What’s the point of a celebrant?
Let’s address the slightly awkward question that sits quietly in the background of a lot of wedding conversations.
If the registrar has already legally married you…why on earth would you pay for a celebrant as well?
Isn’t that just doubling up? Paying for the same thing twice?
It’s a fair question. And honestly, sometimes the answer is simple: some couples don’t need a celebrant at all.
If you’re happy with a short legal ceremony at the registry office followed by a big party with everyone you love, that’s completely valid.
But, in my honest opinion, I think the registrar ceremony and a celebrant ceremony are doing two completely different jobs.
Registrars handle the legal bit
They have to do your notices, checking who you say are. They make sure no one else says you can’t get married… important stuff.
And in the ceremony itself, they make sure the legal declarations are said and that your marriage now exists in the eyes of the law.
Because of that, their ceremonies have to follow certain rules.
There are time slots.
There are legal words that must be included.
There are limits on what can be changed.
Their role is to make the marriage legal.
Just like registering a birth or a death, it’s a serious legal administrative task.
A celebrant ceremony does something else entirely
A celebrant ceremony isn’t about paperwork.
It’s about people.
It’s the moment when two lives that have been running alongside each other suddenly become something new, in front of the people who matter most. When everyone sees, hears and feels what happening.
A celebrant ceremony has the freedom to be built around the two people at the centre of it – your story, your slightly chaotic path to this point, the things that make you unmistakably you.
Not a set of prescriptive words.
Not words from the selected script ‘Elegant’, ‘Classic’ or ‘Modern’.
Yours.
The bit where anything goes
This is where celebrant ceremonies get interesting.
Because when you remove the legal restrictions, you suddenly have freedom.
Want a hint of religion because it matters to one side of the family? Fine.
Want two different faith traditions woven together because that’s the reality of your life? Also fine.
Want absolutely none of it and a ceremony that feels more like a gathering of your favourite humans than a formal event? Perfect.
Want to sing “I do, I do, I do” in the style of Benny and Björn with everyone in the room?
Want to knock back tequila to celebrate?
Want to dance back down the aisle to Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now like it’s the final scene of an 80s movie?
Yes to all of it.
Because the whole point of an independent celebrant ceremony is that the ceremony fits the people, not the other way around.
The ceremony is the moment
When couples work with a celebrant, the legal paperwork usually happens quietly at a registry office beforehand.
Often with just the couple and two witnesses - known as a 2+2 ceremony costing around £62 in England and Wales (most recent check at August 2026).
Forty legal words.
Ten minutes.
Job done.
And then the ceremony that everyone attends becomes the real moment. You know, the one in the garden, the barn, the field, the restaurant or wherever you want it to be.
The one with the vows that actually sound like the two people saying them.
The one where the room laughs in the right places.
The one people talk about afterwards.
This is the moment a celebrant creates space for.
So, what is the point of a celebrant?
A celebrant gives you three things the legal ceremony can’t.
Time.
Space.
Freedom.
Most couples don’t remember the paperwork.
They remember the moment when everyone they love was in the same place, witnessing something real.
The legal bit takes five minutes.
The ceremony is the bit people remember.
If you’re fully sold on the idea of a celebrant, but your partner cannot see the point, have a little read of this – it’s not just words for SEO, its actual, proper helpful advice.
