Celebrant, Clergy or Registrar – What’s The Difference?
Let’s be honest, nowadays weddings aren’t the strictly traditional affair they used to be. Couples can bring a lot more of themselves to the table, and this has resulted in some truly unique and memorable weddings. Having a celebrant-led wedding ceremony is what makes a lot of this possible, because it removes a lot of the restrictions around the wedding ceremony that are enforced by government or religion.
But while many people will have heard of a wedding celebrant, not everyone understands exactly what they do – and there are a lot of misconceptions floating around. So today I wanted to answer some of the most common questions I hear about wedding celebrants, including what they are, and why you might want one for your wedding.
With modern weddings come a lot of new choices, including who performs the ceremony for you. While in the past you would be stuck using a minister from the local church, now you can tailor your officiant as easily as your flowers. Generally, you have 3 choices when it comes to the officiant for your wedding:
- A Minister: A minister is a member of the clergy – a person of a particular faith who will have been ordained and is officially qualified to perform ceremonies in line with the religious conventions of their faith. This is the most common options for religious couples.
- A Registrar: A registrar is a government official. They are legally allowed to marry you, in a licensed venue, using specific wording. While you can customise this to some extent, you can’t have any form of religious or spiritual content in your ceremony, from readings to music and vows.
- A Celebrant: Is an independent person who is trained in providing custom made ceremonies, designed to celebrate your unique partnership in any way you choose. There is no legal or government restriction on what can be included in your ceremony, and there are very few limitations on what you can do. However, you do need to sign the documents and have a basic service at a registry office to legalise your marriage.
How Do I Arrange A Celebrant Wedding?
The main thing to remember is that you will need to sort out the official registration of your marriage, which has to be done at an applicable registry office. This is the legal bit and it involves giving notice of intent to marry (28 days) and having a basic service to legalise the marriage at a registry office. The basic service is usually completed a day before or even the same morning as the Celebrant wedding ceremony. Remember – you do not have to exchange rings or vows at this basic service, leave that for your special celebrant led ceremony.
For the main event, arranging a celebrant is as simple as finding one that you really gel with. Your celebrant will play a key role in your day, so it’s important to make sure they understand your vision and exactly what you want. That’s one of the great things about a celebrant – they can tailor absolutely every aspect of the ceremony to what you want! Your chosen celebrant will talk to you about what kind of ceremony you want, what dates you are looking at, and how they work – this is the first step to a fantastic ceremony!
You’ll then work closely with your celebrant to define the overall structure for the ceremony, like:
- How you want to enter the venue
- The vows
- Other readings
- Music
- Flow and timings
And much, much more. We can even talk about releasing balloons, or involving your pets in your special day. Your celebrant can help you craft every aspect of your ceremony to match your personality, including drafting your vows and your order of service.
In other words – a celebrant gives you the flexibility to create your dream wedding, down to the last detail, without compromising on anything. That’s one of the main reasons I became a celebrant in the first place – I believe your wedding day should be truly special, and not just a carbon copy stamp of someone else’s. If you want to know more about how a celebrant works, all you have to do is get in touch with me.