Questions to Ask a Marriage Celebrant

These days there are so many marriage celebrants to choose from that picking just one can seem like a daunting task. By asking the right questions and a doing a little research, you should have no trouble in finding the perfect marriage celebrant for you and your fiance.

Ideally, you should meet with any potential marriage celebrants with both you and your fiancé to see how well you get along. This is the person who is going to marry you, take charge of your wedding ceremony, so you need at the very least, to feel comfortable with them.

Before meeting with any potential celebrants, find out of if the first meeting will cost you anything. Some celebrants change an initial consultation fee which is refundable if hired, whilst others may offer a free no obligation first meeting. Ideally a couple should be able to see a video of the celebrant in practice so that you are happy with their delivery style.

Important Questions to Ask a Marriage Celebrant
• How many ceremonies do you generally conduct on one day?
• What are your qualifications?
• How long have you been a celebrant for?
• Do you have any testimonials?
• Are travel fees included in pricing?
• Do you supply your own PA system?

Remember, you do not need to hire the first celebrant that you meet and you do not need to feel obliged to hire someone on the spot. Having said that, if you find a celebrant that you really click with, try not to dwell on the decision for too long, as good celebrants tend to be booked early.

Daily Wedding Blog : Avoid renting ‘Wedding’ chairs

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Don't hire 'wedding' chairs

Here at DWB we are always trying to help our readers find ways to trim the cost of weddings. One way which we believe that could help you save some money is by trying to source chairs for your wedding outside the usual wedding rental outlets.

Have you considered asking your local university or high-school if they can hire out their chairs? They generally have a fair amount of chairs for special occasions such as graduations and are happy to rent them out, as this means extra revenue for the school.   These chairs can be perfect for park and other outdoor ceremonies. Also check out your local community halls as they usually keep back-up chairs for their functions.

If you are planning on hiring seat covers for the chairs, don’t be to worried if some of the seats have a few scratches, in reality the seats that are a little more worn out will be cheaper and if you are planning on using seat covers anyway, the scratched will be hardly visible,  if at all.

Is It Polite To Invite Guests to Just The Ceremony?

Is it polite to

One of the topics that frequently comes up when planning a wedding is whether or not it is rude to invite guests to the ceremony only and not the reception. One of the main reasons for this is that the bride and groom are trying to keep the cost of the reception down. Whilst the need to wanting to save money is understandable, inviting guests to ‘only’ the ceremony is considered rude and should be avoided if possible.

The guest will undoubtedly end up feeling like a second-rate guest who is not important enough to be included in the celebrations. Ill-feelings are also bound to eventuate if the guest feels obliged to buy a gift and may end up feeling that this was the only reason that they were invited.

Consider having a smaller guest list, having an off-peak wedding, or a midday wedding as opposed to an evening one to keep costs down without excluding anyone from the reception.

It’s important to note that if the ceremony itself is going to be held in a location that only holds a limited amount of people, such as the bridal party and immediate family, then it is okay to invite guests just to the reception and not the ceremony.

If you are keen to limit the number of guests to your reception by having some people attend the ceremony only, one approach, to minimize potential hurt feelings, is to hold an ‘official reception’ and an additional ’post-reception function’ for close family and friends.

The way it works is that after the ceremony a reception is held with perhaps appetizers, cake and champagne. This could last for 2-3 hours and can take place at the church’s hall, a nice park, or a nearby venue. After this ‘official reception’ ends, the bride and groom can hold a dinner for immediate family members and the bridal party at another reception venue. This approach really only works if you have a lunchtime ceremony and follow through immediately with the official reception. The family dinner can then be later in the evening after an hour or so. Do be aware however that you still may end up hurting feelings this way, but if you keep referring to it as a family dinner then it should be minimized.

Daily Wedding Blog: Church wedding choir

If you are having a church wedding, you might be lucky enough to be able to utilise the church’s choir.   Attend a choir practice with your partner to see if you like how they sound, as not all church choirs are the same quality.

If you like what you hear, inquire if their church choir is available to provide their services for wedding ceremonies, as many churches may already offer you the services of their in-house choir as part of their wedding package.

If you do opt for a church choir, give them plenty of notice in case they need to learn new songs as not all choirs will learn new songs, especially on short notice.  They may already know a selection of suitable songs, but may need preparation for any additional tunes that you and your partner request.