The SMH

Things I typed into a keyboard

• ■ On expired domain names Feb 1, 2026
  Expired domains get registered for SEO value—it's standard practice. Learn why it happens, the Australian rules, and how to protect your domain from expiry.
• ■ I stuffed up, and I owe you all an apology Jan 30, 2026
  I need to apologise. Last year I registered expired domain names belonging to a local celebrant's businesses. When confronted by that celebrant this week, I made it worse—I asked for payment to transfer one back, an
• ■ Where Couples Actually Find Celebrants in 2026 Jan 29, 2026
  There are over 10,000 registered marriage celebrants in Australia. In 2024, there were 120,844 marriages. Even accounting for the 20% performed by religious ministers, that’s roughly 96,000 civil ceremonies split between
• ■ How is Josh using AI to help as he has a newborn? Dec 3, 2025
  One of your colleagues wrote to me recently about the quandary that presents itself when you happen to be a parent and a marriage celebrant. I spoke to her issue— and shared my embarrassing story— on the Celebrant In
• ■ Juggling celebrancy and kids Nov 13, 2025
  One of my biggest regrets of a thought - I only thought this, I didn’t even say it - was when I meeting with a colleague celebrant over coffee about a decade ago and I offered some business advice. She replied with somet
• ■ My take on the Sora app - Week One Oct 10, 2025
  The app that you either love or hate, from ChatGPT. My thoughts after using it a week.
• ■ Do backlinks positively affect AI search? Oct 1, 2025
  Of course the answer is yes, but how the affect AI search is so much more interesting.
• ■ Only build a house on land you own Sep 30, 2025
  You wouldn't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building a house on land that wasn't even yours, and you definitely wouldn't move your family in and expect to have a long safe residency there. The land isn't yours
• ■ Wake surfing the Betoota Advocate's wedding waves Sep 29, 2025
  The Betoota Advocate satires Australian life, but can Australians just trying to live their life benefit too?
• ■ Reciprocity Bias: The Psychology Behind a Coffee and a Booking Jul 29, 2025
  When I sit down with a couple for the first time, I always buy their coffee. Not just because I’m a nice guy (which, let’s be honest, everyone already knows I am), but because it works. It’s a tactic straight out of t
• ■ Instagram is about to impact your SEO Jun 24, 2025
  Instagram has always felt like a bit of a closed shop when it comes to being found, aka search, aka search engine optimisation. Great for visibility inside the actual Instagram app, sure, but outside? Crickets. That’s
• ■ Does membership include insurance? Jun 18, 2025
  One of the questions we get asked regularly at the Celebrant Institute is: “Does your membership include professional indemnity and public liability insurance?” It’s a fair question—especially when other celebran
• ■ Submissions requested on new Happily Ever (before and) After brochure text Jun 17, 2025
  The Attorney-General’s Department is redrafting the ‘Happily Ever (before and) After’ brochure – the one we’re legally required to give to every couple under section 42(5A) of the Marriage Act 1961 – and they want your i
• ■ 20 Years of Celebrancy Population Stats Jun 16, 2025
  The story of marriage celebrancy in Australia over the past two decades is not just a tale of registration numbers — it’s a window into what happens when a regulated profession opens the doors too wide, too quickly, and
• ■ How I Built My Own Link-In-Bio Site Jun 10, 2025
  Build your own fast, customisable, and tracking-free link in bio website using Astro — no coding experience needed. Step-by-step setup, GitHub sync, and free deployment via Netlify, Vercel, or Cloudflare Pages.
• ■ My weekly habits Jun 8, 2025
  These 15 items are on my to-do list every week. It might take 30--60 minutes but I think they're important.
• ■ The Website Layout That Actually Gets You Bookings Jun 7, 2025
  Discover the exact website structure that converts browsers into bookings. Step-by-step guide to arranging your celebrant pages.
• ■ Should You Pay to Be in a Wedding Directory? May 29, 2025
  Let’s be honest for a second: the wedding industry has been under this illusion for years that brides and grooms — couples — are scrolling through wedding directories like they’re flicking through the David Jones catalog
• ■ Josh's 22 Rules On How To Be A Celebrant May 28, 2025
  Being a celebrant is a strange and wonderful job. You stand in front of a group of strangers, legally authorise a marriage between two of their favourite people, and speak words that might stick in someone’s memory for t
• ■ Add a Celebrant Institute Badge to Your Website May 14, 2025
  Show you’re a professional celebrant with the new Celebrant Institute website badge. Boost SEO, build trust, and stand out with this simple but powerful addition to your site.
• ■ Fix pricing, not prices: A celebrant price guide Apr 25, 2025
  In this episode of the Celebrant Talk Show podcast, Sarah Aird and I are diving deep into a topic that every celebrant has wrestled with at some point: pricing. Thanks to a thoughtful series of questions from listen
• ■ A new website for Jeff's collective Apr 21, 2025
  The story of building The Togetherness Collective website for my friend Jeff, showcasing how personal connections can lead to successful client relationships.
• ■ Guide To Being Found by AI Engines Apr 20, 2025
  Discover how to optimise your business website for AI search and answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity
• ■ 30 AI Experiments You Could Try In Your Celebrancy Today Apr 18, 2025
  As an Australian marriage celebrant, we’re juggling multiple responsibilities–from crafting personalised ceremonies to managing client relationships and handling administrative tasks. The recent advances in AI technology
• ■ When will the tide turn? Apr 17, 2025
  I feel like there's a lot of here-say as to the state of the wedding industry today so I thought I'd engage our friend ChatGPT, in particular the new "Deep Research " model on ChatGPT 4.5, to see if there was any data out
• ■ How Celebrants Should Be Marketing Themselves in 2025 Apr 15, 2025
  As a full-time celebrant who’s worked across Australia and internationally, I know the tension so many of us live in: we want to keep bookings (with couples that get us) steady, but we’re also flat out with ceremonies, a
• ■ It's a good website, Brent Apr 14, 2025
  How do you know if it's a good website? Explore comprehensive website quality metrics from Ahrefs, Moz, PageSpeed Insights, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
• ■ Rejection isn't a verdict; it's data Apr 13, 2025
  We’ve all been there. A couple enquires about your celebrant services. You exchange emails, maybe have a phone call or even meet for coffee. The connection seems genuine, the conversation flows, and you’re mentally slott
• ■ The anatomy of a good (back)link Apr 12, 2025
  Discover how to effectively link out from your website with our comprehensive guide to outbound linking strategies.
• ■ The Wedding Directory is Dead, Long Live the Wedding Directory! Apr 8, 2025
  A sharp look at why traditional wedding directories are facing their "Yahoo moment " as couples' search habits evolve, plus what makes a truly valuable directory in 2025 – including free listing opportunities for Australi
• ■ Spam Signals: A Guide to Improving Your Website's Credibility Apr 6, 2025
  When website owners first encounter Moz's Spam Score, it can trigger immediate anxiety. After all, nobody wants their legitimate business website associated with spam! However, this metric isn't meant to label your site as spam but rather to highlight characteristics that correlate with penalised domains.
• ■ Markdown And The Slow Fade Of The Formatting Fetish Apr 5, 2025
  Year after year, document formats like .docx, .ppt, and pdf lose a little bit of steam. You might not have noticed… But Markdown is growing over and into the old formats, slowly, and nicely, like moss on a stranded star destroyer. Notes on a revolution in slow motion.
• ■ How to figure out why emails we send end up in spam Apr 4, 2025
  A guide on howto use Mail-Tester to improve your email deliverability.
• ■ How Linking Out From Your Website Actually Helps Apr 3, 2025
  Discover why linking out from your celebrant website to other quality resources actually improves your SEO, builds industry relationships, and helps potential clients see you as a trusted wedding expert. Learn practical linking strategies that can boost your online presence and attract more bookings.
• ■ The Coyote vs ACME movie is finally happening Apr 1, 2025
  Deadset forgot this was even on the cards, but I'm absolutely chuffed now because Warner Brothers has finally found a buyer to distribute the legal comedy, Coyote v ACME.
• ■ Doing what the engines want is an easy way to win Apr 1, 2025
  There's an easy way to win online today if you optimise your website for the search- and answer-engines.
• ■ How to Win in the New Age of Search and Answer Engines Mar 31, 2025
  The digital landscape is shifting beneath our feet, and as wedding celebrants, we need to adapt or risk becoming invisible. Coming back to Australia from living in Mexico I put a lot of money into old school marketing
• ■ Example SEO audit Mar 24, 2025
  I just prepared this audit for someone else and through it might be helpful to you.
