Unless you’re lucky and have personal knowledge of a celebrant, or you’ve seen them in action, you may well be in the dark about celebrants.
Clearly, they should have a website and this should give you an idea of what they look like and, possibly, sound like. You may be able to get an idea of their personality, so that’s not a bad place to start.
You may benefit from reading reviews – you may get a sense of whether they will understand your vision and facilitate it.
You may be able to learn their USP(s). Not everybody will be bothered that I can present in numerous languages, but it has proved important to quite a few clients over the years.
One very important asset to any celebrant is trustworthiness. One of the best ways of assessing this is to have a face-to-face meeting with them. You can ask the questions that concern you and sense how much (or little!) empathy you feel for them. It’s important to get this right, as you are going to want to feel happy that the person you have chosen to share the spotlight with you can be relied upon.
You’re probably going to want an experienced celebrant (for obvious reasons!). You normally have to pay for this. It’s worth bearing in mind that a celebrant has usually paid for a lot of training and boasts skills that are unique, especially in combination with each other. They are probably trade association members and have insurance.
Ts and Cs can be boring, but you should not ignore them. You need to know what you are paying for – and what is not covered. This includes cancellation policies. Don’t be afraid to ask for elucidation, if you don’t understand something you’ll be signing.
The right celebrant will make such a difference to your ceremony, so it’s important to do the due diligence. If you get it right, you definitely won’t regret it!
Please have a chat, if you want to continue discussing this theme.