Computer and internet security for a modern marriage celebrant
Every day I wake up and check the technology news – as is my habit – and scroll through the headlines I’m expecting to find a marriage celebrant in there. Why?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Mar 11, 2022 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Every day I wake up and check the technology news – as is my habit – and scroll through the headlines I’m expecting to find a marriage celebrant in there. Why?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 18, 2022 | Marketing and Social Media |
There’s gold in the questions you get asked by other celebrants, people in the wedding industry, our clients, friends, and social media followers. Do you know what to do with them?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 18, 2022 | Marketing and Social Media |
If you’ve been wanting a way to spy on what other people in the wedding industry are doing with their Facebook Ads, here’s a very easy, open, and regulated way to do so.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 14, 2022 | The Business of Celebrancy |
When it comes to pricing, and pricing yourself, there are so many contributing factors. The first is that you need to cover costs, the second that you need to make a profit – a wage, and the third that you make a surplus so you have buffer for the future, savings, and the ability to invest in your business.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 11, 2022 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Before Yeti created a $5 million cooler and adventure brand, the icebox/cooler market (aka the “esky” market, despite Esky being a brand) was a a low-cost and cheap product market. Chris Hladczuk documents their story in a recent release of his email newsletter which I recommend subscribing to.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 10, 2022 | The Business of Celebrancy |
I wonder how many avenues for networking, referrals, and help, us celebrants are leaving on the table?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 21, 2021 | Community News |
For the most recent information regarding ongoing professional development and OPD for Australian...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 21, 2021 | Our Guidelines to Australian Marriage Law |
Breaking marriage law news – for the second time since 1961: Celebrants can witness NOIMs over the internet! From 22 December 2021 you can witness the Notice of Intended Marriage over a video call. You can send a couple their NOIM as a PDF…
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 22, 2021 | The Art of Celebrancy |
For over five years now I’ve crusaded against wedding industry awards. I don’t like them, I don’t enter them, and I try to convince my friends and colleagues to avoid them as well.
I understand how nice it feels to be awarded number one. If you sent me an email right now that said “Josh, you are my number one celebrant” I’d probably print it out and put it on the fridge next to one of Luna’s paintings, but the truth is, I believe that wedding industry awards are unhealthy and unhelpful for the wedding industry.
And this letter from Nick Cave …
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 21, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Any successful endeavour requires a number of ingredients. An award winning cake recipe will have more than one ingredient, and an Olympic gold medal swimmer didn’t just swim their first lap that race.
There’s a process, there’s time, goal setting, and multiple resources being in the right place at the right time.
In the wedding industry there is so much focus on advertising and marketing, getting the enquiry, but less focus on winning that enquiry over, and worse, delivering an exemplary customer experience from woah to go.
Here at the Celebrant Institute we’ve written numerous articles about the value of creating and delivering a customer journey but today I wanted to hone in on one single aspect that apparently is really lacking in the wedding business: email.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 27, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
An element of my social media content strategy I’m quite proud of is that I’ve really worked hard at making better photos, photos that I have made – and therefore own – so that I have photos and video for my own social media channels and blog. If you’re interested in pursuing that art as well, Josh Rose has written a really good guide that I think would help you. It’s aimed at taking better holiday photos, but the advice translates directly to weddings as well.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 19, 2021 | Our Guidelines to Australian Marriage Law |
Lizzie asks: “My couple is getting married on a boat in The Pittwater located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Please advise how I best record the “at” on the docs for a wedding adrift.” The Guidelines to the Marriage Act, in relation to the place a wedding would occur, gives this poor advice: “The marriage must be registered in the state or territory where the marriage was solemnised. To meet this requirement, and possible requirements of other countries for recognition of the marriage, marriages in aircraft and ships at sea should be avoided.” I’m not going to say they’re wrong, but they’re not right. Australian authorised marriage celebrants have the authority and the ability to marry couples anywhere and at any time on any day within Australia and its territories.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 8, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
When you hear of social media posts going viral, it simply means people are sharing it....
