👓 Will you wear smart glasses to a wedding?

Welcome to the November Celebrant Institute email! That sweet time in the year when you stop and look around as you wonder where the last 10 months went. It's true folks, Santa's coming soon and all those 2024 weddings that were so long away will be a going concern real soon.

Before I start this month's jam-packed newsletter I wanted to invite all of you to attend a weirdly named event. It's called Celebrant Winterfest, a celebrancy festival and education experience hosted by my friend Jenn in Europe. It's aimed at the British and European wedding industry but as a speaker at the online event I know that it would be of great benefit to you too. It's all online in five days and you can watch live or at your own pace. I'm joining my friend Roxy from Brisbane as the Australian contingent at the event along with Facebook ads, Pinterest, Tiktok, and SEO experts all speaking to an audience of celebrants so it's specific advice and education for celebrants like you and me. I'll be speaking on crafting a customer journey with AI so your clients get a consistent and high-quality experience. Go to jenniferclaire.com/celebrantwinterfest2023 to get your ticket and use the code JOSH10 to get 10 British pounds off.

- Josh

📰 How to get featured in the media

Next Wednesday the 8th you'll find me on ABC Brisbane Radio as a guest on Kat Feeney's radio show. She's great on air, we get so many callers, and it's great publicity. If you want to know how you can replicate my success in being constantly featured in and on the media, in TV, radio, and in the news, we have the course for you https://celebrant.institute/ci/how-to-get-featured-in-the-media/

📅 December meeting with the Attorney-General's office

One of the roles we play in the Australian celebrant community is in bridging the gap between the Attorney-General's Department and you, the celebrant. You're always welcome to jump on the phone or email the AGD office, but twice a year we meet with them face to face and discuss pertinent issues. If Celebrant Institute members have problems, issues, ideas, thoughts, you would like us to take to that meeting with the AGD and the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section, then jump onto your ask page at celebrant.institute/ask and let us know, the next meeting is in early December.

📱 Queensland joins New South Wales and South Australia with digital drivers licenses

A few minutes ago Queensland released it's digital drivers license app which means Queensland license holders and 18+ card holders can now carry an app on their phone instead of a plastic card like their ancestors did (anyone remember when they were laminated?)

This is important a) if you're a Queenslander, but b) if you happen to be in an occupation where you might check people's identities via drivers license regularly. If you happen to know anyone that might need to verify people's identities with a drivers license, then there's a website that's slowly being updated but the app to verify licenses is on the Apple App Store.

It's also important for you to know about the legalities of accepting digital drivers licenses which we've written about on the Celebrant Institute website.

🎤 Pre-ceremony banter and preparation

A Celebrant Institute member emailed this morning so I thought I'd reply not just to them but to the entire community to share how I do "pre-ceremony". They ask, "Do you have any tips or advice for “pre-ceremony” etiquette? I just want to know if there’s a better way I can maintain a presence and then warm up the crowd without being awkward/wanky?"

I've joked before that 98% of celebrancy is being really good at waiting, and that definitely applies here. I don't feel appropriate standing at the end of the aisle scrolling through Instagram Reels, so I've had to become very good at waiting publicly professionally.

I don't like to setup in front of everyone so I'm always early, set up early, and touching base with relevant stakeholders like musicians, photographers, videographers, venue staff etc. Not just saying high and making sure I know what they need from me, but also networking and building relationships.

As guests arrive I'll encourage them to fill seats 1) according to any seating plan or signage, 2) towards the front of the ceremony regardless of how humble they want to be, 3) towards the middle of the aisle, just so those front and middle seats aren't empty. I don't mind doing some crowd-work at this time, maybe calling out the guy with the mullet or the girl who's doing a selfie.

When it feels like the guests have arrived, I'll check with relevant people like a groom or a parent, to do a check to make sure the "don't start without these people" have all arrived, then I have my pre-ceremony spiel. This has three purposes: 1) sound check, I'll walk around the ceremony while talking to make sure that everyone can hear me (not just that I can hear me at the front), 2) establish the fact that I am indeed the celebrant and that it would be just bloody lovely if you listened to me for the next few minutes, and 3) to actually communicate these three things I'll tell you about in the spiel, and they are delivered like this.

"Hi, I'm Josh and I'm the celebrant at X and Y's wedding today and I've got three little things I'd love you to help me with so that today can be the best wedding ever."

If I know it was a family member's wedding recently I might make a joke like "even better than Jakes wedding" to get some laughs.

"1. Can everyone here pretend that they are human, X and Y's best friends and family members, and that they're really happy that they're getting married today. Sometimes people at weddings pretend they're lawn bowls match so I'm asking for you to get excited today.

2. It's really hard to be that excited and into the ceremony and the wedding when you're also trying to make good photos and social media content so luckily we've got Blah Blah photography here and they tell me they know how to make great photos. So can you snap your phones in half, or at least put them in your pockets, so they're not out for the ceremony.

3. When they walk down the aisle can you all go a little bit overboard, like really extra, with applause and what not. Make them feel really welcome."

That kind of intro establishes what kind of wedding is about to happen so everyone should get onboard.

🎓 Ongoing Professional Development

Sarah seems to think you guys need to be reminded to do your OPD via the Marriage Celebrants portal, but I told her you're not that stupid that you've left your annual obligation this late in the year. So consider this your humble reminder to do the thing you've no doubt already done. It's free, it's online, it's in your Marriage Celebrant Portal on the AGD website at https://marriage.ag.gov.au/mcportal/

🧾 Annual Invoice

You've paid your annual invoice right? It's due November 6. Pay it, or don't, and be deregistered.

👓 Ray-Ban Meta glasses: the new best way for celebrants to make social content

To round out this month's newsletter I wanted to share my new favourite gadget, my new Ray-Bans. They're not just any Ray-Bans though, they are smart glasses, with a pretty good little camera built-in that can take photos, minute-long videos, and live stream to Facebook or Instagram.

You can find out more about the glasses on the Ray-Ban website or this review on The Verge but I wanted to offer brief thoughts on the smart glasses and show you an Instagram Reel I made with them.

Ultimately these are traditional Ray-Bans with smarts, so they're well-built, comfortable, and beautiful. Make sure you go in store (I went to my local Sunglass Hut and they had heaps of stock) so you can try different colours, sizes, and models on to see what fits you best and looks the best.

As for using them at weddings, I asked Monday's couple if I could livestream their ceremony and they felt too much pressure to go live, but I made a little Instagram video to showcase the day through the new Ray-Bans.

When you are capturing content - photo, video, or live video - there's a slowly strobing light on the glasses to let everyone know that you're capturing the moment so privacy fears should be put to bed.

That's another newsletter, I hope it was helpful!

Paid members get help every day of the year at celebrant.institute/ask and if you're not a member, we welcome you at celebrant.institute/join

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