• ■ A first look at Napkin AI: corporate graphics by AI Mar 24, 2025
  Napkin describes itself as a product that gets visuals from your text
• ■ Six weeks of a new domain name with a well-built website Mar 23, 2025
  Six weeks ago I built a website on a new domain name and got these awesome results early on.
• ■ The purpose of online business directories have changed Mar 21, 2025
  The times, they are a changing.
• ■ What is a backlink? Mar 20, 2025
  A quick explainer on what a backlink is.
• ■ Failing the basics Mar 20, 2025
  Is it just me who searches Wikipedia for a company name because their web site completely fails to tell me what they do?
• ■ The basics of SEO and GEO today Mar 19, 2025
  It turns out that SEO - search engine optimisation - and GEO - geerative engine optimisation - isn't some big scary black box, they actually publish how to win on their own websites.
• ■ Air France let's us choose which fuel Mar 18, 2025
  This is nice
• ■ The podcast episode about the email about the regulations recorded on a school night Mar 4, 2025
  You probably got that email sent to all celebrants about the Marriage Regulations legislation and the "new " requirement in the code of practice regarding "reasonable and timely responses " to requests from marrying couple
• ■ Prompting you to prompt Mar 1, 2025
  If you find the entire process of prompting AI chatbots for your business bewildering, here's 132 ways to get started
• ■ Comparing AI meeting assistants: Granola and Zoom Jan 21, 2025
  I am obsessed with trying to optimise my productivity whilst maintaing a really high delivery of value to my customers. Simply because I have a wife and two children, six chickens and two rabbits, that I also want to dev
• ■ Can you marry a step-sibling, in-law, or an uncle in Australia? Jan 10, 2025
  When planning a wedding, legal questions can sometimes create emotional challenges, especially when family dynamics are involved. Recently, a mother of the bride asked a complex question: could her daughter marry her hus
• ■ What to do about Bark.com Jan 10, 2025
  I'll hazard a guess that Celebrant Institute members and other celebrant colleagues have been battered with marketing and emails from Bark.com over the past month as I have been. I wanted to explain what they do, so you
• ■ Meet Enclosed, the new best and secure way to send marriage paperwork Jan 5, 2025
  Join me once more as we talk about marriage celebrant security, something that’s both mundane and critical: how we share marriage paperwork with our clients. Traditionally, we’ve relied on email—it’s fast, familiar,
• ■ How to remotely witness a Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) form Dec 12, 2024
  Jake asks: "When I get couples to sign via video chat it's pretty clunky and I'd rather it be less clunky. I'd love to know the best ways to arrange the e-signing of the NoIM " How to Remotely Witness a NOIM over
• ■ Preparing Your Celebrancy Practice for 2025 Dec 12, 2024
  As we analyse the latest consumer behaviour data from the USA, clear trends are emerging that will likely influence the Australian wedding market. Here’s how you can position your celebrancy practice to meet evolving
• ■ Obsessed Nov 18, 2024
  > The lazy lose to the average.<br /> > The average lose to the focused.<br /> > The focused lose to the obsessed.<br />
• ■ Apple's Business Connect, now accepting marriage celebrants Nov 14, 2024
  In an exciting development for Aussie marriage celebrants, Apple has announced new features that could help make your business more professional and trustworthy in the eyes of potential clients using Apple devices like i
• ■ Encrypting your couples' NOIMs and Marriage Certificates Nov 6, 2024
  As authorised marriage celebrants, we’re entrusted with some of the most sensitive details in our clients' lives. One of our colleagues - an Australian marriage celebrant - was recently hacked and the hackers gained acce
• ■ AI webinars on productivity and search Nov 3, 2024
  Artificial intelligence workshops for wedding professionals and celebrants by the Celebrant Institute
• ■ I'm not here to swipe right on bees Nov 2, 2024
  A barbershop in Canberra I visited once—when I was flying in and needed a cut before a wedding—emailed me this week.
• ■ What to do when it's a tough financial season Oct 24, 2024
  Things are tough out there, financially and commercially speaking. Many of us are on the coal face, working hard, and not striking gold. Starbucks is selling fewer coffees and Heineken is selling fewer beers, McDona
• ■ Labour of love Oct 22, 2024
  An industry body just emailed me a PDF magazine showcasing wedding vendors and weddings from the region. The email sold it as a "labour of love", and as much as...
• ■ Plants Oct 21, 2024
  Robert Pirsig the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance in this interview in 1974:
• ■ Fruit Oct 20, 2024
  Some would call it picky perfectionism, others see the pursuit of excellence, I guess the difference is the fruit.
• ■ Join the POSSE Oct 19, 2024
  In 20 years you'll be thankful that from today onwards you Post on Own Site and Syndicate Elsewhere.
• ■ Schedule 19 minutes for this email Oct 18, 2024
  Don't click this YouTube link until you have 19 minutes spare to have your life changed.
• ■ Trust Oct 17, 2024
  Eric Hoffer knows where it’s at:
• ■ Other people aren't having a win Oct 16, 2024
  Someone I respect and admire - and have done for twenty years - launched a new project recently. I clicked through to it about 4 hours after they'd emailed thin...
• ■ Notes, Markdown, and a 'folder of files' Oct 15, 2024
  Do you ever think about your notes, articles, documents, thoughts, and files? No? Feel free to archive this email and we'll talk again soon.
• ■ Where I stand during the ceremony, Josh's point of view Oct 15, 2024
  Let’s talk about why I, as a celebrant, stand in the middle of the ceremony, right between the couple, instead of off to the side. The short answer? Our senses demand it. We don’t experience weddings purely through
• ■ Preventing disease Oct 14, 2024
  In Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, Meg Meeker writes about preventing the psychological disease anorexia nervosa.
• ■ How to improve Oct 13, 2024
  James Clear writes,
• ■ Everything is hard Oct 12, 2024
  Seth Godin wrote recently that everything costs and it reminded me of my personal philosophy that everything is hard...
• ■ Precision is a job for computers Oct 11, 2024
  The collective freakout that computers, robots, AI, will take all our jobs and ruin everything is somewhat founded in a misunderstanding of what computers are g...
• ■ Podcast: They just decided to extend that to all weddings Oct 11, 2024
  In this episode of the Celebrant Talk Show, Josh Withers and I discuss recent changes to marriage laws, managing NOIM remote witnessing, consent meetings, celebrant pricing strategies, and some light-hearted banter!
• ■ Enjoyment and satisfaction Oct 10, 2024
  You might have noticed I'm back and publishing. There has been no great change apart from the simple fact that I missed writing every day, and I guess the frame...
• ■ How to be a rockstar celebrant: commanding attention without a spotlight Oct 10, 2024
  Speaking to a group of people who don’t have to listen to you is a privilege I don’t take lightly. As a celebrant, it’s a daily honour, and it comes with an immense responsibility every time I pick up that microphone. Wh
• ■ What if the hurricane wasn't that bad? Oct 9, 2024
  What if the storms in life weren't that bad, you just needed to step outside of them and take a wider view
• ■ How to perform a commitment ceremony without breaking the law in Australia Oct 2, 2024
  A commitment ceremony can be an important and simple way to celebrate a marriage-like-love when the legal formalities of marriage according to the law in Australia aren’t possible, as in one of our member's cases today w
• ■ My new favourite microphone: the Rode Interview Pro Oct 2, 2024
  For the last decade, I’ve famously recommended the Sennheiser EW range of wireless microphones to celebrants. They’ve been my go-to for reliable, high-quality sound in all kinds of wedding environments. And while I stil
• ■ The deal with Australian celebrants and international weddings Sep 23, 2024
  Anka asks: Lately I’ve noticed a lot of celebrants on Facebook have started advertising that they can do weddings overseas?? I didn’t think we could? Im presuming they might be just completing paperwork at the airport be
• ■ Josh on the Wed.co podcast Sep 18, 2024
  This week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Steve and Joel on the Wed.Co Podcast, recorded at the picturesque Gabbinbar Homestead in Toowoomba. It was such a great chat about all things celebrancy, storytellin
• ■ The five laws of sales your celebrant website needs to respect Sep 16, 2024
  When you're building your celebrant website, you’re crafting the digital front door to your business, the handshake before you meet your couple. And like any good intro, it needs to do more than look good—it needs to wor
• ■ When someone gets engaged, what's on their mind? Sep 8, 2024
  The best marketing in the world meets the target market where they're at. Whether that's in placement, or in creative. Have you ever considered where people are "at " when they get engaged? And more importantly, have y
• ■ Talking about talking about celebrant price Sep 6, 2024
  A wedding blog that you and I both love posed some questions to me about how much celebrants cost, how to budget for one, and what to expect from certain fees. I know from a recent celebrant group chat I'm in that this c
• ■ Learnings from MrBeast's strategy, for wedding celebrants Aug 27, 2024
  If you don’t know who MrBeast is, then jump onto Youtube and search for the guy with 312 million subscribers, and almost 60 billion views over his 800 videos released over the last 12 years. Jimmy has a large staff to
• ■ What do I do if a celebrant has the same name as me? Aug 27, 2024
  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 diff
• ■ Best portable PA speaker system for wedding celebrants in 2026 Aug 21, 2024
  Jo asks: Hey Josh, it’s one of your favourite subjects – P.A. systems. I am saving up for my first one, not even sure where to start but think my budget might stretch to $2k. Is that too little? Can you provide some opti
• ■ When thy well is dry Aug 20, 2024
  A few years back, our family spent six months living in a fishing village in Baja California Sur. So many experiences from that time still define us, but there’...
