One of the things I love about being a celebrant is hearing people’s stories.
For weddings, I have a detailed set of ‘couple’s questions’ and I send them on to the couples for them to have a look at usually before we meet to begin working on their ceremony. Then when we do get together we go through them, I a kind of cosy interview style.
It’s amazing what they tell me. I hear beautiful vignettes about their life journey, when and how they first met and how they got engaged and what they are looking forward to in the future.
Each story is unique and what I have found is, that the engagement stories usually have an element of either humour or near disaster. I’ve heard stories of rings being carried half way around the world to some exotic destination only to have the suitcase it is hidden away in go on its own journey as the luggage gets lost on the way. It’s funny how the luggage always finds its way back and it all turns out well in the end!
There are stories of nervous almost fiancés breaking out in cold-sweats just waiting for the right moment to pop the question and behaving in very odd ways. One groom-to-be had his ‘ask’ written up in the sky, he endured some very anxious moments as it was turning out to be a very, very windy day! Luckily the wind died down, and the aerial sign-writer could do his job.
I recently heard a story of an engagement ring being hidden for almost year before the timing was right. And during that time the house was robbed, not once but twice! Fortunately the ring was very well hidden.
But in every situation, whatever, however the question gets popped, whether the timing is bang on or askew, by the time the couple contacts me, it’s all systems go to create their ceremony.
Most couples love having their engagement story included as part of their ceremony, it creates a poignant, or sometimes really humorous element to the narrative. But every so often a couple might feel like that part of their story is just for them, and we leave it out.
What I have found over the years, and it is shared amongst pretty well all couples I’ve had the privilege of marrying, is there comes a time in their life that they realise they can’t live their life without that other incredible person in it. That realisation may be slow to come to fruition, sometimes it comes like a bolt out of the blue, sometimes they may have known it all along.
I love hearing the stories that belong wholly and solely to my couples and love finding ways to share their narrative in a way that makes sense to them and celebrates them in all their beautiful, weird and crazy uniqueness. I love that bit after the ceremony, when someone sidles up to me and says ‘That was just the perfect ceremony for ………..’
Being a celebrant – It’s just about the best job in the world!
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