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.
Subscribe for a year to get a free month
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Latest articles published
Look out for a zero dollar invoice for the annual celebrant charge
The Attorney-General's department has let us know that they are starting to send out those $0 annual celebrant charge invoices today. Make sure you pay that $0 quickly otherwise you'll be in $0 debt, and the interest on that will be expensive. Here's what they've told...
New South Wales’ Uppercase Requirement
If you've been lucky enough to create a marriage ceremony recently, and it was in New South Wales, you might have noticed a change to their eRegistry software that requires all last names to be in UPPERCASE. If you're like me, you know this, but still type the names...
We’ll do it live!
My friend, and article writing accountability partner, Jeremy asks: You mentioned in a previous podcast you would put up a post about how you live stream a wedding and what tools you use to do so. You still planning to put this up, mate?
Creating an intimate ceremony, and including kids
A reader asks: I am officiating my cousin’s wedding next month and this is a particularly special one. It is going to be very intimate and relaxed – it’s also really important as my cousin was actually diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer this year (fk cancer!) and it’s really important to me to put together a really beautiful ceremony, but also one that is relaxed and casual just like their style! I was doing some research and wanted to find some nice ideas on how to include kids in the ceremony – they’ve both been married previously and are a blended family. I’ve mentioned how they can write special vows for their step children, or have a community vow – but i am very open to other ideas too – just nothing that is too ‘traditional’. I’ve never performed such a small and intimate ceremony before so was wondering if you had any advice for me – also with these special circumstances, we want to keep this a really positive celebration of their relationship but just wondering if you both had any experience with someone going through this and if there was anything different they included – i absolutely know it really comes down to the individual couple and what they want to include but just interested to know how you would approach this.
Sending ceremony recordings instead of written drafts – a new idea!
What if we sent a voice recording of a ceremony to a couple instead of a written draft?
Luna’s debut on the podcast
Legal help, cancellations thanks to COVID-19, OPD over Zoom update, how to become a travelling celebrant, and how to get audio to videographers, all in this podcast episode with Sarah and Josh.
How to become a travelling celebrant
Alinta asks: I am going to take up the gypsy/not-yet-too-grey nomad life for a year or so and I wonder if it would be possible to be a sort of travelling celebrant? We will be travelling in a substantial caravan and aren’t intending to be too structured about our timing so that we can follow our hearts and interests… Any thoughts or suggestions on if this would work?
A legal bundle for Celebrant Institute members
I’ve heard a lot of people call these times “unprecedented” and by golly are they ever. Almost as unprecedented as me using the term ‘by golly’ but like I said, these are unprecedented times. In unprecedented times we need a few anchors that hold us to the ground as the storm flies by, and one of those anchors for me is the legal support I receive from my lawyer. After all, people are paying me good money to provide … or more seemingly these days, not provide … services and I’ve found more and more that we need some definitions of that relationship.
That’s where my lawyer helps me out.
Getting ceremony audio to videographers
Maria asks: Hi Josh, you’ve mentioned you record the audio during your ceremonies to give to the videographer if they choose for better audio. Firstly, what equipment do you use and how do you hook it up and secondly, do you use it for any other purpose other than to help with the videographer?
Interested in mentoring a Cert IV student?
Help to mentor the next crop of marriage celebrants!