• ■ A decade of Aird and Withers Aug 17, 2024
  Over a decade ago (a decade and two months actually) everyone's favourite celebrant-shaped human and oracle - Sarah Aird - reached out to me with a software/technology question and that was the beginning of a decade long
• ■ The best modern SEO strategy for Australian wedding celebrants Aug 14, 2024
  If you're a wedding celebrant looking to improve your online presence and attract more couples, here’s a straightforward SEO content strategy you can use to make your website more visible on Google and Bing. If things ar
• ■ Friends on Friday: Jimmie Berguin Aug 2, 2024
  I've got to be honest about Jimmie before I share his message. His burst onto the wedding scene was the first time I f...
• ■ Relay Aug 1, 2024
  Some of my favourite podcasts come from a podcast network named Relay
• ■ Cycles of life Jul 29, 2024
  My friends at WedShed surveyed 600 different wedding venues and vendors and crafted together some narrative and understanding
• ■ Friends on Friday: Jeff Maeck (again) Jul 26, 2024
  I couldn't help but get Jeff back on the letter again:
• ■ Listen and join my bubble Jul 20, 2024
  We do not exist in a vacuum. It's impossible to not be affected and influenced by all around us.
• ■ Friends on Friday: Kiera Ryan Jul 19, 2024
  Kiera is the girl that made me respect the art and craft of wedding planning. In my career, before meeting her, wedding planners had been stylists given control...
• ■ Why people stay Jul 18, 2024
  The guy behind the software I use to send this letter, Buttondown was asked
• ■ Inspiration is for amateurs Jul 17, 2024
  Painter and visual artist Chuck Close on inspiration:
• ■ Chikas, blokes & miscellaneous folks Jul 16, 2024
  Our clients'/couples' families and family-dynamics are changing, as this CBC article documents on...
• ■ Twice Jul 15, 2024
  Joseph Joubert:
• ■ This text will appear in the inbox preview, but not the email body. Jul 14, 2024
  The problem with automations is that if you don't set them up with care, it will become blatantly obvious that you don't care.
• ■ SEO, but for AI Jul 13, 2024
  My current obsession is figuring out how the different AI systems know what they know, then working that to my advantage.
• ■ Friends on Friday: Jake Smith Jul 12, 2024
  The nicest guy in the wedding industry for a decade running is Jake Smith If you ever manage to tie him down for a coffee or a meal, y...
• ■ Footwork Jul 11, 2024
  From a World Without Time
• ■ The basics Jul 10, 2024
  A celebrant just emailed me and all the links in her email signature don't work. They're mistyped.
• ■ Love the process Jul 9, 2024
  Jimmy Carr, one of the greatest comedic minds in the world today, said in an interview:
• ■ Perfection Jul 8, 2024
  !Don't strive for perfection, strive for authenticity
• ■ The one with Christopher Nolan Jul 7, 2024
  The most common question I receive from celebrants is about what to say in a ceremony? Where do we get inspiration and words from?
• ■ Enough Jul 6, 2024
  Kurt Vonnegut told a story about his friend Joe,
• ■ Friends on Friday: Glenn Mackay Jul 5, 2024
  Glenn was one of the first people I ever met in the wedding industry who ran the kind of operation I could aspire to run. Not in size...
• ■ Daily practice Jul 4, 2024
  Josh Knox's dad has been retired for almost 20 years but everyday he consults a notecard with five activities.
• ■ Choose one of these two Jul 3, 2024
  There are two movements you can take in growing your business today: floor raising and ceiling raising.
• ■ Instagram Mythbusters for Insights Members Jul 3, 2024
  This week members can rewatch the webinar recording of Josh Withers and Edwin from The Social Sandwich with their 90 minute Instagram Mythbusters webinar on organic growth and attracting couples through Instagram. htt
• ■ Biggest ever that I have never heard of Jul 2, 2024
  A guy named George Strait who apparently is a country music star has broken the record for the largest-ever ticketed concert in the U.S. with 110,905 people in ...
• ■ Happy EOFYS 🎉 Jun 30, 2024
  My least favourite time of year in Australia are the final days of June. Advertisers are celebrating with EOFYS end of financial year sales and small businesses...
• ■ Happiness shared Jun 29, 2024
  My goal at a wedding is to take the individual happiness of each guest and get them to share it with the rest of the audience and the couples.
• ■ Friends on Friday: Jeff Maeck Jun 28, 2024
  The people I want to listen to most are the people who want to listen to other people the most. It's an admirable trait. That's why I could listen to my friend ...
• ■ Was it stolen or did you drop the ball? Jun 27, 2024
  Friends of mine recently lost their website because the domain name expired. They claimed it was stolen. I would claim they didn't take the responsibility requi...
• ■ Where are you needed? Jun 26, 2024
  Naval Ravikant writes:
• ■ Working out how Meta social networks work now Jun 25, 2024
  If you've been on Facebook, Threads, Instagram for more than a week then you might have no idea how the platforms work today.
• ■ The maths, again Jun 24, 2024
  You can't start on step ten, you've got to start on step one.
• ■ Learn to sell Jun 23, 2024
  The curse of self-employment is having to wear all the hats: bookkeeper, janitor, salesperson, tech support, CEO, delivery person, and be the product.
• ■ Take out everything that isn't the story Jun 22, 2024
  Writing a marriage ceremony is like any other form of writing, with one big difference: in a few weeks, you'll present it publicly just once, never to be repeat...
• ■ Where should I advertise as a celebrant? Jun 22, 2024
  Amanda asks about social media and marketing: Hi, I’ve been registered since March 2024. Initially, I was lucky to secure four bookings relatively quickly, but lately, it’s been super quiet. I’m attempting to navigat
• ■ Friends on Friday: Shaun Tolhoek Jun 21, 2024
  Shaun Tolhoek from Lemon Tree Film House on building heritage in the we...
• ■ The days can be easy Jun 20, 2024
  "The days can be easy if the years are consistent," writes James Clear.
• ■ I made a mistake Jun 19, 2024
  I felt sick when I saw my brother's wedding photo, the two of them are the middle of their first kiss and there's my big fat head right in the middle.
• ■ Wealth Jun 18, 2024
  Enjoying the work is a form of wealth.
• ■ When do you make money? Jun 17, 2024
  In an interview, Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos said of a letter received from a client, “When I read that letter, I thought, we don’t make money when we sell thing...
• ■ System of a frown Jun 16, 2024
  James Clear wrote:
• ■ Wealth Jun 15, 2024
  Nassim Taleb believes that the following list is true wealth:
• ■ Instagram mythbusting for wedding creators Jun 15, 2024
  Are you ready to take your Instagram game to the next level? Join us for an exclusive online event, the Instagram Mythbusters event, featuring the incredible Edwin Smith from The Social Sandwich and hosted by me (Josh Wi
• ■ Friends on Friday: Josh Mikhaiel Jun 14, 2024
  Josh Mikhaiel on being human and also being a wedding business person:
• ■ Signals never sleep Jun 14, 2024
  Twelve years ago this week I shared this infographic about the data being transferred
• ■ Sermon on the count Jun 13, 2024
  Kevin Simler's essay 'Here Be Sermons' reminded me of where I received my training to be a celebrant, in a Christian ...
