11/12/2025
What is a celebrant! Is a question I still get asked?
“A Celebrant means “a person who leads a ceremony such as a Marriage or a Funeral”, is professionally qualified person, usually from a non-clergy background, who is trained to officiate Funeral & Wedding ceremonies”.
Let me describe the differences of each.
The answer may be a little confusing as there are two main types Independent Civil and Humanist Celebrants and apparently now, we have Registrar Celebrants.
I want all couples to be able to make the right choice, an informed choice - just make sure when you are planning a wedding you know the differences!
Although the titles include the word Celebrants but don’t make the mistake of thinking that they are the same.
Both the humanist and independent celebrants specialise in delivering ceremonies that reflect your love story, values, and personality. Whether you’re dreaming of a laid-back beach wedding, a romantic woodland ceremony, or an elegant event in a stately home, these celebrants can create a bespoke experience that’s uniquely yours.
Humanist celebrants focus on entirely secular ceremonies. Their approach is grounded in humanity and reason, celebrating love and commitment without religious content. However, there is some flexibility which includes readings, hymns, or music. Some (not all) Humanists will allow originally written for praise or worship to be included if they are meaningful to you.
What humanist ceremonies cannot include are explicit acts of worship (such as prayers or blessings).
Independent celebrants have no restrictions on the content of your ceremony. This makes them the perfect choice if you want to blend elements of faith with non-religious traditions or if you’re planning a completely unique celebration. An independent celebrant has more freedom: they can include whatever the couple want in the ceremony. Equally, they are comfortable with performing an entirely non-religious ceremony.
An independent celebrant can Incorporate acts of worship such as prayers or blessings.
They will include cultural or spiritual rituals, like handfasting or lighting a unity candle, etc.
Deliver an entirely secular ceremony if that’s what you prefer or some such as I can give you a fully religious ceremony without the legal coupling. (see below)
Their flexibility means they can meet the needs of couples from all faiths, mixed-faith backgrounds, or those who identify as spiritual but not religious.
Registrars have now been training some of their staff as Celebrants.
As a Registrar Celebrant they offer a fully legal ceremony but with a lot of restrictions.
Their marriage ceremonies, offer more choice than they ever did before, but they can not offer you the same flexibility, choices of venues or the time that an Independent Celebrant does.
They can call themselves what they want but they will still have to obey the Government rules and regulations- Independent Celebrants do not.
These are the main differences between the three parties as I believe.
To get the legal aspect of marriage out of the way all you need to do is as follows.
Ask for a 2x2 statutory registration ceremony, this is a ceremony for the couple plus two witnesses and this is often a cheaper option too depending for which one of the three registrations you choose and is offered at your local Register Office - complete with the legal paperwork for your marriage.
Once this done you can then have a fully loaded ceremony by a celebrant that will create the dream wedding day ceremony. (you could have the ceremony and get the legal ceremony later if you have a specific date that the registrar can’t accommodate).
If you want a Celebrant wedding and not a Registrar wedding then please contact me for more information.
