Why Hire A Celebrant To Officiate Your Wedding?

We’ve all been to weddings where the ceremony was awkward. Maybe a nervous friend of the couple was officiating who you couldn’t really hear or a stranger went off on a tangent and then pronounced your friend’s names wrong. Whatever you’ve witnessed, we all know a rough ceremony when we hear one and it can set the tone for the rest of the celebration. Imagine instead that there is a confident, warm presence presiding over the ceremony. You laugh, you cry, you go “awww” with recognition at the universality of love reflected in the personalized love story. And for the rest of the celebration, everyone is walking around in a buzzing afterglow, feeling connected to the couple and the deeper meaning of this day. That is the power of a ceremony officiated by a Celebrant. 

Diana Ascarrunz Photography

A Celebrant is a highly trained officiant.

Celebrants are as diverse as the types of ceremonies, cultures, beliefs, and countries that we officiate for. US-based Celebrants are highly trained through the Celebrant Institute & Foundation, where we are certified in the art of ritual and storytelling. We officiate weddings, funerals, baby ceremonies, job loss ceremonies, trauma healing circles, and so much more. Celebrants have been at the forefront of LGBTQ+ inclusion in the wedding industry, fighting for marriage equality and advocating for more inclusive practices in ceremony. We work at the tipping points of life’s biggest moments. We see transitions as fertile ground for connection, grieving, healing, and meaning-making. We love to get creative, we love to break out of the box, we love to follow the inspiration that leads us to our client’s deepest truths.

We are here to honor your transitions.

We are here to help you tell your stories.

We are here to hold a container for you and your community, as you cross life’s most important thresholds. 

Sounds pretty deep huh? If you were looking for an officiant to plug your names into a script and stay inside the box of tradition, then a Celebrant wedding may not be for you. But if you’ve ever wondered if there was something more powerful that could be achieved with a wedding ceremony, if it didn’t have to reinforce patriarchal traditions, if your guests could be active participants who are entertained and inspired instead of checking their phones to see how much longer it is until cocktail hour, then a Celebrant ceremony might just be for you.

Monique Rodriguez Photography

When it comes down to it, the officiant you select will have a significant impact on your wedding day.

No other vendor will talk to literally every one of your guests or be such a public part of your day. This is the person who will be on your marriage certificate and they will be the one tasked with telling your story to your gathered community. Maybe you’ve got a friend who is up to the task but if you don’t have that friend in mind, know that working with a Celebrant can still feel like a friend is marrying you but they just happen to be a professional officiant too. 

Because Celebrants are highly trained and our process is so personalized, our fees are higher than those of traditional officiants. We spend A LOT of time getting to know our couples through interviews, questionnaires, and research. This is not an officiant you just talk to once. This is someone who is there to guide you along in the process of your engagement, someone to help you reflect on your journey and think about creative ways you can infuse your personalities into the wedding ceremony. It’s custom to the max. All in all, we usually spend between 10-20 hours working with you to create a unique wedding ceremony. And really, when you think about it, this is the vendor who will set the tone for your wedding day. Is this the place to save a few bucks and go with the most affordable officiant? Only you can make that decision. Listen to your intuition and your priorities. There is no wrong answer. Each wedding is unique. Whatever you choose, make sure that you go with someone who you click with, who listens carefully to your wishes and respects your vision for your celebration. 

If a meaningful, personalized ceremony is a priority for your wedding day then consider investing in the process of ceremony creation alongside a Celebrant. Many of the details of your wedding day may fade away with time but what you and your guests will remember is the feeling of that day; how it began in the ceremony space and spilled over into the rest of the evening, where you all basked in the glow of love and the hope of beginnings. Sounds like a great way to start a marriage to me.

If you’d like to learn more about working with me, please reach out. I’d love to meet you!

Big love,

Emily

Lauren Miles Photography