• ■ Celebrants must have separate meetings with each party to marriage before the wedding Jun 13, 2024
  Webinar on this topic: $10 to watch on demand webinars to learn about the new marriage law changes. From 12 June 2024, all authorised marriage celebrants must meet with each party separately and in person before
• ■ Keep the magic Jun 12, 2024
  Our everyday jobs wedding-creating and magic-delivering can become rather "every day" pretty quickly.
• ■ NOIM Remote Witnessing has been made law Jun 12, 2024
  Webinar on this topic: $10 to watch on demand webinars to learn about the new marriage law changes. As of today remote witnessing of the Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) is made permanent by Commonwealth law.
• ■ WWDC 2024: So shareable Jun 11, 2024
  There's a large chance that most people don't know about the 2024 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference - WWDC for short - that occurred today, and rightly so, ...
• ■ Not a bad theory Jun 10, 2024
  A unified theory of fucks
• ■ The maths will always math Jun 9, 2024
  In my breakfast radio career a local band asked me for advice in getting into the music industry. My advice to them is the same advice to anyone starting anythi...
• ■ But I don’t know your new address Jun 8, 2024
  Reading Richard Feynman's letter to his late wife moved me, because it's hard to be in the w...
• ■ Pants Off Fridays/Friends On Fridays/Nico Raineau Jun 7, 2024
  Hamish &amp; Andy took Casual Fridays to another level, Pants Off Fridays (they even got U2 in on it), and it's a bit of a stretch but I want to take this daily letter to the world's best wedding creators to another level, so I'm going to start asking my friends to write to you too.
• ■ You're so busy Jun 6, 2024
  Friends comment on my volume of professional output, "you're so busy" and "how do you do it?!"
• ■ Mastery Jun 5, 2024
  I'm a sucker for interviews with masters so when David Remnick asked Seinfeld why he kept on showing up despite his wealth, age and “the extreme left and PC cr...
• ■ Wealth Jun 4, 2024
  Reputation is a form of wealth.
• ■ Best hashtags wedding creators should use to increase their reach Jun 3, 2024
  What are the best hashtags wedding creators should use to increase their reach? None
• ■ You're not a hacker Jun 2, 2024
  I've just viewed a wedding photographer's Instagram post that was cross-posted to Threads but with all the "Instagram hacks" attached.
• ■ Build your own AI Jun 1, 2024
  Want to take a dive in the deep end and run your own artificial intelligence AI large language model LLM?
• ■ I'm better than you May 30, 2024
  I'm better than you seriously, so much better than you at being me, than you could ever try to be,
• ■ The luxury wedding creator and long-term thinking May 29, 2024
  Long-term thinking, playing the long game. This is the most expensive but the most advantageous game to play, but almost no-one is doing it.
• ■ The luxury wedding creator and heritage May 28, 2024
  Heritage can't be created, but it can be celebrated. For a while there it was very cool to be the new kid on the block, but their heritage is close to zero.
• ■ The luxury wedding creator and craftsmanship May 27, 2024
  Craftsmanship is easy for wedding creators. All we do is craft and create, albeit we create ephemeral moments but those are the best things to craft because all...
• ■ The luxury wedding creator May 26, 2024
  The luxury wedding creator can take inspiration from the luxury makers of the world, like Hermes or Dior.
• ■ Why couples are price-shopping May 25, 2024
  If your service is the same as everyone else's, or appears the same, or you portray it as the same, then potential clients will look for the lowest price.
• ■ Too many celebrants May 24, 2024
  Twice a year I sit in an important government meeting about marriage law and another attendee brings up the idea that there are, apparently, too many celebrants...
• ■ That's expensive May 23, 2024
  Sir Claus Moser:
• ■ Fascinating May 22, 2024
  Jerry Seinfeld's Duke commencement speech stopped me in my tracks when he said
• ■ What inspires you May 21, 2024
  If you're a smart and intelligent person like me, you'll also say that the Star Wars franchise is one of the best series of movies and movie franchise ever made...
• ■ Your celebrancy business needs an accountant like a wedding needs a celebrant May 21, 2024
  Let's have a chat about something not everyone loves discussing, but we all know is essential: accountants. Your celebrancy business needs an accountant like a wedding needs a celebrant. Seriously. And there's no better
• ■ Tribal marketing May 20, 2024
  40 years ago earlier this year the Apple Macintosh was revealed and launched into homes and offices around the world. I'm typing this on a remarkably newer, fas...
• ■ Gift them time May 19, 2024
  Simone Davies writes in The Montessori Toddler
• ■ Skill of separation May 18, 2024
  For the self-employed, the solo-celebrant or officiant a valuable skill you should have is the ability to separate one thing from another. To "prevent the small...
• ■ Be Wally May 17, 2024
  Any given day on social media there's an outrage. Whether Apple published an advertisement that upset trumpet players, or the politician made a call your aunty ...
• ■ On brand May 16, 2024
  Who knows you is more important than who you know. That's why we build:
• ■ You've trapped yourself May 15, 2024
  Bridget Ann Henisch in Fast and Feast wrote:
• ■ 15 years May 14, 2024
  15 years ago a letter arrived in the mail letting me know that as of 15 years ago today, the 14th of May, I had been appointed a Commonwealth Authorised Marriag...
• ■ How Sharon and Adam chose Tim Maddren to be their celebrant and MC May 14, 2024
  Come dive into Sharon and Adam's wedding in the picturesque Douglas Vale Historic Vineyard and Homestead in Port Macquarie, New South Wales. Sharon's wedding was not just a lovely occasion but also a masterclass in th
• ■ It's ok to make a dollar May 13, 2024
  Reading this morning about FTX - the crypto exchange that went bankrupt and who's founder was convicted of fraud - is actually now solvent, which means the comp...
• ■ I isn't everyone May 12, 2024
  Viewing a Friend A's business website with Friend B, Friend B thought there was a lot of text.
• ■ Love thy neighbour May 11, 2024
  My favourite biblical commandment is "Love your neighbour as yourself" because it predicates knowing your neighbour well enough to love and care for them on kno...
• ■ Insights from the SBS Insights episode on weddings and the Wedding Grinch May 11, 2024
  The wedding industry in Australia is vibrant and evolving, despite the shifting societal views on marriage. As a celebrant deeply embedded in this industry through both personal and industry-wide lenses, I've distille
• ■ Next steps with ChatGPT May 10, 2024
  Ben has been using ChatGPT to help provide ideation and structure for emails, blogs, and social media content and he's asking about next steps, what's the next ...
• ■ Are you prepared to lose your Facebook, Meta, Google, access? May 10, 2024
  This week saw the 28th user of Instagram - that's right, he's been using Instagram for longer than everyone except for 27 other people - get locked out of his Instagram because an automatic content checker deemed that he
• ■ Imagine your followers are the stupidest people alive May 9, 2024
  The man who taught me radio and communication passed away this week, Stan Hillard is his name, so to h...
• ■ Imbue value May 8, 2024
  If you want to be valued, which is to say, if you want couples to pay that big fancy price you charge, you need to value yourself, value your clients, and value...
• ■ Two ears, one mouth May 7, 2024
  I completely rewrote todays marriage ceremony just before I delivered it — I’m in Queenstown, New Zealand for a few couples this week — after spending the tw...
• ■ Serve the selfish May 6, 2024
  Seneca wrote
• ■ Decrypted Australian PDF Marriage Forms May 6, 2024
  We understand that accessibility is key in providing seamless services as a marriage celebrant, and we also understand that the Notice of Intended Marriage and Official Certificate of Marriage being provided from the AGD
• ■ What and why do you do that ceremony? May 5, 2024
  Your style of presenting a ceremony is different to mine, and most likely different to everyone else's.
• ■ What an advantage May 4, 2024
  Mark Twain wrote “the man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read” which is not only true for reading, but for all exercises of intellec...
• ■ Cruising speed May 3, 2024
  Any fool with a Squarespace website and a Google Ads account can start a business. Our society puts so much value on starting, and perhaps its rightly so.
• ■ Sarah-Louise's trip to the wedding trail and her Maleny wedding May 3, 2024
  This Insights podcast episode is with Josh and Sarah-Louise Anderson, who is planning her wedding on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for the 1st of October. They discuss the process of choosing a wedding date around he
• ■ Make a life for yourself May 2, 2024
  The beautiful thing about being a wedding officiant or celebrant is that we get to craft a life for ourselves. What kind of celebrant we are, what product we pr...
• ■ Seeing things as they are May 1, 2024
  Our dreams and our hopes are not grounded in reality, instead they originate from only what we have seen and known.
