For most people, getting married is a once in a lifetime activity and something to be cherished for times to come. The role of the marriage celebrant is not just to solemnize the wedding but to conduct the proceedings in an orderly way. It would be a heaven-sent to have a celebrant who understands the role to perfection and conducts himself and the ceremonies in the most suitable way.
The qualities of a marriage celebrant
Some of the more popular marriage celebrants are known to have certain traits which can be listed out in brief below. The points mentioned here are not the ends to the functions of the celebrant, but they form a measurable quality to the services rendered by the functionary at the typical wedding.
Organised
It is a must that the celebrant is organised in the manners of the ceremonies. Nowadays, it is common to have various themes used to celebrate the right occasion, and unless the person is well organised, it would be difficult to conduct the ceremony to the best possible way. This does not necessarily mean that the celebrant has to be good at organizing but that he should be able to mix in with the trend of the ceremony as it happens at the location.
On time
There have been a few occasions when late marriage celebrants have not gone unnoticed. However, popular and credible marriage celebrants like Dr Jonathan Toussaint remain very much alive to the situation and hence maintain a policy of always arriving early to the service instead of being late even by a minute. This might seem somewhat frivolous, but the fact is that the late celebrant is sure to create many mismatches in time with other supporting services that go along with a marriage. Reputations of marriage celebrants have been made and broken on this single factor of keeping proper times to services.
Cordial
A wedding is not a one-person show, and it involves a rather motley crowd of people most of the time. A right marriage celebrant must be able to mingle in with and conduct the ceremonies with no favour or rancour to any of the affected parties on occasion. More than once, there have been instances when it is the likeability of the celebrant that saved what would have been otherwise a rather disturbing set of events.
Understanding
The typical marriage celebrant does not have much choice as to whom to marry to each other. Thus, there needs to be an understanding of the circumstances during those times, and the celebrant must be willing to be flexible enough to conduct the ceremony with the least bit of hindrance. Few people appreciate the work of a right marriage celebrant when everything goes on well, but the single mistake would be remembered and quoted for time to come.
Solemnizing marriages is not the easiest of functions even for the most experienced of celebrants. However, some specific performance criteria to bring in a measurable quality to the performance of the candidate than otherwise.
