I became a Marriage Celebrant (Registration No: A12586)

Originally from Malaysia, I am married to an Australian and have been living in Australia for just over 36 years. I have two grown up children and currently work full-time in Business Development with CPA Australia in the West Australian Division.

I had only become a Registered Marriage Celebrant in October last year though I was qualified to become one in June 2007. Despite being approached by friends and colleagues to become their Celebrant, I did not proceed to file for my registration to become Celebrant owing to the competing demands on my time. I eventually submitted my registration and was registered on the 30th October, 2009. I conducted my first wedding ceremony on the 12th December, 2009 for an ex-work colleague who along with his bride were originally from England. I was humbled by the fact that they put their trust in me to be their Wedding Celebrant even though they knew that theirs will be the first wedding ceremony that I will be conducting.

In a real sense, I am a ‘newbie’ in the Marriage Celebrant world. I do not advertise my services and do not have a website. My interest lies in conducting Civil wedding ceremonies with a humanist approach.

Humanist Approach

My motivation to become a Celebrant is because of my interest and long association with the Humanist Society of WA Inc where I subscribe to the core values in Humanism. As a matter of interest, a Humanist, Dr Laadan Fletcher conducted my wedding ceremony in 1982 at the University Sunken Gardens at the University of Western Australia.

Essentially, Humanism is about rationalist thoughts based on evidence and science. It is a belief based on human compassion and doing the right thing because it is the 'right thing to do' without reference to a supreme being. So in a sense, Civil wedding ceremonies have by default become humanist wedding ceremonies given it's secular nature.

A wedding ceremony should always be dignified and personal. Ultimately, a marriage is about an equal partnership and a commitment by the couple to “engage with each other”. It is about learning and growing together as a couple and as individuals in their own right. It involves mutual love, support, respect and affection for each other.

The wedding ceremony should always be about the couple and therefore, my role is merely to facilitate and formalise the relationship under Australian law. As such, I would seek to “engage” with the prospective couple as a matter of course..to get a sense of what they want in their wedding ceremony. Getting a 'feel' of what the couple are both all about would provide the basis for me to commence scripting a wedding ceremony that best reflects their persona.

The wedding script will be a “work in progress document” once I agree to take the role on. As an explanation, with the last wedding I conducted, I provided revised wedding scripts for the couple over a period of 4 weeks as they came up with things and issues which they had not thought about earlier and later wanted them incorporated. I will also work with the couple as to how and where we can incorporate their personality and style...into the monitum, the vows..etc. given that there’s some flexibility in what has to be said by the Celebrant in the ceremony.

It is not my intention to pro-actively seek work as a Marriage Celebrant but I will be delighted to consider any requests put to me. Marriage is a very special occasion and I will not take on any Celebrant work without the accompanying passion, diligence and the committment that it deserves.