• ■ My number one strategy for becoming a six-figure wedding celebrant Apr 29, 2024
  Are you ready to earn more money and make it big as a wedding celebrant or officiant?
• ■ Desperate for community and leadership Apr 28, 2024
  You have a unique opportunity to create community and provide leadership in your local wedding industry. Celebrants and officiants are independent, often solo, ...
• ■ I can't help you Apr 27, 2024
  Unless you actually employed me to come into your business and handed me the keyboard, trackpad, the keys to your office, I can't actually help you.
• ■ Kim & Zac's Cronulla wedding Apr 27, 2024
  Kim and Zac married in Cronulla and they always knew that Tania Marsh was going to be their celebrant. The couple got married in Cronulla and flew Tania down to Sydney for their wedding. [audio mp3= "https://celebra
• ■ The billion dollar celebrant Apr 23, 2024
  In a recent interview, OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman said:
• ■ Create for you Apr 21, 2024
  Author and podcaster Glennon Doyle spoke on the courage to be yourself:
• ■ Basic accounting and financial management for celebrants Apr 21, 2024
  A celebrant reached out recently with a query that sparked me thinking about how well we're all managing our finances. They emailed me asking if they were still a paying member of the Celebrant Institute. Ironically,
• ■ Try, try, and try again Apr 19, 2024
  I'm inspired and encouraged watching Taylor Tomlinson
• ■ Here's to the crazy ones Apr 18, 2024
  Steve Jobs voice from late nineties Apple advertising campaign read
• ■ Just a bunch of gibberish + legislation + quiet wedding industry times Apr 18, 2024
  In this episode of The Celebrant Talk Show, hosts Josh Withers and Sarah Aird discuss the current state of the wedding industry and the impact of COVID-19, inflation, and the "engagement gap " on wedding businesses. They
• ■ Local knowledge for a wedding ceremony Apr 17, 2024
  I like to work in local knowledge and context to my ceremonies, and NearbyWiki helps me do that. It shows me Wikipedia articles near a...
• ■ The only way forward is your way Apr 16, 2024
  Visiting my friend Annie today I was reminded of her unique and awesome business which has been uniquely shaped by her personality,...
• ■ Talking instead of questionnaires Apr 15, 2024
  It's so common for celebrants and officiants to send a questionnaire to help them create a ceremony for couples.
• ■ The hard thing about buying a printer Apr 13, 2024
  All the printers are lined up on a shelf so we can choose one based on aesthetics, but truth be told we don't care what the printer looks like, we need it print...
• ■ Drummer seeks band Apr 12, 2024
  “Drummer seeks musicians to form band.” That sign hung up on the wall of a high school in Dublin in 1978. It changed the course of music history. This is the...
• ■ Ditch the breakfast buffet Apr 11, 2024
  I've stayed in enough hotels around the globe to know that the hotel buffet breakfast is a global institution. You also don't need to be a published food critic...
• ■ Put a ring on it Apr 10, 2024
  Here's a free thing to say in your next wedding ceremony.
• ■ The one secret to engaging online content Apr 9, 2024
  Care. Care and empathy are the currencies of the post-AI world.
• ■ Inspired by a restaurant menu Apr 8, 2024
  The New York Times reviewed 121 rest...
• ■ Perfection in ceremony Apr 7, 2024
  The French writer, poet, and aviator Antoine de Saint Exupéry said,
• ■ Accountability Apr 6, 2024
  The curse and blessing of my business as a celebrant is my independence. I know my North American brethern often work in larger studios of officiants, one frien...
• ■ Get out of your head Apr 5, 2024
  It is so hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. I'm not going to lie, the way the government response to covid ruined our family business and fin...
• ■ Sealed with a K.I.S.S. Apr 4, 2024
  "One of the greatest ways to avoid trouble is to keep it simple" was Charlie Munger's catch cry.
• ■ All prayer in pursuit Apr 3, 2024
  Timothy Keller wrote that "all prayer, pursued far enough, becomes praise" and I'd encourage you to replace or further the word 'prayer' with the deepest groans...
• ■ Write so you may be judged Apr 2, 2024
  An author I adore, Adam Grant, once tweeted
• ■ A good website is no joke Apr 1, 2024
  A comedian I follow on Threads recently posted
• ■ Running out of new ideas? Mar 31, 2024
  Adam Grant wrote in Originals:
• ■ How to accept international payments Mar 30, 2024
  Tim asks how I accept payments across borders?
• ■ Do you know what you want? Mar 29, 2024
  We often consider ourselves - celebrants, people who create ceremony - to be people that are only giving to a wedding.
• ■ Marketing yourself as a new celebrant Mar 29, 2024
  Silvia asks: I really want to find out how to start a website when you haven't done any weddings yet. I've looked at many celebrant's websites and find myself overwhelmed. Starting out can be hard, but rest assur
• ■ Spend a year deciding Mar 28, 2024
  We waste so much of our precious time with short-term thinking and value-less work that keeps us busy. Warren Buffett spends a year deciding and a day acting...
• ■ Invent a new ceremony Mar 27, 2024
  To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment. Invent and experiment in your ceremony
• ■ Buying Mar 26, 2024
  In Oprah Winfrey</em> by George Ilian, what people actually buy is detailed like this: People don't buy products, they buy emotions. Wh...
• ■ AI is a forklift Mar 25, 2024
  Most of the talk about artificial intelligence, large language models, ChatGPT and its competitors, is about it taking over creative work.
• ■ Schedule a day off and a holiday Mar 24, 2024
  When someone books you to be their wedding celebrant they're expecting you at full energy, full-on, 100% of you, on that day. It's impossible for you to deli...
• ■ Sorry for the family Mar 23, 2024
  "Friends are God's way of apologising for your relatives" is the old saying. Friends are also how marketing should work, and how it did work before the indus...
• ■ This is one in over one billion pieces of content created today Mar 22, 2024
  Over one billion new pieces of content were created today. Videos, blogs, posts, photos, emails. It&39;s overwhelming being a creator in this economy....
• ■ Two of my heroes Mar 21, 2024
  I - and you - do not exist in a vacuum. It's impossible to not be affected and influenced by all around us.
• ■ What I want to do vs. what I can do Mar 20, 2024
  A friend asked me today why I did weddings and not all the other things I'm passionate about and talk about all day, like technology, business systems workflows...
• ■ Public speaking skills you can learn from Steve Jobs and John Mulaney Mar 20, 2024
  As a wedding celebrant, our role is pivotal in creating a memorable experience for couples on their special day. Public speaking is an integral part of this role, and there's much to learn from seasoned speakers across d
• ■ Are you all talk or do you like to do things too? Mar 19, 2024
  There's been some really good advice shared in these emails, and there's still more, I've got more notes than you could imagine on topics or aspects of weddings...
• ■ The 20 year fashion cycle Mar 18, 2024
  The cyclical rule about trends and fashion says
• ■ Have you received one of your invoices? Mar 17, 2024
  In my dual role as celebrant and also bookkeeper for my wife's business The Elopement Collective I receive and pay invoices for t...
• ■ Good strategy Mar 16, 2024
  Your best strategy should be simple and powerful. Easy enough to explain to a friend, honest enough to explain to a client.
• ■ Are you better yet? Mar 15, 2024
  I'm thinking about a quote from someone famous that I can't exactly recall about how 'a man who thinks the same thing at 25 and 35 is a foolish man' as I watch ...
• ■ 2024's Ongoing Professional Development topics are now available Mar 15, 2024
  Our friends in Canberra emailed all Aussie celebrants with the good news that our OPD - our ongoing professional development obligation - is now online on the Marcel Portal. The department is delivering the two (
• ■ Card Buddy, your new ceremony writing app Mar 15, 2024
  I've described my ceremony preparation and writing style before as a series of "bits ", much like how a comedian will assemble a show from their jokes and bits, I'll assemble a ceremony together much the same. So when
• ■ Are your emails even being delivered? Mar 14, 2024
  In February 2024 Google and Yahoo's email divisions implemented big changes to how emails could be delivered and if they would be deemed spam or junk mail.
• ■ Engagement ring sales in 2023 explain the 2024 dip in enquiries Mar 14, 2024
  Explaining the 2024 dip in wedding enquiries and bookings, or the shortening of planning time, Shane references a New York Times article which references the investors letter from the world's largest retailer of diamond
• ■ Are you telling people information, or answering questions on your blog? Mar 13, 2024
  Of the 8.5 billion searches a day on Google, 680 million of them, eight percent, are questions.
