The problem is meatbags

Across my career as a wedding celebrant, I've upset many a vendor and vendor category. Honesty is both my best and worst personality trait, and anyone who knows me personally knows I ought to shut up more. But I haven't this month, and I've upset the videographers.

What Happened Between Josh and a Videographer

I had just finished setting up for a wedding ceremony at a really nice venue—awesome couple, everything is great—and the videographer starts walking my way.

Before I tell you what happened, I want everyone to learn to do what I do, which is:
- Have a game plan for ceremony audio, amplification, and recording.
- Know how my gear works.
- Be able to effectively communicate to the videographer what I have available for them so they can get the best and cleanest audio for our mutual clients.

The videographer walks up to me, we exchange pleasantries, and I offer:
- 3.5mm audio line-out from my Sennheiser microphone receiver.
- 1/4" TRS line-out from my Bose S1 speaker.

They suggest that none of that suits them; they "don't do line out," which is wild, and any videographer who says that could be crucified. Alas, they do want to do something that is really popular with videographers today, but I'm here to say you and I can and should say no to: attaching a recording device or a transmitting device to my microphone.

I say no, they awkwardly walk away, go and get their partner, and we have the same chat. They say they'll "have to talk to the couple," so they made the whole experience fun.

I recorded this Instagram Reel after the ceremony, and now videographers hate me.

Reasons Why I Say No to Strapping an Electronic Device to My Radio Transmitting Microphone

Have you ever noticed that most antennas—transmitting ones or receiving ones—often seem to be up and away from things, all on their lonesome? Look at your local FM radio and TV transmitter hill—all the antennas are up there alone without buildings around them. Look at your roof, and you'll see antennas up there without walls around them. Look at your wireless microphone transmitting audio over radio frequency to your PA system, and it's already surrounded by your firmly gripped meatbag hand. You're surrounded by a couple getting married and their bridal party, and no, strapping metal and plastic with batteries and probably another transmitting antenna onto mine is a terrible idea.

In addition, I think it looks silly, plus it's actually kind of incompatible with how we hold microphones and often adds a scratching sound as the device moves around.

What's the Solution?

Celebrants need to know their gear better, carefully considering what gear they use and whether they want videographers to even use it—a hot take from a Celebrant Institute member reminded me that the celebrant and the videographer are not in contract together; we don't owe them our audio.

But videographers need to know audio better as well. I don't train and mentor videographers, though, so I'm here to talk to you about your PA system.

Reasons Why Wedding Ceremonies Require Careful Consideration for a PA System

Before you even choose a PA system, there are many factors that make this choice a very special and unique one compared to most PA system choices.

1. Location Challenges: Wedding ceremonies are often held in outdoor settings like gardens, beaches, hills, or backyards where there’s no access to power. This means a battery-operated PA system is essential.

2. Uneven Terrain: The ground where the speakers will be placed is sometimes uneven, leading to challenges with positioning speakers at the appropriate height for optimal sound distribution.

3. Microphone Requirements: Ideally, the celebrant should use a wireless handheld or lapel/headset microphone. Wired microphones are less desirable due to aesthetic concerns, mobility restrictions, workplace health and safety (tripping hazard), and the risk of unsightly cables in the wedding photos. Plus, you hope the microphone capsule accurately "hears" your voice. This is my issue with the MiPro systems—not the speaker, but the microphone quality; it sounds like you're speaking into a potato.

4. Wireless Technology Needs: Wireless microphones require a transmitter (held by the celebrant) and a receiver, which is usually located on/with the speaker. The radio technology for these microphones must be robust and reliable, avoiding less dependable options like Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz systems, which can be prone to interference, especially in crowded environments.

5. Radio Interference: The central area of a wedding ceremony is often surrounded by the bridal party and a large group of guests. These people/meatbags absorb and disrupt the radio signals, making it harder for the transmission to reach the receiver, particularly with digital radio systems. Too many meatbags/people between a transmitter and a receiver, and it stops working.

6. Lack of Audio Expertise: Celebrants are typically not trained audio professionals, so they may not have the necessary skills in speaker placement, microphone use, or troubleshooting audio issues during the event.

7. Recording: Many couples or videographers want to record their wedding ceremony, which adds another layer of complexity. Some PA systems may not have audio output or recording capabilities, which could limit recording options. I miss my Sennheiser LSP-500 for this reason—USB recording of the ceremony!

