Free courage inside + the Bose S1 Pro+ review, why it's not right for celebrants

For the fifteen years I've been clawing my way through and up the wedding industry I've heard idle conversation about how it's a slow week/month/year, or how because it's summer/autumn/winter/spring, and because of whatever they talked about on the news today. We love a good excuse as to why enquiries or bookings are down.

It might well be true, but what's also true is that people are not going to stop getting married, and if we can't even convince the Attorney-General to allow us to witness the signing of a NOIM over a FaceTime call then I'm guessing computers won't replace celebrants just yet (famous last words).

So on this September 1st, 2023, edition of the Celebrant Institue monthly email I wanted to encourage all and sundry who identify as celebrants this spring that your best is yet to come. We've powered on through Covid, and there might be a cost of living crisis for some, but for us, we're proactively getting ahead of the game. It's highly likely you're not charging enough, so charge more. As Dan Kennedy said, “There is no strategic benefit to being the second cheapest in the marketplace, but there is for being the most expensive” so maybe reconsider your finances and your fees. It's also likely that your customer journey needs tightening up, so your days have more margin for you to provide better service and/or have more rest time so you're rejuvenated, so do some professional development and get better.

To encourage someone is to give them, to put in them, courage, and I'd really love to do that today. You are one of a select few Australians with the authority to marry people, and you have your very unique and important way of doing it. You do good work, you deserve good pay, and you deserve to eat the name brand weetbix, not the store brand.

When you charge more, you can market and advertise more, and you are further encouraged to keep on keeping on. So please do that today. Keep on keeping on. Winter is almost over, our busy spring is ahead of us, and tomorrow someone is getting engaged and you're the perfect celebrant for them and they want to see your website, social media, your blog posts or podcasts, and to hear your story.

I'm pleased to announce that my family and I are back on Australian shores after a year abroad, back at work at weddings, and so glad to be able to have my coffee order filled correctly. Aussie, Aussie Aussie!

– Josh

Do you want to influence future celebrants?

Sarah's asked me to do call out for any celebrant who wants to submit a proposal to create a video to add to the Certificate IV content that new celebrants will study. In the two years since I designed the current course there are lots of new celebrants and others who never submitted the last time we asked. Anything you think would be useful for a trainee celebrant to hear about, we want to hear about. Hit reply and let us know your idea and if it fits the vision for the course, we'll pay you to produce the content.

Return on investment from wedding directories

I had planned to publish my own businesses return on investments from the wedding directories I'm in at the moment, but I felt like I needed one more months data. If you are a keen tracker of where your enquiries and bookings come from and you'd like to add your data in with mine for the benefit of Celebrant Institute members, hit reply.

I'll give you a sneak peek into the data I have so far though. I spent almost $1700 with one website you've probably heard of, got all the leads, but zero bookings and it's been this way for a few months now.

The AGD portal and the invoices

You've no doubt received the emails, but if you've missed it, the AGD is having computer troubles and the invoices have not been sent out yet. I repeat: if you are worried (like I have been) that you missed the 2023 AGD invoice, it has not at all been sent yet, as of August 31, 2023. Please send hopes and prayer to the AGD and MLCCS, it sounds like their IT woes are deeper than normal. Sarah and I will be in Canberra meeting with the AGD in November so we're looking forward to hearing what's been happening.

How honest should you be with clients?

Sarah's published a blog post in reply to a question from one of your colleagues about how honest we should be with our clients. I think you'll enjoy this read.

I don't recommend the new Bose S1 Pro+

I've seen many of my peers get excited about the new Bose S1 Pro+, the long waited upgrade to the most popular celebrant PA system over the last decade, the Bose S1 Pro. My current advice still stands, that the best celebrancy PA system is the traditional Bose S1 with a Sennheiser EW transmitter/receiver.

The new Bose S1 Pro+ spruiks a built-in wireless microphone situation, but the problem is that it's not a professional-grade built-in wireless microphone suitable for weddings. It would be great for a solo-artist, but two problems present themselves. Firstly, the wireless transmitter operates on the 2.4Ghz band which not only is a very busy band with all of our laptops, phones, wireless routers etc using that frequency, it's also a high radio frequency band very susceptible to rain-fade or water-fade which is when water basically absorbs the radio transmission and it doesn't get to the receiver. Do you know what humans are made of, 60% water. Do you know what bridal parties and wedding guests are made of? Humans. So many humans and phones in the one area is a nightmare for 2.4GHz wireless microphones like this one from Bose.

The other problem is that the wireless transmitter isn't a microphone, it's a transmitter, so if you look at the product images you have to plug the transmitter into the bottom of a wired microphone. I think this looks cheap but also adds a vector for errors, another place things can go wrong.

Save your money, buy the last/later/cheaper model Bose S1. I just bought two on Amazon Prime Day for a bargain! Get yourself the Sennheiser Evolution Wireless (EW) receiver/transmitter pack, and you'll have the best sound at the venue.

When a couple want a friend to become a celebrant to marry them

We wrote an article just for those kinds of people. Feel free to share it with them.

That's your monthly update on all things celebrancy, I hope you learned something, feel happier about your business, and better about yourself.

Need help? Head to celebrant.institute/ask and you've got Sarah Aird, and me, Josh Withers, at your beck and call.

You are enjoying another Celebrant Institute production and you're receiving this email because you're a celebrant. If you aren't a celebrant then I don't know how you ended up here. If you've been forwarded this update and you'd like to subscribe for free, you can do that here.