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 2, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
If you’ve ever played the iconic Australian schoolyard game of handball, you’ll remember that the aim of the game is to intercept the ball on your quadrant/half, then to get it back out as soon as possible. Think about your customer journey and email like a game of handball.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 30, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
Suzanne asks: “Looking for advice on professional web design v. self design. Objective to attract biz, be good return on investment and not rubber-stamp like. Also some good advice on logo vs personal service brand.” Two important questions here and they’re both worth addressing.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 29, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
The Copywriting Course’s subject line generator might be just the gold mine you need to start writring that next blog posts, social media post, or recording that vlog or podcast.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 26, 2021 | The Art of Celebrancy |
Jason Fried has posted a list of questions he asks referees he calls for new employees. I read through the list and thought that it would be equally impressive to see our clients answer some or all of these questions in their reviews. Shape the questions so they serve you, but instead of asking for a plain old review, try asking your couples a question and ask them to share it as a Google, Facebook, or other form of review.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 24, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
A study has found that adding copy to a new app’s website around the lines of “we...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 18, 2021 | CI |
September 2021 is bringing us new marriage forms, and to be sure that we don’t confuse things, let me quote from the Attorney-General office email sent today. If you haven’t received it, check your spam folder and then tell your email client it isn’t spam, it’s the boss.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 6, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Continuing a long running series on this website starting with how your price is part of your...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 30, 2021 | CI, The Business of Celebrancy |
If you’ve taken our branding advice before, you’re using the same headshot profile photo for your social media accounts and your website, and anywhere else you can upload an identifying photo, avatar, logo. But do you know how it’s performing for your brand and marketing?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 27, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
I’m not backwards in coming forwards about celebrants raising their price. I’ve given a number of good reasons in the past, but as lockdowns and travel bans continue to fuel the bonfire that is the state of the wedding industry today I was inspired by the idea that we, the wedding industry need not bare the burden that is wedding postponements, we are not wedding insurers, we are professional creatives. We are not wedding insurance. That’s not to diminish your want and desire to be generous and kind to your clients, be that, and more, but you are not their wedding insurance. Their wedding being postponed should not bankrupt you. So assuming you’re already ready to raise your price, if not read this, here’s three practical ways you can increase your price today.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 14, 2021 | Free Podcast |
We’re tired, and we know you are all tired too. In this episode we catch up on each...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 9, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
A member has asked about whether the Celebrant Institute membership includes insurance. It doesn’t, and we’ll be honest with you, that’s because we reached out to a bunch of insurance brokers and insuring you lot in such a general way turned out to be so expensive and hard, that it wouldn’t be worth it for you, or for us, to offer such a broad stroke of insurance, when each of your businesses are so unique and personal.
So here’s the seven insurances I think every wedding celebrant should at least consider, and of course you need to do your own research and consider your own circumstances.
Please note that this is general information only and should not replace financial or professional insurance advice. Talk to a licensed insurance broker, business advisor or insurer for detailed advice.
None of this information has been influenced by an outside business and we have received no payments or discounts for offering this information.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 2, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
I’ve got a confession to make: I can recall every single bad review I’ve had, and I...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 1, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
Sign in or become a...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 1, 2021 | The Art of Celebrancy |
Many celebrants don’t know the science and method behind choosing where to position their speaker in a ceremony. This video will take you through the basic elements of choosing where and why and how to position your speaker, and one thing I didn’t note in the recording is that you want it up on a speaker stand at standing head height, you need those audio waves to be able to reach everyone’s ears and if the speaker is on the ground, people past the first row will be struggling.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 1, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
At the time of writing I personally have attended four court mediation sessions, and two court hearings. Theses are my stories. Dum dum. Ok, enough of the Law and Order jokes, but I am in the middle of a bunch of law suits and I figured that you, my fellow celebrants, would like to hear the stories, and hopefully you can learn from them. What follows is in no way to be considered legal advice, I am not a lawyer, and the advice given to me by my lawyer is confidential. The stories shared are personal anecdotes that would hopefully encourage you to engage with a lawyer.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jun 14, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
If you’re feeling a bit stuck on what to post on your blog, or social media, or both, here’s seven content ideas you can easily write right now. Then schedule them up to drop every day, and watch your online personal brand grow!
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jun 10, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Reading the news today about the meat manufacturer that paid up $11 million in ransom to cybercriminals after having its business shutdown over a hack recently, my mind turned to celebrants.
I hold grave fears that any day now there’s going to be an Australian marriage celebrant breached by a hacker, and all of their clients’ NOIM, Marriage Certificate, Passport, Divorce, Drivers License, details will be leaked, stolen, sold.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jun 9, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
Instagram has shared a post today about how and why people see what they see on Instagram. I’m not going to speculate on how much of this is smoke and mirrors, or politics, or conspiracy theories. Instead, lets take them at their word and believe what they say.
You can read the whole report here, and I’ll share some excerpts and thoughts on it below.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Apr 30, 2021 | Secret members podcast, The Business of Celebrancy |
Mel is struggling with mapping out her pricing as a celebrant, and when she mentioned it to me I went straight to a conversation I had with my brother earlier today. He’s looking at starting a new business based on professional skills he holds, and he was looking for some guidance walking into the project. So I’ll tell you what I told him, then give you ten good reasons why you should charge more.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Apr 13, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
Krystal asks: “I seek perhaps some advice on how I continue to be “out there” without sailing into the boring seas or moving into sharing content on social media that isn’t relevant. Maybe I need to be patient with the process, once my first wedding is over and I’ll feed my future marketing off that.”
