How do we choose our Marriage Celebrant?
Choosing your Marriage Celebrant is very much a personal matter. It may be that a particular Marriage Celebrant has been recommended to you by family members, friends or by venue coordinators.
If you are not so fortunate and do not know, or have not heard of a "good" Marriage Celebrant, searching this ACQ website is a good place to start. Why not use our comprehensive search facility to locate a Marriage Celebrant who lives in your general area or perhaps in a location close to where your ceremony is to be held. There are direct links from the listing provided in this website to each ACQ Marriage Celebrant's own website.
Armed with your short list of possible Marriage Celebrants, contact can then be made with each of them either by phone or by email to ascertain if they are available for the time and day of your wedding and what the costs would be for all services they provide. Please note that costs from one Marriage Celebrant to the next vary as there is no standard charge and legally, they are not permitted to price fix. You may also wish to enquire whether the Marriage Celebrant conducts multiple weddings on any particular day or limits the number they are prepared to do to one or two per day. And furthermore, whether the Marriage Celebrant can assist you to obtain the registered copy of your Marriage Certificate from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM). There is a response to an FAQ about obtaining the registered version of the BDM Marriage Certificate later in this link.
Many Marriage Celebrants offer an obligation free interview. This enables you to see at first hand what each Marriage Celebrant can offer you, what is included in their fee and what are the likely additional charges, given your requirements and circumstances. Marriage Celebrants differ in this regard - some give an all inclusive cost whilst others charge extra for the use of, for example, their own Public Address system.
Irrespective of how you make your choice, it is important for you to feel comfortable and confident that your ceremony will be conducted professionally, competently and with a sense of occasion by a Marriage Celebrant who will compliment your special day. Engaging the right Marriage Celebrant for you makes all the difference to the quality of your ceremony. Cost, therefore, is not the only factor to be considered.
A good tip is to avoid a Marriage Celebrant who makes you feel uncomfortable in any way. For example, the one who, when your phone or who, at your first meeting with him/her even though it is on an obligation free basis, pressures you into signing up on the spot. In this case, politely extract yourself from the phone conversation or walk away (as the case may be) and find another Marriage Celebrant.
