Your Guide to Celebrant Wedding Ceremonies
Introducing Roxy Hayde of Roxy Celebrates Love
I’m delighted to introduce Roxy Hayde of Roxy Celebrates Love, a Brighton and London based humanist wedding celebrant!
Celebrant-led wedding ceremonies have exploded in popularity in the last few years. In 2023 alone, they have been searched for almost 50% more on Google. Industry reports in publications like Hitched consider them a key trend for 2024.
But first, what actually IS a celebrant-led wedding?!
What is a celebrant led wedding?
Traditionally, there have been two major ways to get married. Either in a registry office/by a registrar in your venue of choice, or as part of a religious ceremony.
Registrar-led weddings are infamously impersonal – the registrar reads from a standardised script with little flexibility, and the process can sometimes feel rather “insert couples name here.” Plus, you only meet the person who is marrying you for the first time a few minutes ahead of walking down the aisle.
If the main content in a registrar ceremony is the law, then the overarching theme in a religious service is God, rather than the couple themselves. Unless you are in fact religious, getting married in the church to conform with tradition can feel inauthentic for many.
If both options feel a little limited, a celebrant-led wedding is the third way.
A celebrant ceremony celebrates the couple and puts them at the forefront of arguably the most important moment of the day. A celebrant will spend time getting to know you and working with you over a long period of time to create a deeply personalised, bespoke modern wedding ceremony script that reflects you both.
They create ceremonies that tell your story as a couple. From when you first met to all the stories and anecdotes that make you you; a celebrant will help create a memorable one-of-a-kind moment that is guaranteed to have all your guests talking afterwards – for all the right reasons.
All celebrants are different and have varying styles. I work to inject humour, personality, fun and love (alongside a healthy dose of tears, of course.)
A celebrant-led ceremony kicks the day off on the right footing and sets the tone for the party that follows. Instead of the ceremony being the boring bit - where people are waiting for the bar to open and the fun to really begin – people will be engaged from the off.
What are the other benefits of having a celebrant wedding?
Aside from getting to be the curator of your own big moment, wow your guests and leave them talking about how it’s the best ceremony they’ve ever seen, there are tons of other benefits, too.
Firstly - you can have a celebrant-led wedding ceremony absolutely anywhere. Whether that’s in your garden, up a mountain, in a field. Because you don’t need a licensed venue to for a celebrant to marry you, it opens the door to the countless number of unlicensed wedding venues. These are often cheaper and can prove a giant cost saving on an expensive day. Or you can, of course, get married in a license venue too – the world is your oyster.
Having a relationship with the person marrying you is also invaluable. Nerves are often running high by the time you walk down the aisle, but having a friendly person you know can help calm any anxiety.
What’s included in a celebrant ceremony?
Overall, the arc of the ceremony is what you’d expect in a wedding, in as much as the key moments are all hit – the vows, pronouncement, first kiss etc. Because every couple is unique, no two ceremonies are ever the same. And within all of that, every element is deeply personalised. Your celebrant will work with you closely to write your story, which sits at the heart of the ceremony.
Couples often write their own vows, and if you’d like to you can bring different symbolic acts into the ceremony. Celebrant weddings often involve bringing in guest participation, whether that’s with poems, song or more unique ways to get your friends, family, kids or dog involved in your big moment.
Is a celebrant ceremony legally binding?
Currently, celebrant-led ceremonies aren’t legally binding. There is lots of noise happening in parliament at the moment that suggests humanist wedding ceremonies will be legally recognised in England and Wales soon, as they currently are in Scotland and Ireland. But for now, you must do the “legal bit” separately.
How do I do the “legal bit'“ if a celebrant marries me?
There are many ways to do this. The legal component of getting married is actually very straight forward.
Many couples book in a “2+2 Ceremony” at the registry office. It costs as little as £40 midweek and consists of signing the register and declaring you are legally able to marry with 2 witnesses present. The legal part of getting married is as simple as that.
Some people do a whole mini-ceremony in the registry office with parents or the bridal party the day before their big celebrant-led wedding day.
Others have a registrar come out to their venue earlier in the day, ahead of their celebrant-led wedding, and get the legal bit done there and then.
Whenever and however you do the legal part, consistent feedback from couples suggests that it doesn’t take away from your celebrant-led ceremony. Couples celebrate their “big” wedding day, with all their friends and family surrounding, as their anniversary.
How do the costs compare with having a registrar marry you?
Having a registrar come out to marry you in your venue of choice can cost over £1000 in London, and over £700 in East Sussex.
Humanists UK states that the cost of celebrants varies from £550-£1500. This is often dependent on location and style of celebrant.
When you consider than you can do the legal part in the registry office for around £40 and have a celebrant marry you on the day itself, any cost difference is often a bit of a no-brainer. The added value you get with a celebrant, including making your wedding day memorable, joyful and truly entertaining for your guests, is hard to put a price on.
How to go about finding a celebrant?
As with finding any good wedding supplier, it’s important to do your research. Instagram is often a good source for celebrants, as is the “Find a Celebrant” tool on the Humanists UK site, and platforms like the Celebrant Directory. Importantly, look at reviews, read testimonials and look at photos of previous ceremonies performed by your shortlisted celebrants.
Meet with a few until you’ve found one you really gel with and trust to tell your story in the way it should be told. Not all celebrants are the same, find someone who chimes with your values and outlook. Whether it’s a humanist celebrant or an independent celebrant, there are lots to choose from.
How far in advance do I need to book a celebrant?
Celebrants have never been more popular, and good wedding suppliers often get booked up years in advance. To ensure you aren’t disappointed and get to work with your celebrant of choice, it’s best to book them as soon as you have your venue secured.
Hopefully this article has been helpful, and you’ve learnt more about the wonderful world of celebrant weddings. Working with a celebrant is a sure-fire way to upgrade your wedding day no end.
If you’d like to find out more about Roxy and how she works, get in touch…
Website: https://www.roxycelebrateslove.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxycelebrateslove