PAULINE FAWKNER

Celebrant marries celebrant

2011-11-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

Actually, I am married to a Clinical Psychologist! But recently I had the priviledge of conducting the wedding of another celebrant. Such an honour. Gerald and Kathleen came to Sydney to have their ceremony with family and friends. It was a lovely ceremony on the harbour foreshore at McMahon's Point.

Wedding photographers

2011-09-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

It is a great honour to conduct any couple's wedding, but when they are your colleagues in the wedding industry it is a great compliment. I recently had the pleasure of conducting the marriage ceremony of a couple of wedding photographers. Natalia and Morris were a delight to work with and together we created a truly wonderful ceremony that was so warm and inclusive. Look at their website: www.morrisimages.com.au

Renewal of Vows

2011-08-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

I am often asked to perform Renewal of Vows ceremonies. Sometimes these are couples I married 10 years ago, and sometimes they just find me on the internet.

Recently I have conducted two such ceremonies and the couples were both celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

This is a photo of Pina & Nicolo. It was such a wonderful ceremony as they were joined by their family and friends. I had the honour of conducting the wedding ceremony of their son Alberto and his beautiful bride Katie last year. It was lovely to catch up with them. They are now expecting their first child in November.

The Renewal was arranged by Pina and Nicolo's daughter, Isabella. What a woman! She has three very young children, yet managed to organize the day with apparent ease.

Delightful couple from the USA

2011-08-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

The weather last weekend was of course glorious for my weddings, but the previous week was another story.

I conducted a truly beautiful wedding for Al and Linda who come from Indiana in the USA. The wedding was to be on the harbour foreshore looking across to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Thursday the 21st July was one of the most miserable days weatherwise for sometime. This did not dampen the spirit of this couple.....just look at the photo taken by Raoul Tackelburg - www.raoul.com.au

We did the ceremony in the Sheraton on the Park and then Raoul and Colin - www.cheersvideo.com.au took Al and Linda to The Rocks area and they were so pleased with the results.

Glorious weather for weddings

2011-07-04T00:45:00.000-07:00

The last two weekends have been sensational for my weddings - beautiful, clear, sunny Sydney winter weather. Some couples are very lucky, but of course the only thing you have no control of on your wedding day is the weather, so if planning a ceremony outdoors a wet weather plan is essential.

Weddings in France & Italy

2011-06-06T23:38:00.001-07:00

Have not blogged for a few weeks as I have been lucky enough to have spent 3 weeks in France and Italy.

Could not escape the weddings though! We saw weddings everywhere we went from Arles in France to the Cinque Terre in Italy.

The one in France was a lovely small wedding in the Town Hall - the bride looking ever so chic in a very pale pink dress (not a wedding dress) and about 20 guests.

The other memorable one was in Venazza in the Cinque Terre where we were staying. It is a gorgeous little village and one Saturday afternoon the bridal party and guests (around 40 - 50) gathered in the beautiful little square on the water and then climbed the steps to one of the hillside restaurants for the celebration. They were all Australian!

African Wedding

2011-04-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-04-06T00:10:00.000-07:00

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.

A Model Bride

2011-03-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

They don't come much better than this! Barb and Ben had a lovely ceremony in February. They were so relaxed about everything and were a joy to deal with. After they arrived together and I went to meet them before they entered, I said to Barb's mother that she looked like a model, to which her Mum responded "She was a model"!

The atmosphere for the ceremony was wonderful, enhanced by Barb's family all coming from Canada for the event.

I first met Barb in her role as Events and Marketing Manager for Deckhouse -
www.deckhousewoolwich.com.au - and then I was honoured to be asked to act as her Marriage Celebrant.

I love this photo - it was taken just before they walked into the ceremony.

Surprise wedding

2011-03-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

I have conducted many surprise weddings over the years and they are always great fun, but they don't come much better than Jade & Nick's ceremony recently. They had gathered guests on the pretence of an Engagement Party. Only the parents and a couple of others were aware of the situation. Just received this gorgeous photo and lovely email from the couple:

We wanted to let you know how fantastic our wedding day was. The day certainly needed you to take charge – I was nervous about how we could pull the surprise wedding off – and thankfully you took the microphone away from me right when I started crying and took charge – the first words you spoke will never leave my mind!

We had the most wonderful day and can’t thankyou enough. A friend of mine says she works with you a lot – Laura Brown from Frolic Events – she says you’re the best celebrant she’s worked with and we can vouch that’s true!

Hope you are well, and hope we run into you at another wedding soon,
Jade and Nick

Working with professionals

2011-03-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of a really lovely couple who were married in the Royal Botanic Gardens recently. Tracey and Glenn were great to work with on their ceremony. It was a perfect afternoon and all went very smoothly. This of course was helped by the great professional wedding suppliers I worked with on the day. The photographer was Ronny Berg from Creek Street Photography www.creekstreet.com.au

I have worked alongside Ronny for many years now and it is always a pleasure. He is so professional and you hardly know he is there. There were a few couples at the wedding who had used him for their own wedding photography, so always a good sign.

The event decorator was Laura Brown, who owns Frolic Events - www.frolicevents.com.au

I first met Laura years ago when she was an Events Manager for a wedding venue. Laura is such a lovely person and has a great eye for design. The signing table she offers is the best in the business. She had also set up a table with bottles of cold water for the guests.........even that looked stunning!

Superb food, great views, gorgeous couple................

2011-02-16T20:09:00.001-08:00

Just received these beautiful images from a wonderful couple I had the honour of marrying just before Christmas. The wedding was at Berowra Waters Inn. A long way to travel for me but my husband and I decided to make a weekend of it. The wedding was on a Sunday and as it was my birthday the day before we decided to drive up after my weddings on the Saturday and stay the night. We went to Berowra Waters Inn for a sumptuous dinner, stayed overnight and I did the wedding the next morning.

Jen and Tom had flown back from London for the ceremony. It had all the right ingredients for a perfect wedding..........fabulous couple, great venue, great food, sublime views and a good ceremony. What more could you ask for?

Photos by Glen Allsop Photography - www.glenallsop.com

Award

2011-01-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

We are well and truly into 2011 now and it looks like it will be yet another extremely busy year.

I was greeted with the news while I was on holidays with my wonderful husband that I had for the 2nd year running won an award for Excellence in Cusomer Service - best celebrant in NSW and the overall winner for Australia. I have managed this the last two years. Have never entered before this so am feeling very content to know my couples are happy with the service that I offer and voted for me. Thank you one and all!

Unusual wedding venues

2010-12-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

I am constantly asked where is the most unusual I have conducted a wedding. To be honest, I spend most of my time in parks on the harbour foreshore, restaurants and wedding reception venues, but here are few:

* On a platform at Central Station - they both worked for City Rail and the reception was being held in a speciall dining car that was to take the guests up to Brooklyn and back.

* On the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge - this is a very unflattering photo - the grey suits are not exactly haute coutour! Arthur and Charlotte were a gorgeous couple from the UK - he an engineer and she had overcome her fear of heights through hypnotherapy. It was quite fantastic really, with two of the Bridgeclimb guides as the witnesses.

* In a butcher shop.............and yes, he was a butcher!

R & R

2010-11-29T13:26:00.000-08:00

It is such a busy time of year for weddings.........but you need a break sometimes! I only took on one wedding on Sunday evening last weekend as I had 4 days away in Gerroa with my husband's family. It is an annual event and we really look forward to it. We rent a few houses overlooking beautiful Seven Mile Beach. It is always around this time of year and means I turn away many wedding enquiries. Whilst I am passionate about my work, I do try and get a balance to my life. Any busy celebrant will tell you that this business can be totally consuming. You have to block out holidays, etc. a long time in advance. It is totally unprofessional for celebrants to take bookings and then advise the couple they are no longer available. I have never done this, but it is a common occurrence.

Summer is here

2010-11-14T22:41:00.000-08:00

After all the rain and cool weather, it was summery conditions on the weekend for weddings. Ceremonies for me on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is very difficult to find "cool" suits! I always wear a suit to my weddings as I feel that is appropriate for my role, but it does make it very hot at times. These photos are from a a wedding earlier this year on a very hot Saturday morning at McKell Park in Darling Point. A truly delightful couple who had returned from the UK to celebrate with family and friends - Nicole & Nicholas.

Changing weather

2010-11-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

Saturday was certainly an interesting day! Incredibly wet in the morning but by the time my first wedding was to start the sun came out and we ended up doing the wedding on the terrace of Bathers' Pavilion in Balmoral rather than inside the building. It was lovely as I had previously done a couple of weddings for this family, so always good to see them all again.Then off to the Botanic Gardens........hard to park because of an event the following day and they had closed part of Mrs. Macquaries Road. I was 1.5 hours early so eventually found a spot. Then the rain came again and we ended up in the Maiden Pavilion, which my couple had booked as their backup plan.It is interesting to note that over 15 years I have hardly ever had to revert to a wet-weather venue, but in this past year it has become quite common. I definitely think our weather has changed.

Classic Beauty

2010-11-11T18:01:00.000-08:00

Just received a lovely email from a lovely couple I married at Gunners' Barracks on the October long weekend. We were set to do the wedding up at the Georges Heights Lookout and as the bride started to walk down the pathway a storm began! No problem...........I promptly announced the ceremony would take place on the terrace of Gunners' Barracks and invited the guests to make their way down the hill.Angela and Tristan took it in their stride.........Angela got back into the car and Tristan, resplendent in his kilt walked down the hill. The staff at Gunners' Barracks were amazing - within a few moments they had the terrace set up with chairs, red carpet and signing table.The ceremony began and the atmosphere was electric. Angela could only be described as a classic beauty.

Photo courtesy of Deyan Photography

Sweet.Petite.Treats

2010-10-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

A very busy weekend of weddings! Friday, Saturday and Sunday..........it is that time of year.

I come across all sorts of "bonbonniere"/"wedding favours" etc. but the best ever was at a super cool wedding on Saturday at lunch time. Gorgeous couple, Eric & Kinae, had a very relaxed ceremony at Table for 20 in Surry Hills. The restaurant looked fabulous - two long tables of 20 very stylishly decorated and a couple of lovely gifts for the guest at each place setting - an interesting looking candle the groom had made and a little box of macarons - three macarons beautifully packaged. They gave me two boxes as I was leaving. My step-daughter and her husband were over for a casual dinner on Saturday night and we had the macarons with some lovely fruit at the end of the meal. They were sensational. I have tried the famous macarons around Sydney at present and also some at a cafe in Woolahra and I have to say these were better. The flavours were Vanilla with Cracked Pepper, Salted Caramel and Lemon. All fabulous, but the Salted Caramel was my favourite. Check out the blog - http://www.sweetpetitelikemetreats.blogspot.com/

A good woman

2010-10-27T23:51:00.001-07:00

I have to say that just about everyone I marry is lovely! But, now and then you come across a really special person. Ann-Marie is one of these people.

I had the great honour of conducting the marriage of Ann-Marie and Sean recently. It was a very small, intimate ceremony on a Friday morning..........the couple, their two witnesses, the photographer & videographer. Ann-Marie and Sean had a great story to tell and the emotion during the ceremony was palpable.

We all assembled in the Botanic Gardens, the weather was perfect, the bride arrived in a vintage Rolls. A terrific ceremony and then after photos and more video time they celebrated across the road at Aria Restaurant. Perfect.

Warmest wishes Ann-Marie & Sean and I hope our paths cross again some day.

Inexperienced celebrants

2010-10-25T23:54:00.001-07:00

An Australia wide survey of Marriage Celebrants conducted in December 2009, by Celebrante gave some surprising results:

(1) Just over 89% of marriage celebrants were appointed between 2004 & 2009.

(2) 85.6% of celebrants are part-timers with other occupations.

(3) Just over 11% of celebrants performed no weddings whatsoever in 2009 and 50.8% performed between 1 and 10 weddings in that year.

So, the end result is that it is a fact that the majority of celebrants are extremely inexperienced!

Just because you know someone "who knows a celebrant" it does not mean that celebrant will be good. Because they are a "really nice person" also does not mean that they are a good celebrant. Couples need to really do their research. You have only one chance for the ceremony to be right and well orchestrated by the celebrant.

