Terms

So although I am excited to create a ceremony for you, and as enthusiastic about your Ceremony as it is possible to be, I also want you to know that you are in a safe pair of hands, and that everything I do for you, and with you, will be aimed towards providing you with a professional service, with high standards of work, support and advice, from an experienced, qualified and fully insured wedding professional. And for this reason, I do want you to read and understand, and yes, question if you need to, my Terms and Conditions, which are set out here.

As an independent Celebrant I can offer you a beautiful personalised Wedding Ceremony filled with love, laughter, dreams, family and create amazing memories, for you and your guests.

There are no restrictions in terms of time of day, date, location, content or format.  It can be religious or secular, or a combination. However, I must make clear that it is not a legally binding one, although the Vows you say represent your full commitment to one another.  They are your Wedding Vows, and are as,  if not more, meaningful as the contracting and declaratory words you say in front of a Registrar.   Your love story, your dreams, goals, and the way in which you wish to celebrate your Marriage, will be totally unique, and represent you both in an authentic, personal and heart-centred Ceremony.

If you wish to register your marriage legally, you must contact the Registrar for Births Deaths and Marriages and hold a standard service in their offices, with two witnesses either before or after your Celebrant-led ceremony.  Alternatively you may also consider to form a Civil Partnership, instead of a Marriage, and again this should be done via the Registration Services.

No work will commence until a signed copy of the Booking Form is received together with your Booking Fee which shall be deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions. All work is original and will remain my copyright until it is approved by you, after which you have the right to keep the work and amend it as you so wish for your own personal use.  However, you do not have the right to share this work, sell it, or use it without my express permission.
The fee is broken down into three staged payments as follows:
Stage 1 – Booking Fee: £200 / Euro 200 (non-refundable). 

This closes off your date, time, ceremony location to any other enquirers, and allows me to begin working with you, and communicating with you about your ceremony, any initial research that I may undertake to create a truly personalised ceremony, and covers all the time spent initially liaising with you.

Stage 2 – Draft Ceremony Fee £450 / Euro450 (non-refundable)
This payment ensures that I am paid for the hours of work I will have undertaken to write the first draft.  It is fully expected that there will be revisions required to this draft and there is no limit to how many revisions may be required.  The draft fee is due when the first draft has been emailed or posted to you and you have received it.  All work will remain in draft format until you have given your final approval by email that you are happy with the work, which will then be entitled Final Script and will be used for your Ceremony.  I will also provide Ceremonial Certificates and drafts of these at no extra cost.

I will create your Wedding Ceremony Script in a “presentation format” – properly edited, all cues removed, and presented in a lovely stationery folder for you as a keepsake, along with your Vows Booklet and any other printed material I have created for you, e.g. Readings
Stage 3 -Balance of Payment:

This is due not later than 28 days prior to your event. I will provide an invoice/notification if requested.  In unusual circumstances, such as we have experienced during COVID19, I am happy to discuss more flexible payment arrangements, but no Ceremony will be conducted before a final payment is received.
I will confirm receipt of your Booking Fee as soon as it is received into my account and I will send you the Couple’s Questionnaire which should be completed by each of you.   The information given will be used to construct the story of your relationship, so please ensure you only share what you are happy for your friends and family to learn about, but also please understand that the more information you share with me, the more authentic and personal your ceremony will be.  Unless you ask me to create a “Surprise Ceremony” for you, you have full editorial control over what the final ceremony script will contain, there should be no sudden surprises on your Wedding Day.
When returning the questionnaire by post please ensure you take a copy of it in full prior to posting in case it gets lost in transit.  If you have the equipment to scan (or complete the questionnaire electronically) and return it by email it would be the most secure and safest option.
Cancellations:  In the event that I have to cancel due to circumstances outside of my control (and these circumstances would have to be dire) I will in the first instance attempt to secure another Fellowship Celebrant to conduct the ceremony as we have written it, and make payment to that celebrant without any additional costs being incurred by you.  In the event that I am unable to secure another Fellowship Celebrant, I will refund the Balance of payment to you to enable you to either have a friend or other trusted person to conduct the ceremony or find another Celebrant to conduct your ceremony.

