African Wedding

I have conducted a number of African weddings over the years and they are always so much fun............usually very colourful and lively. Blanche and Eddy's wedding recently was just the same. I had conducted the wedding of their friends a few years ago and they were there with the lovely baby.

Blanche was born in Botswana and Eddy in Burundi. This photo was taken by Studio Zanetti - www.studiozanetti.com.au - have worked with them for years and it is always a joy.

Blanche was so sweet and even phoned me a couple of days after the wedding to say thank you!

Home weddings

I love the home weddings. They are usually pretty relaxed. This is a photo of the lovely Cathy and I at her wedding last Saturday. Such a beautiful person. Cathy and Paul had been together for 17 years and decided to tie the knot in front of a select group of family and friends.

The ceremony was held at Paul's sister's house and the hosts made me feel extremely welcome.

It was a lovely ceremony (and Skyped to one of Cathy's daughters who is living in the USA) and after some champagne they all went into the city for a celebratory dinner at Wildfire.

Dunbar House

I had the honour of conducting the first wedding at the newly renovated Dunbar House at Watsons Bay in February and recently received this photo and email from my couple:



We had a great night and want to thank you so much for bringing such a calm, professional and experienced manner to our celebration.
We were VERY lucky to have had you look after the most important part of our marriage and you will always be in our heart.

I'm sure we will see you again.
Sincerely

Rosco&Sara

Rosco and Sara were delightful to work with........Rosco is one of those people who is so positive and makes you feel the same and Sara as sweet as!

The Tea Room Group have done a fabulous job with the renovation. Like all their venues, extremely stylish and fabulous service. A joy to do weddings with them.

What is a celebrant worth?

Often I receive email enquiries and the only question is "what are your fees?"..........I find this so interesting as there is so much more to a good celebrant than the fees.

The Marriage Celebrants' Programme was changed around 7 years ago. At that time, across Australia, there were around 3,000 celebrants, which seemed to be more than enough as most were just part-time celebrants with another job. Unbelievably so, there are now in excess of 14,000 celebrants. Many of these celebrants will only do a handful of weddings each year, which is not enough to keep up your skills or indeed develop them.

Some celebrants will charge as little as the Registry Office. Some even do it for less. Of course many celebrants view this as a hobby, rather than a profession. My advice to prospective couples is to meet with the celebrant you are interested in and see what they have to offer. If price is the only criteria, then a cheap celebrant may well be all you need.

You have only one chance to ensure the ceremony runs smoothly, your celebrant dresses well and is extremely professional in how they handle the day, not to mention the legal paperwork.