My Why

The answer to the question I’m always asked… “why did you become a celebrant?”

For those close to me, becoming a celebrant seemed like an obvious choice, but to new people and couples that I meet I am often asked the question "why did you become a celebrant?" So here is my long origin story of how I came to become a celebrant... (I hope you can bear with me!)

TEACHING

Growing up you could often find me singing in a choir, dancing in a school competition, or spending my summer holidays doing both in a community musical. I'm one of those strange and mysterious people who can not only keep their lunch in their stomach when public speaking, but I actually enjoy it! But not being nearly talented enough to pursue a career in theatre or singing, I did the only logical thing and studied teaching... because we all know those who can't do, teach.

I soon discovered that teaching teenagers about boring shit that I don't care about and that I know most of them don't care about was not my thing, so I finished the degrees and instead became a Youth Worker (it is still nice to know that at any time I could be a secondary English or SOSE Teacher though).

YOUTH WORK

Whether it's talking one on one with a young person about the fight they had with their friends, facilitating a small group workshop about body image, or presenting to 60+ teenagers about how to have respectful relationships, I think it is so powerful to be able to use my presence and not only my voice but how I use my voice, to evoke reflection, emotion, and when I'm lucky, even some revelations in people.

MARRIAGE CELEBRANT

This is why I became a marriage celebrant. It's because it truly is an incredible joy to be able to craft words together, and use my presence and my voice to make someone's ceremony an experience, as opposed to just something that has to happen before people can party.

I love that I can help make someone's wedding day even more wonderful than it already will be, with just my words, my voice, and my presence.