The life of a Celebrant is varied, fun and every day is different.
But what does a typical day look like?
Let's take a look.
Photo by Rachel Clarke Photography
6.30am
My rottweiler Bear wakes me up with a paw to the face desperate for his breakfast. I make myself a coffee and check my emails. I often get emails late night from couples as this is the only downtime they get to arrange wedding plans. I try to answer emails the same day if I can, but usually switch off my phone before 11pm to ensure I get a good nights sleep.
9am
After walking Bear and having breakfast I head to my home office to deal with any enquiries from my website and schedule my social media posts for the day. I often post photos of past wedding ceremonies, styled photo shoots or quotes that can be used as vows during ceremonies to give inspiration.
10am
I'm currently working on a first draft of ceremony, so I spend some time reading through our emails, studying their couples quiz answers and creating a spider diagram of ideas for their ceremony. I always start with an order of ceremony and work out the logistics of the ceremony including any readings or symbolic actions and then start to write the bare bones of the ceremony first, before adding in the flavour! It usually takes me several days to write a ceremony draft, diving in and out of the narrative and making sure I'm completely happy with it before I send it off to the couple for their feedback.
12.30pm
I head to the kitchen to make some lunch and scroll Instagram and Facebook whilst I eat. I always like or comment on other local suppliers posts who I have worked with and recommend to couples. As a small business myself I always try to support other small businesses and have made lots of friends in other suppliers who I regularly work with at wedding fairs or at weddings. We're a friendly bunch who all have a passion for weddings and helping couples create a kick-ass wedding celebration. I feel lucky to be a part of this industry.
1pm
I head out to meet a couple who contacted me regarding their wedding in a few months time. Everybody has different time lines when it comes to wedding planning. Some couples contact me two years before their big day and others get in touch with only a few months to go.
I usually meet couples at a local coffee shop or pub, but occasionally visit their homes for an informal chat. Today I'm at the home of a couple and get to meet their family of two children and six dogs. We chat about their wedding ideas and spend a few hours getting to know each other. I leave them with all my info and a booking form should they decide to book me for their wedding.
4pm
I'm back home and after feeding Bear and playing in the garden for a little while I sit down to make a few changes to my website. I had noticed a few small errors on my site when it's displayed on a mobile device so I play around with the design to make sure everything is in working order. I also add a couple of new testimonials from my most recent weddings.
5pm
I have a huge wedding fair coming up this weekend so I go through all my supplies and decide what to take for my stall. I pack leaflets, client info postcards, my rainbow backdrop and pull up banner and collect examples of symbolic actions to showcase such as handfasting ribbons, unity candles and sand ceremony supplies. I've recently bought some wooden crates to add a rustic feel to my stand so I play around with them and my props to find a display I'm happy with and take some photos so that i can replicate it come weekend.
6pm
I finally sit down with my other half to enjoy some TV and eat dinner. However I'm constantly on my phone browsing instagram, and updating my stories. Whilst eating I get a text message from today's couple to say they would like to go ahead and book me to create ceremony. Exciting!
9pm
My email pings with some sneak peeks from a photoshoot I did earlier this week. The theme was neon disco and perfect for my style and I'm so excited to see the images. They do not disappoint and after saving them all I plot in my diary tomorrow to schedule a few into my social media planner and add a couple to my website.
10.30pm
Crawl into bed and watch Friends, which I do EVERY night before bed. Scroll Tik Tok when I struggle to sleep and try to switch off and fall asleep.
NB: This diary is based on a date in my diary in Feb 2020, pre corona virus chaos.
Currently my day would include 10-12 hours binge watching Netflix!