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Apr 8, 2021 | Free Podcast |
After a six month break from podcasting because our world’s got crazy and busy, we talk...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Mar 30, 2021 | Community News |
To my fellow celebrants, I have a proposal regarding the one month notice period, and I’d like to run it up your flagpole, so to speak, and then take it to the Australian parliament: that the one month notice period required by the Marriage Act, be reduce to one week.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 20, 2021 | Community News |
After posting a guide on making sure you and your business is prepared if and when the Facebook ban hammer falls on you, the Facebook ban hammer fell on us.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 18, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
Your Facebook page, Instagram page, Google My Business account, your LinkedIn, and god forbid any of you have a Parler account, but they’re all not your property. Running your business on the back of those properties is like going to your local cafe and setting up shop at a table. Putting up a little sign with Married By John Citizen on it, and accepting meetings and enquiries there. It might be ok for the longest period of time (thanks for hosting me, Sisterhood Coffee), but at any time that business owner can ask you to leave and not come back.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 16, 2021 | Training |
A friend asks me today what the quickest way is to complete the Cert IV in Celebrancy, the qualification needed to become a celebrant in Australia. Friends of my friend reckon she’d be a great celebrant and they’d like her to marry them.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Feb 6, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
It’s been a weird year behind us as a wedding industry. I don’t want to dwell on it...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jan 31, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
A celebrant has written in to the Celebrant Institute asking the question: “How can I, and should I, accept crypto currency for celebrancy?”
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jan 31, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
I recently spoke via video at the Wedding Business CEO Summit and spoke on the process of creating a customer journey. My talk was called There’s A Fraction Too Much Friction: Automation For Your Customer Journey. I believe this is an important and valuable topic for all wedding business people to get in their life, and I’m so glad I get to share it with Celebrant Institute members.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jan 26, 2021 | The Art of Ceremony |
First Australians have been marrying for thousands of years on the land we now call Australia. Terra Australis, the southern land, was home to people well before the Dutch or the British “discovered” it, so as much as Australian law requires us to identify that we the celebrants are authorised to marry people according to Australian law, common decency would see us acknowledge the truth of the land we stand on to create ceremony.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jan 25, 2021 | The Business of Celebrancy |
“I’ve a question about that first meeting – I’ve met a few couples, tried coming from different angles ie. Asking what they have in mind for their ceremony, how they met, build rapport, let them talk or I do most of the talking – introducing myself and how I help them with my process and system. Have not sealed the deal. What do you recommend as discussion points for the first meeting, for high chances of booking soon after?”
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jan 22, 2021 | Marketing and Social Media |
Google, in light of legislation being introduced in Australia, has threatened to pull out of the Australian market. I’m sure they won’t, if only because they won’t walk away and leave $59 billion of income on the table and destroy the trust in their brand over a couple of dollars being paid to news organisations.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 31, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Social media, and humanity in general, can become a little bit self-indulgent at times. It’s our tribal, animalistic nature, to look after one’s self first. But something beautiful happens when you turn the camera away from yourself, when you shift the spotlight onto someone else.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 27, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Your challenge today is to create an entertaining meme. Not an educational meme, or an instructional meme, or a demonstratable meme. Today we meme for fun.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 23, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today’s challenge is a little more casual after some intense training days, and it’s about Quora.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 19, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today your challenge is to write non-stop for five minutes.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 15, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
In the beginning there was the text, and the text was good. It was all we knew. We called it ASCII, ASCII codes represent text in computers. When I first used a personal computer in 1991 “computer graphics” were mostly just text in the shape of graphics, like this was a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And despite us inventing all of the great technologies that allow us to view videos, blogs, photos, and the rest online, in today’s challenge, we’re sticking with the original: text.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 12, 2020 | The Art of Celebrancy |
For almost the past three years an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil has been my computer that left the home. I’d always loved a Mac but I predominantly left that at my desk and if I left the office for a marriage ceremony, a meeting, a photoshoot or for travel, I would take my iPad Pro.
