Using a Celebrant

A celebrant is a person with training and experience in creating and facilitating ceremonies and rituals (we call these life celebrations). Some celebrants specialise in certain types of events, such as weddings, funerals or celebrations of the seasons, whilst others cover a range of occasions.

Celebrants understand the ingredients that go into making a life celebration special, even sacred, and can help you to shape your event so that it uniquely reflects you and captures the essential meaning of the event. For weddings, there is a legal requirement that a registered marriage celebrant officiates at the ceremony. In other ceremonies, whilst celebrants are not legally required to officiate, they perform a valuable role in holding the ceremonial space and guiding the proceedings. This allows participants to fully relax into their participation without having to simultaneously act as a facilitator.

Usually people meet with their celebrant to explain what they are wanting to create in their ceremony and to explore ideas. Many report the importance of 'clicking' and establishing good rapport with their celebrant.

If possible, it is best to allow some lead-time in planning a life celebration, not the least to ensure that your chosen celebrant is available. This time also gives ideas the chance to evolve and you become clearer on what is important to you. Wedding ceremonies often start being planned many months in advance, whereas funerals involve intensive design over a very few days (although there are exceptions to this).

The way the celebration is designed and conducted will depend on various factors including the clarity of vision for the event, who and how many people are involved, the complexity of the relationships and issues behind the event, and the style of the individual celebrant.

Here at Life Celebrations we have a network of celebrants available to create your event with you. You can also source celebrants around New Zealand through the Celebrants Association of New Zealand Inc website www.celebranz.org.nz

The website for the International Federation of Celebrants on www.celebrancy.com also provides a list of recommended celebrants in Australia as well as links to celebrants in the United Kingdom and the United States.