It may surprise you to hear that there are options when it comes to who conducts your ceremony and there are pros and cons to each!
Registrar
Firstly and probably most importantly a registrar ceremony is legally binding, so even if you have a celebrant you do still need to have a registrar ceremony as some point, but this can be done at a registry office, before or after your celebrant ceremony.
There are some strict rules around registrar ceremonies that are worth baring in mind, you cannot have any alcohol before your ceremony, you must have an interview before hand and there can be no religious or spiritual elements to your ceremony – often making them pretty short (a good or bad thing depending on which way you look at it!)
There are also rules around where you can have a registrar ceremony, the building you are getting married in needs to be licensed, so you couldn't for example have a ceremony with a registrar in your mums garden!
Celebrant
Celebrants are self-employed and pride themselves on creating bespoke ceremonies for their couples, they work with you before the day and create a ceremony that is more of a reflection of you and your partner. You are able to give your guests a drink before your ceremony if you would like and can have elements in your service that you wouldn’t be able to have in your registrar ceremony.
There is of course a cost involved and you do still need to have a legally binding ceremony to be recognised legally as married.
Remember, it is your day and you can have which ever you would prefer!
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