Happy remote witnessing, to those who celebrate

There seems to be a long-held tradition of me (hi, it's Josh) writing this monthly letter from weird and wonderful places around the world, and June's edition is no exception. I started writing it on the Isle of Procida, finishing it at the Port of Naples, while waiting for my boat to Positano. I’m spending a few weeks in Europe helping people breathe their marriages to life. It's a hard job, but someone had to escape the Tasmanian winter, and unfortunately, it was me.

One of the little joys I experience every European summer is waking up in Italy around 4 pm Eastern Australia time and catching a day's worth of emails all at once. Then I get on Zoom calls with celebrants, wedding creators, my couples, and my family before sinking into a pool or the sea to cool down before going to work here.

The beautiful part of that is that I'm forced to digest my thoughts and relationships into smaller and more pointed channels of communication. I'm compelled to consider my writing and calls carefully, and when given a few moments in my early morning or very late night, I get on a call with my kids or a client.

Considerate Social Media and Marketing

This has led me to think about my social media publication/broadcast/whatever you might call it. What is it for? Who is it for?

My personal answers are very simple: the entirety of my Facebook and Instagram is to communicate to potential and existing clients who I am, what kind of personality I have, and what kind of service I provide. It's a branding exercise.

I'm really looking forward to honing this skill with Edwin from the Social Sandwich in our Instagram Mythbusters webinar in less than 48 hours. Tickets are $40 or $20 for Celebrant Institute members (and we invite you to become one). It will be a really powerful class in learning how social networks operate today (they are an interest graph) as opposed to how they operated very differently only a few years ago (via a social graph) and how you can use this new knowledge to become rich and famous - aka booked for weddings.

Remote Witnessing of NOIMs and Separate Meetings

On June 12th, the marriage laws in Australia changed. The two main changes that apply to the common Australian marriage celebrant and minister of religion are:

• Notices of Intended Marriage can be remotely witnessed over a video call.
• The celebrant (or minister) must have separate meetings with each party being married before marrying them.

For more info, you can read the two blog posts - blog post one and two - and we've broadcast and now released the recordings of two webinars with Sarah Aird held over the last fortnight to help you learn how to apply these new elements in your celebrancy practice. Tickets to rewatch the webinar on-demand are $10, and in the second webinar, Sarah goes into detail on how to actually receive a NOIM remotely.

Where Should Celebrants Advertise?

Amanda asks:

I’m attempting to navigate the world of advertising and could use some guidance on the most effective approach with a pretty small budget. I’m on social media, have a website, and have undertaken some paid advertising, but I’m very unsure about the best way to go in this industry moving forward, as I seem to have lots of money going out with little reward.

And I (Josh) respond on the Celebrant Institute blog.

Instagram Mythbusting Webinar

I can't stress enough how any and all celebrants wanting to use Instagram for their business development should attend this webinar on July 3rd at 7 pm AEST so you can use Instagram effectively without wasting time and effort.

The webinar is with Edwin Smith from The Social Sandwich, an organic social media growth expert. You've seen his work before if you've ever followed The Voice, Love Island, Network 10, Survivor, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Shark Tank, Supercars, and Big Bash League on social media.

We will record the webinar and release it afterward for ticket holders.

Who Marries the Celebrant?

Jac Moore, Brisbane celebrant, is the guest on the most recent Insights podcast available to Insights level members. Listen to find out how she made her wedding budgeting and planning decisions.

New Celebrant Talk Show Podcast

Sarah and I released an episode of the podcast this month about all the news in the celebrant world, including all of the lawful changes made in the new legislation.

The Faux Celebrant

I'll just quote from the Daily Mail here:

A man who lied about having a wedding celebrant's licence has left a cruel trail of destruction after conning couples - some of whom were close friends - into paying him $1,000, and ruining their special day with 'emotional distress' and 'embarrassment'. William 'Will' Cheesman, 31, pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday to charges including solemnisation of a marriage by an unauthorised person. The court heard that he tricked and conducted bogus weddings for five couples who paid between $700 and $1,000 for him to marry them, unaware that he had no legal right to do so. Cheesman, who also pleaded guilty to impersonation of a public official, carried out the fake weddings from February to July 2023. The court heard that he even helped the deceived couples plan their big day and write their vows. The scam began to unravel when Cheesman gave the couples excuses for why he had not yet given them their official marriage documents. The court heard that he eventually admitted to victims that he had 'simply been too embarrassed to admit he had been deregistered as a celebrant', the Herald Sun reported.

Just think, if a complete scam artist is charging good money for not actually marrying people, imagine what someone who is duly authorised to solemnise marriages according to the law could charge. God forbid they were professional and did a really good job too!

Ask Away

One of the core reasons people become Celebrant Institute members is so they have a trusted voice to call on in regard to marriage law questions, business development questions, marketing and social media questions, and questions about when a celebrant is legally required to hula-hoop in a wedding ceremony. They can do that any time and all the time at celebrant.institute/ask, and if you're a member, we welcome you to do so.

And if you're not a member, we have two levels of membership, $12 a month for standard membership and $25 a month for Insights membership. Find out more at members.celebrant.institute. This monthly email and our podcast, the Celebrant Talk Show, remain free, and I'll be honest with you, because we want you to know that we're advocating for all of you and trying to better the celebrant industry for all of us, even if you don't value our membership. But if you do value it, join today ;)

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