A professional celebrant’s best friend
The Celebrant Institute of Australia is the peak professional development institute for Australian celebrants. Home to the free Celebrant Talk Show Podcast; a membership program for professional celebrants; and the Certificate IV in Celebrancy.
The Celebrant Institute is a supportive safe space for you to learn and ask questions about anything and everything related to being an Australian marriage celebrant, including marriage law and legal issues, building and running a sustainable celebrant business, plus creating and presenting ceremony.
Members of the Celebrant Institute set the standard for a high performing professional celebrant in Australia.
For the best in the celebrant game
Founded by Josh Withers and Sarah Aird, two of Australia’s most respected celebrants in their field, the institute was created as a home for celebrants to find the support, encouragement, training, and professional development desperately missing in the Australian celebrant industry.
Marriage Law & Legal Issues
In the membership program we address the legalities associated with our role, covering the Marriage Act 1961, Marriage Regulations 2017 and Guidelines on the Marriage Act (think anything you’ve ever asked Sarah Aird, aka The Oracle, about)
Building & Running A Sustainable Celebrant Business
Running a successful and sustainable celebrancy business in the Australian context, think marketing, business processes, automation, client journey, technology, accounting, and other associated topics are important to us.
Ceremony
The ceremonial aspects, including ceremony writing and inclusions, ceremony logistics, PA systems, guest involvement, are valuable topics covered in the program.
Everything Else
Literally anything else you can think of, if you ask the question we’ll answer it, and if we think of an idea and it’s good content, we’ll publish it on the blog.
Helping Australian celebrants be the best they can be
The membership
The Celebrant Institute is a paid membership program hand made by Josh Withers and Sarah Aird to help Australian marriage celebrants become the best celebrants they can be. We write articles weekly, and answer questions directly asap, plus provide mentoring and support for members. Membership is $10 a month or if you sign up for the annual plan you get a month for free.
The podcast
The Celebrant Talk Show Podcast is a candid conversation between Josh and Sarah and the occasional guest on the beautiful process of being a marriage celebrant. Covering celebrant news, industry developments, legal issues, and the rigmarole of just merely existing as a celebrant in the modern wedding world. Listen to the most recent episodes at celebrant.fm where you can also find the links to subscribe and listen to the back catalogue.
The Certificate 4 in Celebrancy
The gateway course to becoming a civil marriage celebrant and funeral celebrant in Australia, the Certificate IV in Celebrancy, is now offered by the Celebrant Institute! Taught by Sarah Aird, with student support from Josh Withers, under the auspice of our RTO partner, Talented Training, RTO #45144.
Over 71% of Certificate 4 in Celebrancy graduates feel unprepared for their work as a marriage celebrant, so we have designed a course that tackles that problem head on. Our celebrant candidates graduate with the confidence needed to stand in front of weddings every day and absolutely rock at what they do, whilst also being prepared to address the legal structures and requirements of being a Commonwealth Registered Marriage Celebrant.
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Latest articles published
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Poll: Your OPD online preference
A quick poll today to get some numbers for a submission to the Attorney-General's department on how everyone has liked OPD over the internet. Before this season you either had to attend OPD in person or you could do it via workbooks sent to you. OPD over video...
Words to an aspirational celebrant
I met one of my neighbours this morning and he mentioned he was becoming a celebrant soon so he could marry two friends who are getting married soon. I gave him the spiel I give anyone and everyone becoming a new celebrant, but I thought it’d be something worth putting down in a blog post, and hopefully if you’re a hopefully future celebrant then this can be an encouragement to you too.
Annual fee waived!
No annual fee for celebrants for 2020-2021!
How to video chat really well
Video chat, video conferencing, Skyping, Facetiming, or now, Zooming, is going to be a fairly major way we communicate through this season and into the future. The problem is, I see lots of people on Zoom calls not bringing their A-game to the call. The reason presenting yourself well on a video call matters is because in that online video chat environment we’ve already lost a few of our primary senses from the human interaction, smell, taste, and touch. That leaves our sight and hearing. In the same way that someone without hearing or sight will say that their other senses are heightened, in a video call, we’re missing the hug we might have started the interaction with. We haven’t had a chance to buy each other a drink, or shake hands, or simply see our smiles and smell our perfume, and feel at home together. So let’s make the visual and the audible sensory experience as good as our tools and technology allows us to.
MLCS & celebrant associations/networks meeting 5 May 2020
I attended the meeting between the Marriage Law & Celebrant Section of the Attorney-General's Department and celebrant associations and networks last Tuesday. It's taken me much longer to write a report for you all than I would usually like, mostly because, well,...
What it means when they say that weddings are coming back
There’s a lot of talk about weddings coming back as COVID-19 restrictions are eased. This is not an article about when and what restrictions are being eased, but a reminder as to how Australia works and how to know if weddings are a) allowed or legal, b) when they’re allowed, c) what will be allowed.
This article does remind you though how Australian governance works. You see, Australia as a nation is a lovely idea, but really, you live in a state. That state, be it Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, or a constant state of joy, has made a number of decisions as to how certain things are governed. Many things are a state business, and they have then handed many things on to the [Commonwealth of Australia] for their governance. This article is an oversimplification of a complex structure, so please don’t quote me anywhere.
Baby Got Backend
Morgan Roberts invited me onto his podcast to talk about the back ends of a business. Systems, Tave, Dubsado, all that really boring and important stuff. It's worth a listen if automation is a scary word to you.
When a bushfire ravages a land
I drove through a recently bushfire affected region last week. The ground was still blackened, but not as much as the tree trunks. The foliage and grass that would normally cover the bush floor was slowly achingly coming back to something that resembled life, and those trees that survived, still stood tall. The stand out from the drive though were the two things flourishing today.
How to marry people overseas
Maria asks: I am hoping to be able to travel and marry people in other countries so how do I go about doing that? I understand the law is different in each state in the US and of course Canada so is there an easy process to get the legal requirements to marry people overseas?