A wise woman once told me, “Not every day is a wedding day, Meg.*” Despite that being quite obviously true, frankly it was a sucker-punch to me. At the time I had a romanticised image of being a celebrant which involved wearing classy outfits, visiting gorgeous venues and celebrating true love with blissed out couples every day.
Don’t get me wrong, the image wasn’t completely distorted. I *do* get to live that dream on about 30 days each year, when I actually conduct ceremonies (for instance check out this beaut of a day: Chris and Greg's handfasting). But given that there’s 365 days in a year, being a Sheffield wedding celebrant is not ALL about the drama and emotion of wedding ceremonies. It turns out there’s far more to it than that.
*Full credit to the wisdom of Jessica Sharpe – Wedding Planner
A day in the life of a Sheffield wedding celebrant – But why?
Why am I telling you about a day in my life? I’m giving you a snapshot of a day in the life of a Sheffield wedding celebrant, partly because I know you’re nosey (soz but it's true), and partly to answer the question I get asked a whole lot: “Do you love your job?”
My answer of course is always yes, but if I’m being totally transparent the real answer is, “Yes, parts of it. But not every day is a wedding day, and sometimes I have to do mundane things too.” The thing is, I’m not complaining at all. I’m just being honest in the interests of authenticity, and so that you’re not too sick with jealousy when you imagine me prancing around as an eternal wedding guest.
Sheffield wedding celebrant reveals... something you might not know
Here’s something you might not know about celebrants: The majority of wedding celebrants have portfolio careers, meaning that marrying people is just one of their roles. I, on the other hand, am solely a wedding celebrant (job-wise I mean. Naturally I’m also an aunty, a dog-mum, a friend, wife, sister and cousin – All roles I love!) So on any given day I will be busy being a Sheffield wedding celebrant, never doing a different role.
Every day I’m 100% celebrant-ing… But only around 30 days a year are ceremony days, so – What does a Sheffield wedding celebrant get up to on an average day?
A day in the life of a Sheffield wedding celebrant
First up I head to my co-working office in Sheffield city centre. I do have a desk at home but I miss the company when I work there.
I’m a super sociable person and having your own business can be surprisingly lonely. I personally prefer to be in an environment with other worker bees, rather than sitting at home. I’m waaaaaay more productive, plus seeing other humans gives me the motivation to wear real clothes (not just my at-home uniform of cosy joggers and my husband’s jumpers).
Once I’m set up at the office, my day is made up of:
1) Behind the scenes work to raise visibility and take new bookings
Chemistry calls and responding to enquiries
(You can book in for a chemistry call here if you're interested loves!) These are the initial conversations I have with potential clients via video call, and email conversations about my Sheffield wedding celebrant services.
Marketing
Between 50-75% of my time each week is dedicated to marketing. Sometimes I head out to a wedding venue to collaborate with other suppliers on an inspo photoshoot. On the most part though you can imagine me tippy-typing away.
I’m usually found writing blog posts, submitting articles to be featured on wedding sites, planning social media content, working on my Pinterest, applying for directory listings and preparing for (or following up from) wedding shows.
Business admin, branding and mindset
It sounds boring but being a Sheffield wedding celebrant includes a fair amount of bog-standard admin. Luckily I’ve got a background in events and fundraising so I’m reasonably au fait with spreadsheets and databases. When I’m procrastinating (if I can’t bring myself to write a blog post or new article) I fiddle with my finance and budget stuff and pretend to myself that I’m being productive. Don’t judge me.
2) Looking after my clients
Client admin
This involves onboarding new couples, sending out contracts and invoices, scheduling planning meetings, liaising about script details and generally helping smooth the whole ceremony planning process. (I’m sh*t hot with admin even if I do say so myself. The last thing you want is a wedding supplier who is unprofessional and disorganised!)
Writing ceremony scripts
This is the majority of my workload (aside from marketing). I go in-depth on my scripts and get fully submerged in the process. I can’t produce a highly personalised, utterly exceptional ceremony script worthy of your wedding day without putting the hours in.
Client meetings
Of course I do also meet my couples in real life too. Often we meet on evenings or weekends, so during the week I prepare for our discussions by reading through my client’s love stories. I love this part of my job!
And that my friends is an idea of what I get up to on the 335 days or so that I’m not conducting ceremonies. Is it all you dreamed of and more?!
When I first became a Sheffield wedding celebrant, I didn’t know if I could hack the amount of marketing to be honest! But now I remember those wise words, “Not every day is a wedding day.” They help me keep in mind that all the work I’m doing in the background is helping more awesome couples find out about my services. Ultimately my non-wedding work leads to more cool, out of this world weddings so I can handle it after all I guess!
Is that all a Sheffield wedding celebrant does?
What about outside of work? In order to be balanced, I should tell you that I do have tonnes of interests outside of celebrant-ing. I’m a runner, I love cold water swimming and my little dog, Nergal, takes me out for walks. Mr Senior and I read a lot of comics, watch scary movies and generally geek around together.
Want to know more? See, I knew you were nosey. Get in touch to chat about your wedding and I promise, if you want me to, I will waffle on about my dog. He is the good-est boy in Sheffield and he definitely wants to be your friend.
All images on this page were taken by Hannah Brooke. Hannah is a Yorkshire wedding photographer for fun-loving, colourful couples. She is also my friend and a hero of epic proportions. If you haven't booked your photographer yet, check her out!