Food for thought.

Busy Weekend

2010-10-24T21:42:00.001-07:00

Such a busy weekend of weddings.................all went well, with the rain playing havoc with one. Gorgeous couple, Kim and Dan, had planned a ceremony at the spectacular Bradley's Head, but the weather was not on their side. A last minute change of plans to their reception venue in the city meant the ceremony ran late by 40 minutes! But I have to say they were terrific and took it all in their stride. The atmosphere inside Simmer on The Bay was fantastic. A beautiful bride and a groom who could not have looked happier, so all good in the end.

Bride & Groom from China

2010-10-24T21:40:00.001-07:00

Have just been sent this photo from a gorgeous couple. Elena is living in Sydney and studying at Sydney University and her partner, Ding, flew in for the wedding. They had a small intimate ceremony overlooking beautiful Sydney Harbour on a perfect day.

A Challenge! - 16/10/10

2010-10-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

A very busy weekend of weddings - Friday, Saturday & Sunday. All went well, but Saturday was a challenge. Gale force winds make delivering a ceremony very difficult. But.........the bride wanted to be married outdoors so this is what we did.We were standing at the end of the wharf at QStation - a wonderful venue. Not the easiest of condtions. It was difficult standing, let alone holding a ceremony folder and microphone. But we persevered and it all went well. A really gorgeous couple, who were just so happy - David and Natalia were a joy to work with.

My daughter's wedding

2010-10-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

I recently had the great pleasure and honour to conduct the wedding ceremony of my beautiful step-daughter. She has been in my life for over 25 years and I love her dearly.
It was such a fabulous wedding, but I was quite worried the emotion of the moment would overtake me! I needn't have worried. It all went perfectly.

The ceremony was so reflective of Jacki and James and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had a fabulous night. The ceremony was on the balcony of Aqua Dining Restaurant at Milsons Point. The view was sublime................it was a beautifully clear night and the views across the harbour, over North Sydney Pool and Luna Park were amazing.

They chose a cocktail reception. The food was incredible and the staff at Aqua Dining were wonderful...........so accommodating and nothing was a problem. The drinks flowed, the speeches were all terrific and the night was made with a fantastic 6 piece covers band from Melbourne, which my son-in-law's boss had arranged for them. All in all a fabulous night.

Stylebook

2010-08-31T02:04:00.001-07:00

A fabulous phototographer I work with often has just released a Wedding Stylebook online.

Here is the link - www.tealilyphotography.com/blog

Please look at Trish Lee's beautiful images.

Naming Ceremony

2010-05-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

I had such a lovely day on Sunday! Over the years I have conducted a number of ceremonies for a gorgeous family, the Andersons. This was yet another and all the family and friends were there to welcome young Max into the clan. It was an extremely emotional morning as Max's Pa, Max, had passed away suddenly not so long ago and he was of course mentioned in the ceremony.

This job of mine is just so rewarding, especially at times like this when you feel like one of the family. Thanks you Anderson family!

2010-03-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the priviledge of conducting a small private ceremony at Bronte Beach for a lovely couple from Sweden. They had spent time there some years ago and came back to be married at one of their favourite Sydney beaches. The fantastic photographer, who I work with often, sent me a few of the photos he took. This one is amazing!

2010-02-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

I came in from my weddings on Friday to find a beautiful gift (a box of 12 superb chocolate dipped strawberries) from a couple whose wedding I had conducted last October! It was accompanied by the following note:

Dear Pauline

Where do we start....? Thank you soooo much for marrying us, we could not have chosen a better celebrant!

Your attention to having everything run smoothly went well beyond our expectations; you even helped the guys with their buttonholes!

You put together a beautiful ceremony which was conducted with enthusiasm, warmth and most importantly professionalism.

You have had so many positive comments from our family and friends, so much so that one of our close friends have secured you for their wedding next April! Many have said that you are the best celebrant they have ever seen!

We had an absolute ball on the 31st October 2009 and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making our wedding day so fabulous!

Anthony & Kursty Delmas