The adventures of a London wedding celebrant travelling across the country and Europe for an epic year of weddings… 

Well, what a year for weddings 2022 has been!

A combination of the word about celebrant-led ceremonies being truly OUT (yes – we no longer seem to be a niche thing that few people know about! Woohoo!) and the knock-on impact of two years marred by covid and wedding cancellations has meant that 2022 really has been a bumper year for many celebrants I know. The first full year without covid interruption since 2019 has meant that there’s been quite the backlog of couples getting married or having “sequel” weddings to celebrate properly after compromising with tiny registry office affairs during lockdown.

But first – I want to come back to that first point. Celebrants have been growing in popularity for many years. As a guest, once you’ve been invited to a celebrant-led wedding, you tend to have very little desire to have a registrar marry you when your turn comes around. Yet still, there seems to have been a bit of a leap forward in awareness of celebrants and all we do very recently, and there are more people than ever training and working in this field. Things have possibly been accelerated further by the campaign for legal recognition spearheaded by Humanists UK and its wide publicity.

And apparently, celebrant wedding ceremonies are set to become one of the biggest “wedding trends” for next year. Guide for Brides, Hitched and Luxury Lifestyle Magazine have all mentioned celebrant and humanist ceremonies as a key 2023 wedding trend. I mean, I’m not a fan of “trends” in general…especially when celebrants have been around for, quite literally, decades. But I AM a fan of anything that helps to push us more and more into the mainstream and popular consciousness. So on this occasion, I’ll happily take being “on trend,” thank you very much!

So, what did my 2022 have in store?

30 weddings, including a few vow renewals. Traversing across the UK…from ceremonies in London (maaaany times) to the Cotswolds, Kent, Suffolk AND across Europe – including Lake Como, Berlin and the South of France.

Some highlights included:

-        A secret wedding, where only the couple and I knew it wasn’t an engagement party – but they were actually getting married!

-        Jetting off to Lake Como for an awesome wedding in the House of Gucci house. Wish I could say more about this one, but I signed an NDA didn’t I (shhhhhh)

-        An awesome Jubilee wedding that featured countless references to Craig David and his importance in the couple’s union. They tried to get Mr. David to make an appearance – it turns out his fee is eye-watering, so we had to improvise.

-        Marrying one of my best friends and his husband at an epic wedding in Berlin. A super intimate ceremony full of laughter and tears that set the tone for the all-night party that followed. For the first dance, the grooms did a costume change into brides. And there was a drag dress up area and art installations all over the venue.

-        The cutest wedding at the Holford Arms in the Cotswolds (…although arriving straight from a redeye flight from Canada to the wedding wasn’t a highlight! Never again!)

-        The most fun wedding award went to a dreamy south London do in a wine shop…which featured a mid-ceremony quiz, a Beatles singalong, group vows, words of wisdom from long-married family members and a ring warming

-        Ten festival-style weddings (my fave!) Of the 30 I did this year, exactly half of them were outside

-        Getting stung by a wasp on the face as I spoke the opening words of a ceremony at a garden wedding in Kent. OK – so this wasn’t strictly a highlight, but I surprised myself with the way I dealt with it (…literally didn’t skip a beat, despite the searing pain and internal freak out that ensued. Maximum pro level achieved!)

-        Four weddings at Trinity Buoy Wharf and three at Asylum Chapel, some of my favorite London venue spots

-        Several weddings that featured dogs as ring bearers…some more unruly than others!

-        Getting to stand on the stage of the fabulous Wiltons Music Hall to marry people

-        Marrying the most rock ‘n’ roll couple ever at the epic Butley Priory in Suffolk. Featuring a shot to seal the deal and their legendary French Bulldog who sat on the bride’s veil throughout the ceremony. I may or may not have spoken a word likely never uttered in the history of wedding ceremonies for this one, too…. you’ll have to slide into my DM’s to find out more!

-        This year I did three weddings for friends and a vow renewal for my parents…which was such an honour. Getting to marry people you love is always the most special

And of course, getting to meet the most awesome couples. I know it sounds implausible, but I really do love all the couples I marry! I certainly get to know them in a pretty unique way. It’s such an honour to be able to share one of the most magical moments of people’s lives with them and fly alongside them in creating a beautiful moment for their friends and family.

Amongst it all, I managed to fit in some downtime (and cocktails) across loads of lovely hangs with celebrant pals. Another personal highlight was being a regional finalist at the Wedding Industry Awards.

2023 is shaping up to be just as great, with a record number of weddings booked already. Until then, I’m investing in some much-needed R&R before the chaos begins!

You can see all the incredible weddings from this year by checking out my gallery and reading up on testimonials.

Over and out, 2022