Rhiannon + Doug | October 2023
“We couldn’t have asked for a better celebrant! Sarah was a dream before, during and after our wedding, putting us at ease throughout every step...”
This wasn’t a job I thought I’d got at first.
Rhiannon had asked for wedding supplier recommendations on her Instagram and it was my sister who very kindly put my name forward. Rhiannon, her partner Doug and I had a video call to see if I was a good fit for them but the signal was TERRIBLE. It was so frustrating when you feel like you have one chance to help a couple feel like they’re in safe hands.
I was working overtime to make a good impression while we kept losing each other and I felt quite embarrassed. “How unprofessional”, I thought, although obviously I can’t control rural 5G. I’m not a vaccine conspiracy theory.
Rhiannon mentioned in a following vlog that they’d found their celebrant and I was disappointed…but happy for them that they were making progress. I found out shortly afterwards that she actually meant ME. Shooketh.
It’s pretty helpful when one of your couples has a YouTube channel - I found myself dipping into old episodes to learn more about them before we met in person, and it was particularly lovely to be able to watch a previous celebrant ceremony they’d had for their daughter Delilah’s naming day.
Photos by married duo Emily & Steve Photography, one of whom was away because they had just given birth!
Cut to their wedding day and I had a small drama making my way to the magical treehouse venue Kingdom in deepest, leafiest Kent. I’m not the World’s Greatest Driver (a few points, bumps and misdemeanours to my name means I really affect our car insurance) and - with a manual hire car - I was concentrating so. much. on not scratching the hubcaps or stalling in the wrong gear that I completely missed the red dashboard sign telling me that the petrol was alllll gone. My heart was very much in my mouth, lolling around between my clenched teeth, as I prayerfully freewheeled on fumes along an unfamiliar country lane looking for fuel. Spoiler alert: I managed to find some (from a quaint local store where they insist on filling it for you). I bought a cookie and a Diet Coke to celebrate, and made it to the wedding venue with plenty of time.
It’s working out well, always planning on being two or three hours early: a minor disaster and I still have the relieving buffer of being one or two hours early. I refuse to let my driving skills get in the way of my ability to get there in time to have a good nose around.
Kingdom is the most magical venue, I felt like I was officiating in Brambly Hedge
My journey was fraught, but the ceremony itself was gentle and beautiful; it truly felt like a woodland fairytale. Rhiannon walked down the aisle - to the spot where Doug was waiting under the enormous tree - to a string quartet playing Everybody’s Free, from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet. A personal favourite and it gave me goosebumps.
After welcoming everybody I introduced a symbolic element: a ring warming. This was the first one I’d done but lots of my couples for 2024 have already decided they’d like to incorporate it into their ceremony - it’s a lovely way to involve all your family and friends. If you haven’t been to a wedding with a ring warming before, the idea is that at the start of the ceremony the box with the rings is passed from person to person, along the rows, as each individual holds them and takes a moment to wish the couple well, pouring their love into them, so that by the time the couple come to exchange wedding bands later on they’ve been “warmed”. I like to remind my couple that when they look down, in days, months and years to come, their wedding ring is not just a reminder of the commitment they’ve made with their partner, but also a reminder of how much their community, their village, support them both.
I told stories from their many, many years together - having met as teenagers- and then we threw our fistfuls of petal confetti with childlike joy as the string quartet played All You Need is Love and the couple walked back down the grassy aisle, hand-in-hand, as Mr and Mrs.
“It felt like a friend conducting our ceremony and every one of our guests said how fantastic Sarah was; two of our friends have even booked her for their wedding next year.”