Top 10 Questions To Ask Your Celebrant

Planning a ceremony can be stressful and extremely time consuming, whether it be a Wedding Celebrant, Funeral Celebrant, Vow Renewal Celebrant or Naming Ceremony Celebrant. Which is why knowing what to ask your Celebrant in preparation is extremely important. Each Celebrant is completely different and will be bespoke to your ceremony needs, so not all answers or questions will be the same. However, it is important to cover questions like, costs, qualifications and general planning of the day.

Celebrant Costs

This is an important one, as this will be a decipher for a lot of couples/customers, and might impact the choices generally. Each ceremony is priced differently but the average cost for a Wedding Celebrant is around £450 – £650, depending on your Celebrant or may be which region you decide to get married in.

I have noted below the additional estimate costs for other ceremonies:

• Funeral Celebrant: £150 – £250
• Vow Renewal Celebrant: £265 – £365
• Naming Ceremonies Celebrant: £250 – £350

You can find more information about Celebrant Costs in our articles below:

How much does a Wedding Celebrant Cost?

How much does a Funeral Celebrant Cost?

How much does a Vow Renewal Celebrant Cost?

How much does a Naming Ceremony Celebrant Cost?

Celebrant Qualifications

For peace of mind, it’s always useful knowing the qualifications in which the celebrants have undergone. This will reassure you and your partner that your ceremony is in safe hands and that you don’t have to worry about a single thing. All civil Celebrants will be professionally trained and registered and you can always ask your Celebrant to see proof of their qualification if this makes you feel more at ease. Not all Celebrants will necessarily have a qualification, but they will each undergo a training course, you will be able to ask about these training credentials once you have picked your perfect Celebrant. Please see below for some useful links & websites on this topic;

https://thefuneralacademy.com/course/funeral-celebrant-training-accredited-level-3-diploma/

https://www.internationalcollegeofprofessionalcelebrants.org/UK-celebrant-training

Celebrant Planning

You might already have a pretty good idea of how your day will play out, especially if you’re highly organised and a bit of a control freak! However, understanding what to ask your Celebrant in the lead up to the ceremony can be very useful. For example, timings, knowing what to say/read, what to wear, if there will be any relevant paperwork which needs signing on the day, equipment/music and contingency plans?

1. Timings – You will need to understand what time to arrive on the day of the ceremony, whether this was 30 mins prior to the start date or exactly on time. For Weddings you will sometimes have a Pre-Ceremony Interview which will commence 30 mins prior to your ceremony, which is why it’s important to know whether you need to arrive a little earlier than the guests. This can be discussed and planned with your Wedding Celebrant ahead of time of the event. It’s always very useful to go through the timeline of the day with your Celebrant, including the time of departure.

2. What to say/read? – You must understand what exactly you will be reading or saying on the day (especially if this is in front of large groups of people). Your Celebrant will definitely be able to help you out on this one. For a Wedding, you will either have the choice of writing your own personalised vows or a set of standard vows will be handed to you, which you will be able to practice before the event. Obviously, with other ceremonies, this can be slightly different.

3. A Dress Code – This is a big one, especially if you are a bride on the day of your Wedding. Some ceremonies are still very traditional, and have a lot of old traditions which people like to stick to even today, each ceremony will be different depending on the type of service. It also might even be worth checking what the Celebrants attire usually is, just so you know what to expect on the day.

4. Legal Paperwork – For most ceremonies, usually there is a bit of paperwork to sign on the day, this is the boring legal stuff that you have to do! Be sure to discuss this with your Celebrant beforehand and understand what exactly you will be signing and what time during the ceremony this will commence (you don’t want to be signing your life away!)

5. Equipment – If you are set to be married in a large Hall or echoing Church, it’s sometimes very useful to think about the sound systems and how the Celebrants voices will project to the audience. Luckily for you, the majority of Celebrants will have their own PA systems. You might also want to check to see if the quality of the equipment is of high standard, as you do not want to make the mistake of finding that out on the day of the event. Some celebrants also provide a signing table and chairs, this is something that you must check with them beforehand as this is quite an important thing to consider. Some Wedding/Funeral venues will provide this too, but it’s always good to check!

6. Music – Music is another important aspect to consider when booking a Celebrant, some Celebrants might be quite strict in what music you might want to play before, during & after the ceremony has taken place. For example, if you are having a Humanist Wedding which is a non-religious Wedding, you are not allowed to play any music which has any religious connotations in it whatsoever. For a Wedding, they will usually suggest choosing 3 songs for the entirety of the ceremony; one before the ceremony, one song for walking down the aisle & one song after the ceremony has finished. So it’s always important to check this with your celebrant beforehand, to make sure that you are; 1) Are you allowed to play music? & 2) What type of music and when should the music be played?

7. Contingency Plans – As we well know, life doesn’t always run as smoothly as planned and unfortunately sickness does happen, so it’s always important to check what the contingency plan would be if your Celebrant were to fall ill or if there was something to happen on the day or the lead up to the Wedding. As the majority of Celebrants will usually be a part of an organisation or community, they will most likely have a replacement for them if this were to happen. It’s always very important to check this prior to the event.

REMEMBER: Your Celebrant is there to help and guide you throughout the day and during the lead up to the big day, so if you have any questions or things you might be unsure about, you should always feel comfortable asking them about it. If both you and your Celebrant are comfortable in doing so, exchanging numbers might also be quite useful to make sure that you are connected and that you feel at ease that your Celebrant is only a phone call away. Obviously, not everybody might agree to this, as you might not want to endure late night calls to your Celebrant on a Sunday night, but it could be a suggestion to consider.

At bookacelebrant.co.uk we have handpicked the best Celebrants in your area, making sure that you have a bespoke and memorable ceremony. We provide; Wedding Celebrants, Funeral Celebrants, Vow Renewal Celebrants & Naming Ceremony Celebrants in regions all over the UK.

So if you are looking for a Celebrant to conduct your special event, get in touch with one of our friendly team members today!