I’ve written the story of how that’s no longer the case on my personal blog. It’s a two parter, the first part is introducing a new Apple Silicon Macbook Air which replaces my previous MacBook in speed and power, along with replacing my iPad Pro’s portability, responsiveness, and ability to run iOS apps.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 11, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Here’s a chart that tells a story about my business. Before you read on or scroll, what story do you think it’s telling?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 7, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today you get a rare and direct peek into my brain. This next diagram explains how I think about content.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 5, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media |
David Placek is the branding genius behind some of the biggest names in the technology world. The words Sonos, Intel Pentium, Apple PowerBook, Blackberry, Gimlet podcasts (home of Reply All), and the Impossible burger, all came from David’s branding company, Lexicon Branding. In 2014 Placek released a book which I’d love to read – but can’t find for purchase. Luckily for me, and for you, Om Malik recapped the book in his blog recently.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Dec 3, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
We’re on the home stretch in this social media challenge, and you guys are absolutely nailing the challenge to the wall, good work!
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 30, 2020 | COVID-19 |
Many governments are requiring people running events to collect data about who attends the event using QR codes and web forms. Your legal responsibilities regarding COVID and COVIDSafe plans are your responsibility and this article in no way communicates what you must do regarding COVID and any safety plans. But if you need to collect data about people attending a wedding or funeral you are attending, this is a quick and easy way of doing it safely and responsibly.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 29, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
I started this little streak of content prompts highlighting the fact that there five different kinds of good content. This is the fifth: demonstratable content.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 25, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today’s challenge, once more without stipulation of network or medium, is to entertain us.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 21, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today’s challenge is to mentally stimulate us, to make us feel something, something creative,...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 17, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Good morning students! Today you’re all teachers and we’re taking your audience back to school.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 13, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
There are five different kinds of good content. Before you click post on anything, ever, forever, it should be at least one. If it’s two, you might get a like, three and you’re having a party, four and you just put a hashtag in front of the word winning.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 9, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today’s challenge is 98% in your hands, 1% in the calendar’s hands, and 1% from me.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 5, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Ansel Adams said that we don’t take a photograph, we make it. Your challenge today is to make a...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Nov 1, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
One of my favourite uses of Instagram’s Story feature is to document the behind the scenes of what I’m doing. I see a number of benefits to the occasional behind the scenes personal documentary.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 31, 2020 | Free Podcast |
After meeting with the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section of the Attorney-General’s...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 26, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today we’re taking that controversial thought in your mind, and we’re turning it all the way up to [eleven, Spinal Tap style].
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 22, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today’s challenge is an easy one, you already know everything about it, the key to the challenge though is 1. Articulating it, 2. Telling it, and 3. Sharing it to as many mediums as possible
Today we’re telling your genesis story, the story of how you started, why you started, and how you felt you could do something important and different.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 20, 2020 | The Art of Celebrancy |
It’s a weird world in 2020, one where our workload has significantly decreased, yet in other...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 18, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
If someone speaks well of you, you’ve got to remember that, embed it deep into your soul, and know that you’re good at this.
And once you’ve done that you need to share that testimony
There’s a whole philosophy behind referrals and testimonies, but I’m not sharing them today, because I’m not a psychologist; I’m just a boy, standing in front a celebrant, asking them to testify! Testimonies about how you are good at what you do, and you do it in a certain way that makes a certain kind of person happy.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 14, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
In computer programming there’s a method of program called Object Oriented Programming, which recognises that some parts of the program are reused a lot. The programmers write the code once, then reuse it every time they need it.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 10, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Who would ever think that there would be a need for an [International Day for Nutella] to raise awareness of the delicious nutty goodness? Sara Rosso did.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 6, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Podcasts are so much more powerful than most people imagine. My little podcast, [The Rebel’s Guide to Getting Married], has maybe…
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 2, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
I’m willing to bet that you have received a question about what you do before today, and you’ve hit reply with a really good answer.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Oct 1, 2020 | Training |
For your ongoing professional development as a Commonwealth authorised marriage celebrant in 2021, only four hours will be provided by your OPD trainer. One hour of your five hour commitment will be delivered by the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section of the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 30, 2020 | Free Podcast |
Sarah chats to Tasmanian celebrant Kathleen Pavlic-Ryan about the brand new online registration system available through Births, Deaths, and Marriages Tasmania!
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 29, 2020 | Our Guidelines to Australian Marriage Law |
Luke asks: One of my couples that had a Qld wedding booked, now want to change the ceremony location to NSW since the new border easing. What do I need to know and how do I go about doing a wedding in NSW? Is there a set criteria that determines the couples eligibility for getting married over the border into NSW?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 29, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Today’s challenge is to find something boring (like a carrot) yet necessary (like vegetables are for your diet) in your business
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 25, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Every month you should re-introduce yourself to your social media audience. I think you’d be surprised how many don’t really know you for the real “you”, and those that do, could probably do with a brand re-alignment.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 23, 2020 | COVID-19, The Business of Celebrancy |
A reader asks: “I have a handful of elopement related questions, and I think they will be more relevant than ever given how our world has changed in 2020 and how weddings have changed/will change in the coming year(s).
