also need to work to set time slot allocations as they perform several weddings on the same day.
As a celebrant I will work with you from the first appointment through to the end of your ceremony, coordinating the proceedings and sharing your love story with your guests in attendance. Working with a professional celebrant allows you to create a ceremony that best reflects you as a couple and can be held at any time of day in any location, with the legal paperwork signed separately as mentioned below. I will spend time to get to know you at our meetings and provide you with a couples questionnaire to complete before I begin working on your bespoke wedding ceremony script. I like to find out your interests, beliefs and wishes as a couple for your future together.

There are no restrictions! (…within reason ;-p) Day or night, indoors or outdoors, up a mountain, on a beach or in your living room at home, we will work together to create the perfect ceremony for you. Upon booking my service I will gift you with a booklet that I have created full of sample ceremonies to help guide you through what you might like included for your own ceremony.
A popular ceremony choice is to follow a traditional structure with a welcome, introduction, vows, ring exchange and a kiss but the fun part is adding in all of your own personalisation around this such as readings, couple’s story, rituals and family traditions. I like to talk through ideas with you and provide suggestions, such as a time capsule box, unity candle, sand blending or even mixing a cocktail (as one of my couples did) but ultimately it is up to you. I also like to help my couples to write their own personalised vows if they wish to.

A celebrant led wedding ceremony is personalised, symbolic and special but not legally binding. Your guests in attendance will be non the wiser unless you tell them and to be honest with you i’ve had so many couples tell me that since their wedding friends and family have asked them how the celebrant knew them so well as the ceremony was perfect for them!
For a couple to legally marry in the UK they must register their notice of intent to marry with their local register office a minimum of two weeks prior to their chosen marriage date and no more than one year prior. Many couples (including myself and my now husband) choose to sign the legal paper work in the weeks leading up to their wedding so that they are legally married once the celebrant led ceremony and their wedding day takes place. You can do this at any chosen UK registerary office of your choice and it is called a statuary ceremony and costs around £45 per person. You will need to bring along two witnesses with you and its a lovely simple legally binding ceremony within the registrars office.