• ■ Which customer relationship management software is the right one? Mar 12, 2024
  From the list of Honeybook 17Hats Dubsado ClickUp Monday
• ■ Science proves: quick reply means a positive impression Mar 12, 2024
  A new study finds that the later we meet someone in a sequence, the more negatively we describe them. The research finds that unconscious bias could disadvantage people who happen to be evaluated later in a sequence, whe
• ■ Learn from WeddingWire's annual report WeddingPro report Mar 11, 2024
  The 2023 WeddingPro Benchmarking Report offers a comprehensive look into the current state of the American wedding industry, focusing on the challenges and strategies wedding professionals use to grow their businesses.
• ■ On Sanebox, and how I learned to love my inbox again Mar 11, 2024
  I love my email inbox. That's not something many people can say today. But I really do. I do my business there which provides for my family, plus I subscribe to so many interesting and important email letters there, so i
• ■ The state of the wedding industry, according to the 2024 Easy Weddings survey Mar 11, 2024
  The Easy Weddings 2024 Australian Wedding Industry Report provides an overview of the state of the wedding industry from the point of view of Easy Weddings and its 4,200 engaged and newlywed couples that completed the su
• ■ Annie Leibovitz Mar 10, 2024
  A friend refused to use his own name as the name of his wedding business because he was worried people wouldn't spell it properly so I asked him to spell Annie ...
• ■ Charissa and Scott got up real high in their wedding Mar 10, 2024
  In this episode of the Insights podcast episode - [memberful_buy_subscription_link plan=106531-insights-monthly]Insights level members[/memberful_buy_subscription_link] can [memberful_podcasts_link podcast=20822]listen h
• ■ The thing about being remarkable Mar 9, 2024
  There's a spectacular mountain range surrounding Queenstown in New Zealand named "The Remarkables".
• ■ Take payments directly on your phone - no card reader! Mar 9, 2024
  A Celebrant Institute member was asking a question of us this week and mentioned taking payment in person. Sarah offered the correct advice that she might want to consider getting a Square card reader that you connect to
• ■ "Why would they take you to Iceland?" Mar 8, 2024
  Sitting down for a coffee with my grandma a week after I returned from Iceland in 2016 I was excited to show her photos of the marriage ceremonies I'd made ther...
• ■ "Celebrants near me" doesn't work anymore Mar 7, 2024
  Being the best local wedding celebrant near me today doesn't mean as much as it used to in the days of the Yellowpages.
• ■ Your website is where you make your first real impression Mar 6, 2024
  I woke up this morning to a flurry of text messages from friends about how Instagram and Facebook was down. One of the friends is someone I've been telling for ...
• ■ Empathy. Focus. Impute. Mar 5, 2024
  In Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs he detailed the Apple marketing philosophy that I still witness in the company today:
• ■ Changing your tools Mar 4, 2024
  I'm always looking for opportunities to change up my tools. It's the easiest way for me to assess what I have been doing and using, and to find out whether ther...
• ■ On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog Mar 3, 2024
  It can be a bit lonely here in self-employment and solo-employment land, that's why I created the Campfire link in email footer, but I also love your email repl...
• ■ Privacy is a major concern of mine for celebrants Mar 2, 2024
  As wedding celebrants we collect a mountain of data about our clients, some is strict stuff like names and dates of birth, but the most interesting data to a ha...
• ■ Madelin and Jeremy's Frogmore Creek wedding Mar 2, 2024
  Madelin and Jeremy had no idea how much Sue would cost but they were prepared to pay whatever Sue would cost because they were set on her without even knowing her fee.
• ■ So, so, so rare Feb 29, 2024
  The chances that someone is born on February 29 is one in 1,461.
• ■ Religious ceremony or civil? Feb 27, 2024
  Right now, 28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, and they’re one of the fastest-growing religious — or nonreligious — groups in America. An even larg...
• ■ What return did I see from a $20k advertising investment last year? Feb 27, 2024
  Coming back into full-time celebrancy in 2023 I knew that the industry had changed, the celebrant population had changed, and the couples booking weddings were not just different but they had different means and ways of
• ■ Be or pretend Feb 26, 2024
  At a time when his fate was being decided by TV executives, and his agent was trying to convince him to talk to another TV network, David Letterman decided you ...
• ■ Automating a common email reply Feb 25, 2024
  Earlier this week I wrote how we had to write basically the same reply every time someone didn't read a page on our website.
• ■ Money for nothing and the points are free Feb 24, 2024
  I've just taken a quick trip to Noosa for an elopement and I flew the same airline I always fly.
• ■ Attention is the goal Feb 23, 2024
  Only 20 years ago the common person had one source of information, if any — the local newspaper.
• ■ Turn your email replies into content Feb 22, 2024
  At the Celebrant Institute we offer a few different services, one of which is the Certificate IV in Celebrancy. People wanting to bec...
• ■ Look for trend lines Feb 21, 2024
  We're in the business of connecting with, selling to, and marrying real humans who live in the real world - not the wedding industry world.
• ■ The social media we knew is dead, long live the social media Feb 20, 2024
  The Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Myspace, MSN Messenger, social network we connected with each other on years ago is dead. Those places have either gon...
• ■ Interstate online BDM systems Feb 20, 2024
  Sutha asks: I am registered in NSW, but will be getting a close friend married in Melbourne. Can I get access to BDM RIO? or is it limited to Victorian celebrants? A blog post about all the different electronic lodge
• ■ When can a celebrant marry a couple overseas and without a NOIM? Feb 20, 2024
  Did you know that in a very specific circumstance a certain kind of celebrant can marry a certain kind of couple in a country that isn't Australia - and it's all allowed by Australian law, plus it's a valid Australian ma
• ■ On paying for a NSW Official Certificate of Marriage Feb 20, 2024
  Lifelink was a controversial project, first proposed in 2002, it cost almost $50 million to bring it to life, but one of the small blessings it brought was surety to celebrants that the marriage was registered properly,
• ■ The reason you won't increase your fee today Feb 19, 2024
  The reason you won't increase your fee is because of the accountability that comes with a price.
• ■ Celebrant > Officiant Feb 18, 2024
  Why do I call our job celebrant and not officiant like everyone outside of Australia does? As one is apt to do at a wedding, allow me to quote the dictionary...
• ■ New "stuff” to include in your wedding ceremonies Feb 17, 2024
  I would like “new stuff” to include in my ceremonies.
• ■ Google's computer is the real SEO expert Feb 16, 2024
  Many of us still get SEO confused, so Neil Patel&39;s advice on using Google&39;s LLM chatb...
• ■ How can I help you? Feb 15, 2024
  One of the most viral, most effective, and most legacy building Facebook statuses I've ever posted was five words long: "How can I help you?"
• ■ Be exceptional Feb 15, 2024
  If your celebrant offering, your service, the thing you're selling, is the same as everyone else's, or appears the same, or you portray it as the same, then potential clients will look for the lowest price. Raise your
• ■ Sacred Awe #7: The script is dead, long live the script Feb 14, 2024
  I believe that a wedding should feel and sound better than it looks and there's something about reading word for word from a page that taints that. The truth...
• ■ Sacred Awe #6: Be fun, not funny Feb 13, 2024
  Hamish and Andy make one of the best and longest running radio shows and podcasts in Australia, and everyone would describe them as funny.
• ■ Sacred Awe #5: Know the direction Feb 12, 2024
  The marriage ceremony isn't the closing ceremony. It's not a funeral for their single, dating, courting life. The wedding isn't a participation certificate for ...
• ■ Sacred Awe #4: What is actually happening? Feb 11, 2024
  This isn't rocket surgery, and it's not a walk in the park. This is a marriage ceremony. With or without all the trimmings, flowers, photographer, champagne, ni...
• ■ Sacred Awe #3: Relish the moment Feb 10, 2024
  I witnessed a celebrant performing a marriage ceremony from a display book, one of those books with plastic envelopes in it that you insert your printed paper i...
• ■ Sacred Awe #2: Create, don't recreate Feb 9, 2024
  If you believed the hype you'd believe the world wants mass-produced goods, manufactured for the millions.
• ■ Sacred Awe #1: Listen but not to synecdoches Feb 8, 2024
  A redeeming feature of people who actually are authorities, experts, gurus, specialists, is that you would never hear them say so - because they listen more tha...