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 21, 2020 | Social Media Content Challenge |
Making lemonade out of lemons is a popular story, obviously backed by Big Lemonade, but it...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 20, 2020 | The Art of Ceremony |
Tam asks: I have my first wedding coming up next month. My question is in regards to using my PA system. I have Bose S1 with Sennheiser microphone. The wedding is only small (approximately 10 guests). Would you use a PA system? They are having a videographer so I didn’t know if this would play into whether or not to use it? If you suggest not using it, at what size wedding would you? Also I have not yet brought a stand. Is this an absolute must/do you recommend any particular brand/price point to aim for to get a decent one? Complete newbie with all this stuff!
All good questions, Tamika, and I’ll address them separately.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 16, 2020 | Our Guidelines to Australian Marriage Law |
There’s a new fact sheet on the Attorny-General’s department website on correcting marriage paperwork, and it’s an important read. Luckily for us, our own Sarah Aird heavily impacted the final draft. We’re copying and pasting the fact sheet here, but find the original on the AGD website.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 15, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media, Social Media Content Challenge |
I’m writing a social media challenge for Celebrant Institute members to see out 2020…
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Sep 4, 2020 | COVID-19, The Business of Celebrancy |
An Australian wedding celebrant directory recently emailed it’s members guilt-tripping them into keeping non-refundable deposits. What a guy.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 22, 2020 | The Art of Celebrancy |
Neil Gaiman made a speech on May 17, 2012, as the keynote speech for the commencement ceremony to...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 14, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media |
Gail asks: Sooo… your couple love you and want to leave a review! Where is the best place/s for them leave this review to really market your business and what links would you send them?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 12, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media |
A Celebrant Institute member was listening to back catalogue episodes of the Celebrant Talk Show...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 10, 2020 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Seth Godin today writing about charging per hour, something I still see celebrants do. I wrote about the same topic a year ago so it’s nice to have beat Seth Godin to something for once.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 7, 2020 | COVID-19, The Art of Ceremony |
A celebrant enquired today about a couple who wanted to do a live stream of their wedding to family in Europe, but the celebrant didn’t know where to start or what to do. I thought it was a good prompt for me to remind celebrants of what we do have to do, and what we don’t have to do.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 7, 2020 | The Business of Celebrancy |
222 reasons why professionally operating marriage celebrants should secure their domain name registrar account and make sure their domain name is on auto renew.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 7, 2020 | The Art of Ceremony |
A member asks: Am I correct in assuming that couple’s cannot live stream their marriage ceremony given music copyright...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 6, 2020 | Our Guidelines to Australian Marriage Law |
The Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, all have their own online systems for logging in online and submitting marriage paperwork electronically. The Australian Capital Territory BDM doesn’t have an online system, but they do accept via email.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 4, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media |
Instagram’s latest feature ‘Reels’ is in addition to it’s existing product suite of regular Instagram news feed posts, Stories, and IGTV. This is a deep dive into how celebrants and people in the wedding industry can take advantage of Instagram Reels.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Aug 2, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media |
A solid foundation of my business success as a celebrant has lay in the realm of good publicity. Good publicity can’t make a filling business profitable, or an unskilled celebrant, talented, but if you’re already rocking a good business operating system, and your ceremonies are resonating with people and getting good reviews, publicity is the cream on top that helps more couples find you, and book you. In this article I wanted to lay out a few tools that I have used in the past, and continue to use today, to “get my name out there” but in a very deliberate and meaningful way.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 28, 2020 | The Business of Celebrancy |
Gail asks: Hi Josh. You mentioned in one of the podcasts that you use ToDoist to organise your projects. Could you please run me through how you utilise this as I am also a ToDoist fan.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 25, 2020 | Community News, COVID-19 |
Just a quick note for members of the Celebrant Institute, your membership management, updating of cards, changing plans, logging in, and just using it, has become a whole lot easier. It’s involved four weeks of work on my...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 19, 2020 | Marketing and Social Media |
10 ways to make wedding fairs, wedding directories, wedding blogs, wedding magazines, expos, and virtual wedding fairs, work for you.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jul 13, 2020 | Community News |
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.
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jun 25, 2020 | The Business of Celebrancy |
If you’ve been lucky enough to create a marriage ceremony recently, and it was in New South...
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jun 23, 2020 | The Art of Ceremony |
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?
Read MorePosted by Josh Withers | Jun 22, 2020 | The Art of Ceremony |
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.
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