Looking to become a wedding celebrant? Our complete guide shares what it takes, and how you can succeed in this thrilling industry.
Becoming a wedding celebrant is often considered a calling rather than a career path. An ambition to succeed in work is essential, yes, but you’ll need an even greater ambition to create memories for couples. Performing wedding ceremonies with the greatest of care, knowing they’ll change lives forever. Often, those who join our online celebrant training courses had the idea suggested to them by friends or family, believing they’d be an excellent fit for the job. And it’s because the position demands a kindness, a great passion for people that only those around us can truly see.
Your Guide to Becoming a Wedding Celebrant
Once you begin your path to becoming a wedding celebrant, you’ll understand just how fulfilling, and inspiring the role can be. No two days are ever the same. One day, you could be marrying a couple by the sea, on a warm summer’s day. The next, you’ll be chatting to a couple over a coffee, discovering how they dream their ceremony will be. Or you’ll be at home, crafting tales of the lovers you met the day before. Modern celebrancy offers once-in-a-lifetime moments with the couples you marry, and each one will fuel your passion for the next.
Are you ready to run your own business, and start loving the creativity life as a wedding celebrant will bring? Explore our guide below.
The Important Role of a Wedding Celebrant
A wedding celebrant performs much more of an integral role in the marriage of two people than simply announcing their union. They are integral to the wedding ceremony and form a relationship with the couple long before the big day. Through chats, emails, and the writing of bespoke stories. Successful celebrants create moments. Emotional, funny, or maybe thought-provoking ceremonies that are defined by the marrying couple. Inspired by their journey and guided by their unique personalities.
Each ceremony you perform will be bespoke. Created exclusively for the couples you work with. Which can take many hours to create, but are just so rewarding to perform. Through our online celebrant training courses, you’ll learn how to piece together all the info you’ve gathered from a couple and create a story that’ll blow away their loved ones.
The Benefits of Becoming a Wedding Celebrant
Becoming a wedding celebrant offers numerous benefits, including the freedom to be your own boss and enjoy a rewarding career. As a celebrant, you have the flexibility to work on your own terms, whether you want to set your own hours, choose your clients, or even travel (destination wedding anyone?!). This autonomy allows you to break free from the traditional 9-5 grind and find a better work-life balance. And creating personalized and unique wedding ceremonies is incredibly fulfilling, as you get to craft meaningful moments that couples will cherish for a lifetime.
In addition to personal satisfaction, being a wedding celebrant also provides long-term job security and opportunities to build lasting connections. There will always be a demand for weddings, and with the growing trend towards personalised ceremonies, celebrants are more sought after than ever. By building strong connections and continuously improving your services, you can ensure a steady flow of work.
Plus, the celebrant community is supportive and collaborative, offering you the chance to make new friends and professional contacts.
To learn more about the benefits of becoming a wedding celebrant, visit 4 Benefits of Becoming a Wedding Celebrant.
What Qualifications Do Wedding Celebrants Need?
Anyone can become a wedding celebrant, and it doesn’t require a certain level of formal qualifications to set yourself up as one. However, the job is unique and demanding and, like most self-employed businesses, requires you to do a lot of the work yourself. This means that if you’re starting from scratch, you’ll be at a severe disadvantage compared to those who have taken wedding celebrant training courses and subsequently achieved qualifications.
Look for accredited qualifications from reputable training providers and make sure that they cover key areas such as:
- Wedding Ceremony Script Writing
- Ceremony Officiation Skills
- Working with couples
- Celebrancy Role, History & Legal Aspects
- Symbolic Rituals and Diversity
- Modern Trends in Celebrancy
- Ceremony Setup Procedures
- Post-Ceremony Protocols
- Inclusivity in Ceremonies
- Setting up your business
Having a Celebrant-specific qualification will set you up for success and set you apart from the competition, adding extra kudos to your services.
Check out our accredited Wedding Celebrant Training Course
Do UK Wedding Celebrants Need Training?
It’s hard to imagine any rewarding career path that doesn’t require training in order to be successful; in fact, a recent survey of the Celebrant Industry showed that an overwhelming 94% of celebrants trained with a professional training provider to become a celebrant.
Celebrant training courses will help you develop all the necessary skills required to not just perform ceremonies but create and sustain your own business. Which can often be overlooked when considering a path into celebrancy without qualifications.
During our wedding celebrant training course, we’ll show you how to network, create a website, market yourself and price your services sustainably. Plus, we’ll grant you access to our private vault, which has all the paperwork you’ll need to kickstart your business.
Is Wedding Celebrancy a Good Career Path?
One of the incredible things about becoming a wedding celebrant, is that your career is what you make it. Year-on-year, more and more couples are choosing to hire a celebrant for their big day, and it’s up to you to decide how many of them you would like to work with.
For instance, you could decide that you’re going to throw everything into your new celebrant lifestyle, working as many hours as possible, marrying couples up and down the country. And then, through time, progressing into managing a team of celebrants who can work on your behalf. This would be an intense, but exciting and rewarding journey if you’re blessed with that enterprising spirit.