• ■ The greatest ceremony ever Feb 7, 2024
  I often find myself by the concept of award ceremonies for creatives - especially for wedding celebrants - because I simply don't think we're in a race and I co...
• ■ Sacred Awe Feb 6, 2024
  We're all trying to do different things when we create a marriage ceremony. Me, I don't merely want to create a wedding that is just fine and ok.
• ■ Domesticate your email inbox Feb 5, 2024
  For 11 years I have made a full-time living through email. People email me, I reply, they reply, I reply, money turns up in my bank account.
• ■ If I visit your website Feb 4, 2024
  If I visit your wedding officiant website, in the first moments can I determine:
• ■ 18 minutes is the perfect ceremony length Feb 3, 2024
  Whenever a couple ask me how long my wedding ceremonies are I can always give the same easy answer: about 18 minutes.
• ■ Gen Z is the queerest adult generation to date Feb 2, 2024
  Nearly 30% of Gen Z American adults identify as LGBTQ
• ■ Considering the five senses Feb 1, 2024
  As the person creating and leading a wedding ceremony consider the five senses in ceremony creation.
• ■ What is every other Australian celebrant charging in 2024? Feb 1, 2024
  In January we asked Australian celebrants to complete a survey. Of the 10,339 authorised marriage celebrants in Australia, 297 responded, giving us a 2.87% response rate, and this is our analysis of the survey results.
• ■ Tori Brown's Path to Passion and Purpose Jan 28, 2024
  In this enlightening episode of the Celebrant Talk Show, host Josh Withers delves into the captivating world of new celebrants with guest Tori Brown from Grace and Soul Celebrancy. A recent graduate of the Certificate I
• ■ Musician-Turned-Celebrant: Ryan's Story Jan 26, 2024
  Welcome to another engaging episode of the Celebrant Talk Show, where we explore the diverse journeys of newly authorised celebrants in Australia. Today, I, Josh Withers, have the pleasure of hosting Ryan Enright from
• ■ Journey to Joy: Rachel Ivy McDermott-Magrath's Celebrant Adventure Jan 15, 2024
  Welcome to another enriching episode of the Celebrant Talk Show, where we delve into the inspiring journeys of those who've embarked on the path of becoming a celebrant. Today's episode features Rachel Ivy McDermott-Mag
• ■ Create a rabbit hole for your couples to "fall" down Jan 8, 2024
  Create a rabbit hole for your couples to fall down so they fall in love with you!
• ■ The right (and new) form to use when you have an interpreter at a wedding Jan 5, 2024
  The Attorney-General's Department's Marriage Law and Celebrants Section announces a significant update: a new Certificate of Faithful Performance by Interpreter. This change and changed form for 2024, results from mo
• ■ Fresh Faces in Celebrancy: Melissa Edwards' Energetic Entry Jan 4, 2024
  In this vibrant episode of the Celebrant Talk Show, host Josh Withers welcomes the enthusiastic Melissa Edwards, a newly minted celebrant who completed her Certificate IV in Celebrancy with the Celebrant Institute. A
• ■ Marriage law reform and change in 2024 Jan 1, 2024
  As of June 12 2024 remote witnessing of Notice of Intended Marriage forms is now law and you can visit this page for an update. Rounding out my 2024 prediction series of blog posts we know for sure that change i
• ■ Prices are going up: 2024 is the year for your price to go up Jan 1, 2024
  As wedding celebrants, we've weathered the storm of the pandemic, continuing to offer our cherished services amidst unprecedented challenges. However, it's time to acknowledge a critical aspect of our business that many
• ■ Weddings are getting smaller and more intentional Jan 1, 2024
  [et_pb_section admin_label= "section "] [et_pb_row admin_label= "row "] [et_pb_column type= "4_4 "][et_pb_text admin_label= "Text "]I am excited to forecast that 2024 will be hailed as the year of the intentional wedding. Th
• ■ AI can allow you to express yourself meaningfully Dec 31, 2023
  In the evolving world of wedding planning, the role of a celebrant is continually transforming. Today's celebrants are not just facilitators of a ceremony; they are storytellers, advisors, and now, thanks to Artificial I
• ■ Blogging is coming back! Dec 31, 2023
  In 1997 the term "web log " was shortened to blog and ever since common people like you and I have had the power to write and publish on the internet. For the longest time it was the only way you shared your mission, your
• ■ Red-team your celebrant business Dec 31, 2023
  With new celebrants entering the market every month, your marketing, sales, enquiry, and booking process need as much attention as your ceremony production and delivery do. I want to introduce the concept of red-teaming
• ■ Social networking is getting small while social media is going big time Dec 31, 2023
  The digital era is witnessing a significant transformation in how we connect, communicate, and consume content. In the realm of social networking and media, a paradigm shift is underway. Traditional social networking is
• ■ The rise of the expert and the death of "whatever you want" Dec 31, 2023
  Go to any wedding celebrant's website and there's a 50% chance that somewhere on the front page they'll say something like "your wedding your way " which is lovely and kind. Of course, the customer is always right as Harr
• ■ How to Celebrate and Not Hyperventilate with Megan Dec 21, 2023
  Embark on a celebrant's journey with Megan Studman and Josh Withers in the Celebrant Talk Show! From certification to conducting her first wedding, Megan's story is a fascinating dive into the world of celebrancy. Learn
• ■ From Dietitian to 'I Do's, a new celebrant's story Dec 14, 2023
  In this episode of the Celebrant Talk Show, Josh Withers interviews Amy McNeilly, a recent graduate from the Celebrant Institute. Amy, who works as a clinical dietician, pursued celebrancy to engage more with people, in
• ■ Meet a Certificate IV in Celebrancy graduate, Lachie Grisold Dec 8, 2023
  In this exciting episode of the Celebrant Institute's Celebrant Talk Show podcast, join your host, Josh Withers, as he continues his series of insightful interviews with recent graduates and new celebrants. This episode
• ■ Embracing DMARC: A Must-Do for Celebrants Nov 11, 2023
  With the digital sphere becoming more integral to our work, it’s crucial we stay abreast of changes that impact how we connect with our couples and our industry. Today, I want to demystify a term that’s been floating aro
• ■ Digital drivers licenses as ID, a guide for celebrants Oct 31, 2023
  As more Australian states start delivering digital drivers licenses it's important for Australian marriage celebrants to know if they can use digital drivers licenses as ID when solemnising marriages.
• ■ How to get featured in the media Oct 6, 2023
  If you've ever heard my story of going full-time as a wedding celebrant you can skip the next three paragraphs. I'd already been plugging away at celebrancy, not getting quite as much traction as one would like, for four
• ■ Collecting email addresses at a wedding fair with a QR code and ChatGPT Sep 18, 2023
  Luke emailed me yesterday as I was about to solve for myself the problem he identified: What software would you recommend to use for a marketing list? Again are there any zaps or workflows in setting up the marketing lis
• ■ So You Want to Marry Your Friends or Family: The Real Costs and Alternatives to Becoming a Celebrant Aug 28, 2023
  Are you thinking about becoming a marriage celebrant just to officiate at your friends' weddings? That's a beautiful sentiment, but there's a lot you need to know and consider before taking this route.
• ■ Why the World Looks to Australia for Wedding Industry Inspiration: 50 years of Celebrancy Jul 15, 2023
  To celebrate fifty years of the Marriage Celebrants program in Australia, Josh Withers looks at how the movement has moved the entire industry forward.
• ■ How to use ChatGPT to sent instant replies to wedding enquiries Jul 14, 2023
  If you've seen people using AI in their business and you're wondering how you could use it in yours, here's a demonstration on how I'm using ChatGPT to reply to wedding enquiries with emails like this. Before you do step
• ■ Six AI chat prompts celebrants can use to make fresh content today Jun 5, 2023
  Want to start playing with AI chat in a way that will make sense to your celebrancy practice and business? Here's five prompts you can ask to get a unique insight into your business today.
• ■ Start playing with generative AI Jun 2, 2023
  The best way to understand computers forever is that they work on a GIGO system. Garbage in, garbage out. Whatever you put in gets computed and is spat back out at you. If it's garbage in, you get garbage out. So here ar
• ■ Get AI-generated summaries of your video calls May 17, 2023
  2020 brought us many gifts, but for so many the lasting gift is video calls. We had them before 2020 but they're very normal to have today. So when I found this new tool that records, transcribes, and then summarises you
• ■ Open up the old internet and just toss some stuff in there May 1, 2023
  Josh wrote an article here on the Celebrant Institute website and received lots of feedback on it, and Sarah had some thoughts on it. Here's the link to the edited article, and the archived version from before this podc
• ■ How to become a wedding celebrant in Australia Apr 28, 2023
  A how-to guide for people wanting to become a wedding celebrant. It’s easy. You just need to want the best job in the universe, you need to believe that getting and being married is important and awesome + some public sp
• ■ Celebrant, help wedding vendors not hate you Apr 28, 2023
  Be awesome at your job, do your job, only your job, not other people's job, and don't make it hard for them to do their job.