8. Speaker Placement: For optimal audio coverage, it’s beneficial to have left and right speakers set up during the ceremony, providing balanced sound across the venue.

9. One-Time Event: A wedding ceremony is a one-time event with no opportunity for a full rehearsal under actual conditions. This makes it crucial to have high-quality, user-friendly audio equipment that can deliver consistently great sound with minimal issues.

What Does Josh Recommend?

I thought you'd never ask! The best PA system for celebrants is a Bose S1 teamed up with the Sennheiser EW-DP kit for the microphone/transmitter and receiver.

Runners up:
- The now-discontinued Sennheiser LSP-500, a beautiful machine.
- The recently released SOWA Pro—two of these left and right of the ceremony would be amazing. I'm in conversation with the team behind it, and maybe we'll get a review unit soon.

Contracts and Legal Things

Celebrant Institute members get a 20% discount at Event Law's wedding industry online store for service contracts and other legal templates. Go to eventlaw.online and use the code: Celebrant20

State of Social

While I was overseas last week, an awesome conference occurred in Perth—the State of Social conference. Your friend and mine, Edwin from Social Sandwich, attended and gave a wrap-up on his Instagram. If you haven't got to watching Edwin's webinar he did for celebrants in July, it's a game changer and worth every dollar. Get your ticket from $20 to re-watch it online.

Annual Fee and OPD

Have you paid your annual fee? Done your OPD? Forgetting these two is the easiest way to have a bad day.

Log on to MarCel now!

What Do I Do If a Celebrant Has the Same Name As Me?

Tracey asks:

As of last month, another celebrant has been registered in the regional city where I live (population 40,000) who has the exact same personal name as mine. Our registered business names are slightly different, but both include our first names. Word of mouth and contacts are important sources of business in this area. I am currently in the process of registering my business name as a trademark. I’ve had to go into overdrive to mitigate any potential implications of this situation. Any advice on steps I might take that I haven’t already considered or done would be greatly appreciated.

Read Josh's reply on the website, and while we're talking about brand and content, you might enjoy this wrap-up of MrBeast's content strategy adapted for celebrants. You might also appreciate this new SEO strategy.

It's Been a Long Time

Sarah and I have been doing this stuff for a decade now!

Annual Marriage Stats Released!

The 2023 marriage statistics for Australia have been released, and your favourite Oracle has written a blog post about the interesting points.

Marriage Celebrant Associations

As political issues swirl around some celebrant associations in Australia this month, a few of you have reached out asking if the Celebrant Institute membership comes with insurance.

Our membership does not come with insurance. Your membership fees pay Sarah and my wage—we're not volunteers—so you can be sure that you're getting the best of us, and we feel compelled to consistently deliver you value.

If you need insurance for celebrants, we recommend Duck for Cover, but it's likely you might find a better deal by talking to a broker about specific needs you have in your business. Not all celebrants and celebrancy practices are the same, so group insurance doesn't suit many people, and we feel there are inherent issues with group insurance that are avoided by the associations.

Administrative Note

We're always refining how our business—The Celebrant Institute Pty Ltd—operates and works. You'd be surprised to know that we have a love/hate relationship with Xero, and we spend hours every year trying to reduce expenses, refine systems, and just be better.

So part of that process means two things are changing this month:

1. Insights Membership is closing. I thought it was a great idea, but not enough of you did for us to afford to keep paying couples to give us specific insights into their weddings. Insights members have had their memberships changed to regular memberships, and annual members have had their membership extended to the value of what they'd paid. If you want to listen to those podcasts, they're now available on the website.
2. Our celebrant directory is shutting down. For a similar reason, the celebrant.xyz directory is shutting down because we've given it a few years, and you didn't care, and neither did couples. So we'll turn it off soon.

Members

As always, we are so grateful for the paying members of the Celebrant Institute. Your membership fee grants you access to the whole website, which is paywalled for most people, and the opportunity to ask any question you have about marriage law, business, marketing, or celebrancy. You do all of that online at celebrant.institute/ask.

Not a member yet? We'd love to welcome you. We're a simple program designed to help you in your celebrancy practice. For information on membership and to sign up, go to members.celebrant.institute. You can come and go as you please, stop and start membership as you need, and update credit card details via the same link.

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