On the other hand, if you would rather celebrancy fits in with your lifestyle, rather than the other way around, then that’s possible too. The work of a wedding celebrant can be done whenever is right for you. Not only that, but as the online celebrant training course can be done at home, you can fit it in while working a 9-5. Meaning, there’s no need to quit your job before your business is up and running. A comfortability factor that will undoubtedly help you transition out of full-time employment.
Andrew D Scott, described his journey to becoming a Wedding Celebrant as nothing less than lifechanging. Within 2 years of training with AMC he’s won Best Celebrant Award, carried out over 175 wedding ceremonies (and counting) and is booked up until 2026, you can read his incredible story here.
How much can Wedding Celebrants Earn?
How much you earn as a Celebrant can depend on a number of factors:
- Geographic Location
- Experience and Expertise
- Niche and Specialisation
- Marketing and Branding
- Whether you’re full-time, part-time or a hobbyist
A 2024 survey of Celebrants found that 40% of wedding celebrants charge between £600 and £800 per wedding ceremony, and the survey found that more experienced Celebrants charge as much as £2000 per ceremony.
Many wedding celebrants earn additional income through vow renewal and anniversary ceremonies, and some Wedding celebrants use their celebrant skills to offer family celebrant services such as naming ceremonies or add on Funeral Celebrant services to bump their income.
Find out more: How much do Celebrants Earn?
What Should a Wedding Celebrant Wear?
The best advice we can give when it comes to wedding celebrant outfits, is let the attire of the couple guide you. Your clothes should match their level of formality, unless they’ve asked you to wear something specific. Which happens! You should certainly be prepared to get creative sometimes, and dress up to match whichever theme your couple has come up with.
In general, you should feel dressed up for the occasion. But your outfit should not be the focus of attention. This often means both male and female celebrants build a wardrobe of dark-coloured outfits that look chic without clashing with any other colours on display. Navy, black, grey, are all good places to start from colour-wise. Avoid anything that is too revealing, and items with logos or political statements should also be avoided.
Comfort is also important. For those wearing heels, make sure they’re broken in and won’t cause you too much pain if worn all day. While suits, dresses, and skirts etc, should all offer you the movability you’ll need to perform tasks throughout the day.
Check out our Wedding Celebrant Style Guide
Become a Wedding Celebrant with The Academy of Modern Celebrancy
A celebrant trained by The Academy of Modern Celebrancy becomes more than just a celebrant, they are a business. We will give you all the tools you’ll need to become successful in the industry, and sustain that success.
Through one-on-one tutorials, group coaching sessions and real-life celebrant shadowing, you’ll discover why our graduates have become so successful. Effortlessly reaching the goals they set themselves on day one of training.
We understand that there are other online courses out there, but we know we’re different. Better. Our exclusive training programme will fully support your whole journey into celebrancy and guide you every step of the way. All from the comfort of your own home, desk space or wherever you choose to learn. Because we are 100% remote. Meaning you’ll be taught by the very best in the business but without the need to travel or take time out of your day to attend a physical class.
Even though your training is carried out at home, you’ll never feel as though you’re alone. Our exclusive Facebook community will always be available to you, ready to hold your hand throughout the course, and motivate you when you need it most. Many of our graduates have become firm friends during their online celebrant training course, and gone on to help each other carve out their own path within the industry.
Following your graduation, you certainly won’t feel empty-handed. You’ll be granted access to booking forms, contract templates, ceremony checklists, certificate templates and access to our very own top 100 readings and poems for celebrant led ceremonies e-book. If that wasn’t enough, you’ll also have the option to update your certification, and add a training course to become NOCN qualified.
Ready to Become a Wedding Celebrant?
Whether you’re looking for a fresh start, or you’ve been planning a new life as a wedding celebrant for some time – we want to help. At The Academy of Modern Celebrancy, we are industry leaders in online celebrant training courses in the UK, US and Europe. And today, before you take the quiz, and find out if you’re the right fit to become a wedding celebrant. We thought we’d share this pocket guide to the role, letting you know everything you should expect, and how you can succeed in the industry.
If you’re ready to leave your tired old job behind, and start something that truly fulfils you, what are you waiting for? Sign up today! And if you would like to find out more about our certified wedding celebrant training, or any other course we provide, please click here.
Jennifer Claire
Jennifer is the Director of the leading celebrant training company, The Academy of Modern Celebrancy as well as the Founder of The Celebrant Directory, supporting over 600 celebrants globally.
Jennifer run a 2.5k community of celebrants who she dedicates her time to helping them grow their businesses and taking celebrancy from a hobby to a lifestyle.
Jennifer heads up the global Celebrant Industry Awards and the global celebrant summit, Celebrantopia each year!
A celebrant herself since 2010, she knows what it takes to make it in the industry and trains the best celebrants out there across the UK, Europe and the USA.
Take the Quiz to find out if you have what it takes!
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