Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a Celebrant
In my early 30s, my friends gave me the greatest gift of my life (and they thought I was doing them a favour) - they asked me to marry them. Their wedding changed my life almost as much as it changed theirs. And I'm quite convinced they only did it because they knew I'd be better dressed than a registrar.
Several years later, with many trials and errors under my belt, this is my job and I couldn't love it more. But there are definitely things I wish I'd known - and things I did know but ignored anyway - before I made the leap of faith.
So, budding celebrants: here's my honest, real advice on becoming a celebrant and all the things you might want to consider.
How much you earn as a celebrant
Let's start with the big one, eh? Put simply: celebrant earnings are not particularly high - and they're inconsistent. If you do mainly weddings, you'll probably work within a fairly normal 'season' - that's the spring and summer months, creeping into autumn. So money comes in a lot more during those months than the quiet winter months.
For example, I might do six weddings in August, then none December through to March. Yikes. Having said that, most celebrants will split up payments from couples, so that's one handy way to space out your income.
Now, let's talk actual hard numbers. The most successful, booked-and-busy celebrants I know do somewhere between 30-40 weddings per year. Depending on where you live and how experienced you are, you'll probably charge between £500-£1,500 per wedding ceremony. Getting to that number of bookings takes a long time and major graft; as does justifying the higher end of that cost. So it's definitely not a "get rich quick... or ever" kind of job!
Now, a totally different calculation would be if you did weddings and funerals. As we all know, those take place all year round so you're not held hostage by a "season". Most Funeral Directors insist on a standardised price for a celebrant which tends to be around £250-£350 per ceremony. Some celebrants I know do a few funerals per month; some do a few a week.
It's safe to say, most celebrants are not doing this and nothing else - unless they're swimming in funeral bookings. They might do it alongside full-time, part-time or freelance work. I am a freelance copywriter working in the charity sector, so that subsidises my celebrant work. Last year my earnings were about 50/50.
Weekend & evening work
Think about it: a couple will plan their wedding at the weekend or after work in the evenings. Which means that's when they'll want to talk about it with you! I typically work 2-3 evenings a week, conducting interviews or planning meetings. My partner is endlessly tolerant of me showing up for dinner at 9:30pm (i love u don't leave me).
And the wedding day itself is almost certainly on a Saturday or Sunday. Out of 30 ceremonies in 2025, only five were not on the weekend. If the wedding is near me in London, I can be there and back maybe within 4-5 hours; if the wedding is in Devon, then I'm either driving ten hours in a day or I'm staying overnight away from home.
And all the stuff that isn't the ceremony...
This is classic self-employed life not exclusive to being a celebrant, but if you've never been self-employed before brace yourself for basically having every job role under the sun:
You'll do your own taxes, pay roll and accounting; you'll have to make a website and run social media channels; you'll be your own chief marketing officer; and my goodness, you'd better be slick at processes, organisation and operations.
Being 100% honest, I'd say the amount of business tasks related to running my small biz is overwhelmingly large. Marketing and social media are particularly relentless. I don't mean to frighten anyone out of it, but I'd say that if you're not particularly organised, or comfortable with copywriting, marketing, and selling yourself hard, this might not be the gig for you.
TL;DR: you won't make tons of money (ever/for a long while), you'll probably have to work another job alongside this, you'll work a lot of "anti-social" hours, and you'll need to run a tight ship with basically every other business function - particularly marketing.
Okay, I've made it sound like being a celebrant completely sucks, haven't I? I promise I'm just writing down all the honest, gory details I tell all the would-be celebrants who slide into my DMs! But hold on - do you know what else I tell them? Here are just a few of the things I adore about my job...
Flexible working and freedom
Sure, the wedding day itself isn't particularly flexible (you kinda have to show up to that one), but otherwise managing my own time and working with rather than against my energy has been the greatest gift from self-employment.
I used to find the 9am-6pm style of working completely suffocating and it didn't facilitate my creativity or proudest work. Now I can manage myself better than I've ever been managed before, and I feel freer, calmer and happier.
Creativity, authenticity and personality
In my experience, this is a job where you can let your freak flag fly. Being real and honest, and showcasing your deeply held values, is what the job is all about. People choose celebrants based on their personality - that's kind of the whole thing!
So if you've ever felt hemmed in, silenced or made to be smaller in a job, you can be assured that your authentic self is what will get you far in this line of work. For me, as a loud and proud lefty lesbian, that was absolutely critical - and it's one of the most gratifying parts of the job.
Emotional connection and meaningful work
This one trumps all else: I've never felt such deep emotion in a job before this one. Connecting with people around the milestones in their life is a whopping honour, and one that takes my breath away every single damn time. The pictures of me at work, beaming my face off, are testament to the genuine, wholehearted joy I feel for my couples - who then become friends for life. You didn't catch me smiling that hard when I worked for the Labour Party or a tech start-up, heck no.
So, there you have it - three pros, three cons, one big decision! I'm wishing you all the luck on your journey, celebrant or otherwise!
Beautiful blog photo by the babe that is Amy Katherine.
