Here’s How a Celebrant Can Help if you are Postponing Your Wedding
Many engaged couples are having to face the prospect of postponing their wedding ceremony due to current social restrictions put in place to protect us from the spread of COVID-19. Many couple’s plans have been cancelled, postponed, or altered, and for some, that means having a wedding that may look entirely different to the one they’d pictured for so long – or at least take place long after their original date.
While this may not be ideal, there are ways couples can make their day special and memorable, while keeping themselves and their families safe.
There are generally three options couples have:
1) they can stick to their original plan but postpone until 2021 or 2022
2) they have a virtual wedding, inviting their guests to watch the celebration online
3) they can adapt and hold a ceremony led by a celebrant.
You can also combine 2 and 3.
So, what is a wedding celebrant and how can they help during the pandemic?
What is a wedding celebrant?
A celebrant officiates a bespoke wedding for a couple that may want something a little less traditional or conventional. The celebrant usually leads secular weddings, rather than religious, as a celebrant is not a member of the clergy. A celebrant is someone with no restrictions when it comes to content, and for this reason is often popular among those with no religious affiliations. Celebrant-led weddings allow you to pick and choose whichever elements, themes or ideas you want to include so these weddings are often extremely unique and personalised to the couple.
Why should I choose a wedding celebrant?
Nowadays, a wedding doesn’t have to be the strict traditional and religious affair it used to be. Weddings these days are far more culturally diverse and flexible. Couples can choose to include music, poems, chants, quotes and even pets in their ceremonies.
Celebrants are often more than happy to lead ceremonies for LGBTQ+ couples, interracial couples, and couples from different spiritual backgrounds who want to include both cultures in a custom ceremony. Of course, any couple who simply wish to have a secular or bespoke wedding ceremony can choose to have a celebrant. As mentioned before, the ceremony provided by a celebrant is not restrictive, so can be the wedding an individual couple truly desires.
How can a celebrant support you if you have to change or you are postponing your wedding plans during the pandemic?
A celebrant’s main role is to prepare a special, unique and personalised ceremony for their wedding day. They work with the couple to create a ceremony that is specifically suited to them, even if that means altering certain things last minute. They’ll also run the ceremony on the day, which can be a huge relief if you’re throwing a small, self-organised wedding.
A couple’s celebrant will be flexible, non-judgemental, and open-minded when it comes to wedding content and themes, so it is likely that they’ll be flexible when it comes to the logistics, too.
For example, if a couple decides to go ahead with their wedding ceremony, but instead plans to have it in their back garden with a small number of guests, this should not affect the celebrant’s role in any way. After all, they’re still officiating the same ceremony, just to an audience of 30 instead of 300!
A celebrant should strive to keep the engaged couple happy and relaxed, maintaining a real sense of excitement about the wedding itself.
In practical terms
Using a wedding celebrant allows a couple all the flexibility they may wish for. They will be able to have their wedding wherever they choose, whether that’s on a beach, in a town hall, in a park or even in a forest. The couple can choose to hold their ceremony at any time, and the way the celebrant ceremony runs will be entirely up to the couple.
Working with a celebrant during this difficult time can help you decide what’s best for you as a couple – whether scaling back or postponing your wedding to be married as soon as the restrictions allow, with a beautiful ceremony in an outside space.
The pandemic doesn’t have to put a stop to all ceremonies, but you do need to be smart about moving forward until life can return to normality. You may decide that holding a small ceremony with your closest family – or even alone, and streaming your celebrant-led ceremony may be the perfect solution.
Where can I turn for help?
I’m more than happy to talk to you and help you decide how to move forward. For more information on my celebrant services, visit my website or email me at sonal@sonaldave.com.
