How much does a wedding celebrant cost in Melbourne?
Answer: For a good one $1200-2000. Fact.
Like anything in life, you get what you pay for. You can definitely get one off Gumtree or some dodgy local directory for $600 but I can’t guarantee what your experience will be like.
The value of a great celebrant lies in how they make you feel:
· Excited as they have lots of options and ideas for your ceremony
· Thrilled when you receive your ceremony that is personalised and perfect for you
· Supported: being able to contact your celebrant at any time/ ask questions/ bounce ideas off
· Relaxed because they’re totally on to it: they have a process they move through, everything is sorted and they’ll be there on the day, on time and warming up your guests, prepare all the legal docs meticulously etc
(Don’t scoff- twice last year I took over at the last minute for bargain-basement celebrants who became uncontactable in the months pre-wedding)
· Happy when it’s delivered and it is awesome, gets the laughs, is delivered with warmth and humour and gets a few tears too
· Stoked when your guests all remark about how fun the ceremony was and how much they enjoyed it. A great celebrant gets a little bit mobbed at the end of the ceremony- with positive feedback and requests for biz cards
15-20 hours go into the average ceremony so the fee is not for ’15 minutes work’ as we often hear.
There’s meetings, research, witnessing and preparing docs and writing and rehearsing before we even get to the presenting part. Then there’s more doc prep post.
If you’ve never seen a great celebrant in action it’s fair to say you don’t know what you don’t know. But do ask around- ask others about their celebrants and their experiences. They’ll either shrug and say ‘Yeh she was ok- did the job’ or will rave about them and foist their details onto you ‘I’ll ask my friend who hers was at her wedding a few months back- she was awesome!’
You can’t take it back once it’s done. If you’re going to do then do it well. Start your wedding as you wish to continue it into the reception- with great vibes.