For ceremonies in Europe or elsewhere, should a cancellation by me ever be necessary, then I will engage the services of another professional celebrant at no cost to you and any fees paid, will be passed to them in full (should there be any outstanding amount due then I will pass along their details so that you can make payment to them).  If you are booked through a Wedding Planner in Germany or elsewhere, then I will arrange for any monies to be refunded to them, and for them to provide you with another professional, qualified Celebrant so that your ceremony is never at risk in any way.  I hope you find these terms fair and reasonable, and you have my reassurance that I will do everything I can, to ensure your ceremony goes ahead smoothly.
In the event that you should want to cancel my services the following will need to be considered:  None of the staged payments are refunded. I may have turned down other work to save the date exclusively for you.  If the draft has been written and is in your possession, then I have the right and expectation to have been paid for this work.  If the cancellation is made no later than 14 days before the ceremony is to take place, then the balance of payment will not become due.  Cancellations by you later than this will mean forfeiture of the balance of payment.
The price quoted is based on information available at the time of quotation.  Later changes to your requirements e.g. change of ceremony location may incur additional costs to me and will be discussed with you and any increase in price will agreed with you and invoiced at the time of change.

COVID 19 Cancellations and Postponements – Where possible and practicable I would love to continue to be your Celebrant, subject to my availability. I will be happy to postpone and reschedule without any premium or other charge, and without asking you for any increase in price that I might have made, therefore offering you the ceremony at your original quoted rate.  If however, I am not available on your rescheduled date, then the initial Booking Fee will remain with me as I closed off the date and began working with and for you from that time onwards, and if I have written and sent you your Ceremony Script, then that Balance would also remain with me, as it would be for work completed.  However, we will be in constant communication and I will endeavour not to place you in any adverse economic position –  so would only write your ceremony where it was absolutely certain that your ceremony would go forward.  I hope you find this fair and reasonable but please do talk to me about your own feelings, views, and concerns.
Where timescales permit ideally your ceremony should be completed and ready to print no later than 28 days prior to the ceremony taking place.  In order for this to happen that we each agree to respond to information requests in a timely manner, where a response to an email message or phone message is not received within 48 hours it is the message sender’s responsibility to follow up the contact with a friendly reminder.

My writing style is unique to me and will be completely different to how you or anyone else may phrase sentences and this should be taken into consideration when reading or editing your ceremony and it should not be considered a failure on my part if you do not like how I have phrased or worded your ceremony content.

I will work closely with you to ensure the structure, content and flow of the ceremony reflects you as a couple and will do all I can to meet your requirements so that you have a wonderful, meaningful and personal wedding ceremony
The content of your ceremony may be guided and assisted by you, but each draft and final copy will remain my intellectual property.  You will of course receive copies to amend and annotate, and a final approved copy will be emailed to you which you are free to share with family and friends, but is not to be used for further commercial activity.

I will work closely with you to ensure you are completely happy with the ceremony and see the ceremony as a collaboration between all of us.  I agree to hold your details confidentially and not breach any laws regarding the holding and storing and use of your data.

I may from time to time contact you again via phone or email to send you further copies of your script, or on anniversaries to send you my good wishes.  I may also request your feedback on my services for use on my social media sites.  With the new Data Protection Regulations that are effective since May 2018, please also read my Data and Privacy Policy

I will not use any photographs taken by either your photographer or by me, without your permission and will always credit your photographer for any of their images used on my website or social media sites. I respect your privacy and will not use your names or personal information on social media or website without your express permission.  My enthusiasm for your ceremony might mean that I post prior information on my social media, but this will in no way identify who you are – often I anonymise and only use terms such as “couple” or use your initials.  I hope in this way I can both express my enthusiasm and love for my role as a Celebrant to current and potential couples and respect your privacy.  If you are in any way uncomfortable about how I process or would use media and information please mention this to me.

Thank you for choosing me as your Celebrant, for your special occasion.  It will be my honour and pleasure to work with you to ensure your Ceremony is exactly as you would wish it to be.

 

Equality and Diversity Statement

I positively welcome and aim to support the growing diversity of the community that I serve as a Celebrant, where everyone can feel safe, or welcome.  I will not discriminate indirectly or directly by association, on the grounds of race, gender, gender reassignment, marital or partnership status, sexual orientation, age, religious belief, HIV status, or disability.

I understand that equality and diversity are still major issues in all our communities.  I will endeavour through my work, my own development, and my dealings with all I meet, to act as an ally, a positive and supportive advocate and a strong voice against discrimination when I come across it.  There is always much more to learn, and I will keep myself up to date and adapt my business so that everyone who accesses my services will feel acknowledged, and accepted.

I celebrate diversity, and respect each person’s right to live as their authentic selves, and as the unique human being that they are.  I am a member of the Fellowship of Professional Celebrants, and uphold a comprehensive Code of Practice . I take part in ongoing professional development in order to bring only the best service possible to all my clients.