• ■ It's time to update and modernise the Marriage Act of 1961 Apr 4, 2023
  As of June 12 2024 remote witnessing of Notice of Intended Marriage forms is now law and you can visit this page for an update. Over sixty years ago the Australian people were gifted one of the most progressive
• ■ How to become a celebrant Apr 1, 2023
  How many times do we all hear it from a friend, a wedding industry colleague, or someone at a wedding, that they think they'd make a great celebrant and they want more information on it. After being asked the question a
• ■ I didn't have a backup! Happy World Backup Day Mar 31, 2023
  As a wedding celebrant, you know better than anyone else how important it is to be prepared for the unexpected. From weather conditions to late vendors, to a family member showing up late, there's always something that c
• ■ Chat and AI is going to change your entire business Mar 29, 2023
  Four points that you should take away from this article: 1) The power of the first-mover and the advantages you can take from being one. 2) Social media is both broadening and shrinking. Broadening into wider broadcast-s
• ■ Love is patient, as should you business be Mar 27, 2023
  I was thinking about 1 Corinthians 13:4 to me recently. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. " If you're a wedding celebrant you've probably heard it a thousand times befor
• ■ My couple are breaking up, can I just not register their marriage? Mar 26, 2023
  Marie asks: I married a couple last night and when I got home registered the marriage and ordered their marriage certificate. This morning I woke up to a string of texts from the bride to not register the marriage and th
• ■ Email is the worst Mar 25, 2023
  A terribly poor recording of the Celebrant Talk Show with Josh and Sarah this week, Josh's laptop got drunk. Topics on this episode include: Does ageism exist in celebrancy? Being a celebrant with a disabili
• ■ 16 Growth ideas for wedding celebrants Mar 21, 2023
  A celebrant friend was complaining to me recently about the market, we've all had the same conversation, either us being whined at, or us doing the whining. The truth is that we are not owed our next enquiry or booking,
• ■ Five phrases you should use in your sales pitch Mar 5, 2023
  Five phrases you can incorporate into sales meetings with your couples to help win the wedding booking.
• ■ I got scammed, and it'll happen to you! Mar 3, 2023
  It was about 4pm in the afternoon here in Mexico and I had just emptied my inbox, a noble task in 2023, and the email came in. The email that scares me the most: my main domain name's renewal had failed due a credit card
• ■ The difference between religious ministers and civil celebrants Mar 2, 2023
  Karen asks: What are the differences/similarities, restrictions and allowances between a celebrant-led wedding and a church wedding, that is, by an ordained minister. I have noticed a lot of confusion and even ignoran
• ■ Creating a marriage ceremony versus re-creating a marriage ceremony Feb 12, 2023
  When I talk about being unscripted in a ceremony, people often misread that as the oral version of just shooting from the hip, seeing where the bullets lie. The truth is, I'm more likely to be more prepared, more nervous
• ■ Change your passwords Feb 2, 2023
  Depending on who you talk to, International Change Your Password Day is January 20 or February 1. Either way, in Australia we've missed both those dates, and because I'm writing this in Mexico I just saw the tweet from F
• ■ 16 Ways a celebrant can end up in jail for six months Jan 17, 2023
  Sarah and I have been reviewing the Guidelines to the Marriage Act and one chapter caught my eye and I thought maybe you didn't know how many things you could do that would end you up in jail for at least six months, or
• ■ Remote witnessing of NOIMs in 2023 Jan 4, 2023
  In early December the Commonwealth Attorney-General's department's Marriage Law and Celebrants Section let us know that the remote witnessing of NOIMs has been extended to 31 December 2023.
• ■ I'm challenging you to learn Markdown Dec 11, 2022
  Everyone has their little "thing " where they think if everyone else on the planet just did things this way then the world would be a better place, and honestly, I'm all for your and my weird little opinions. One that I r
• ■ Can AI write an original marriage ceremony? Dec 7, 2022
  Yes, yes artificial intelligence can write a marriage ceremony, but can it present one well? You've probably read the news about OpenAI's new GPT-3 chatbot, ChatGPT, so I won't mansplain AI to you, but I simply wa
• ■ Are meetings at cafes a business expense? Nov 10, 2022
  A member asks, "Can you claim a tax deduction for the cost of holding a couple meeting at a cafe? Paying for their coffee? I hear different answers to this. "
• ■ Being found is the new advertising Nov 3, 2022
  There are a few different kinds of marketing and advertising, but they can be mostly wrapped up under two headings: passive and active. Passive marketing is my favourite because it actively respects the nature of
• ■ Market your celebrant services like Apple markets the iPhone Oct 7, 2022
  Jano le Roux, a copywriter, has done a deep dive on the marketing surrounding the new iPhone 14. Words matter, and they've pulled the Apple copywriting apart to show how it matters to the average Joe like you an
• ■ Maybe it will inspire some of us to rest Oct 5, 2022
  There's a new podcast episode out and Josh is moving to Mexico. Sarah's still not at rest but she has found a spectacular little trick for funerals using iMovie. Still no movement on the NOIM video witnessing push, and w
• ■ Be a little more like Robbie Williams as a celebrant Sep 25, 2022
  I'll get the disappointment out of the way for everyone, I'm no AFL fan. Can you blame me? I'm a Queenslander born and bred, we worship NRL gods up here. Regardless, I heard people comment on Robbie Williams' performa
• ■ Where should the celebrant stand in a wedding ceremony? Josh's view Aug 31, 2022
  Where should the celebrant stand in a marriage ceremony? There's no rule, law, or correct answer, but I'll lay out the fundamentals on how I make my decision on where to stand, because it's not always the same decision b
• ■ Utilise the power of the "Zero Price Effect" Aug 25, 2022
  Communicating value, selling your services, and convincing couples you're worth your fee, is all hard work. Sometimes we discover psychological tricks to lubricate that process, things that can make it easier. Today's
• ■ Ted Gioia's 10 rules for public speaking Aug 21, 2022
  Every celebrant should read this post from Ted Gioia on his 10 rules for public speaking, and my challenge to you is to integrate at least one, if not all of them, into your next ceremony.
• ■ You must call yourself a marriage celebrant Aug 14, 2022
  I'm sure that all of you have familiarised yourself with the Marriage Act of 1961, so you probably don't have to read this, but on the off chance that Sarah Aird has schooled you, like she's just schooled me, on some thi
• ■ My iPad lost everything, how can I prevent this? Aug 8, 2022
  S writes in with a question about data loss and iPads: What are your back up plans when it comes to “Digital Paperwork”? I recently had the scenario of my iPad wiping all my files on the way to a wedding! Not
• ■ Happy Podcast New Year! Jul 13, 2022
  We know, we know, we've been away for a whole year, but we're back! In this episode we talk about where we're both at in July 2022, and the major things that have happened in celebrancy and at the Celebrant Institute in
• ■ A lesson from Kobe Bryant for celebrants Jul 4, 2022
  Starting from zero is hard. I've found that creating from scratch, staring at a blank Word document, or an empty notepad, is the hardest work, like pushing a boulder uphill it requires you to muster everything inside of
• ■ This is your permission to raise your fees in 2022 Jun 9, 2022
  Sarah and my accounting software of choice - Xero - just emailed us that our Xero plan (the standard) is increasing in price by $5 a month to $59. Fuel costs a lot more. Lettuce costs a lot more. Housing, rent, and mortg
• ■ How did I do 27 weddings in one month? May 12, 2022
  A few responses to my May 2022 email about having done 27 marriage ceremonies this month before prompted questions from celebrants across our Australian membership base and even internationally. Donna asked "how do you j
• ■ The law of social proof and celebrancy Apr 11, 2022
  When unsure how to act, people copy others, outsourcing their own decisions to others. Not only is this true when choosing a shop, or a cafe, but in weddings as well.
• ■ A ceremony as a series of 'riffs', that's how I'm unscripted Mar 29, 2022
  When you mention my name to another celebrant, apparently the most common thing people talk about is how I'm unscripted. Some people call it ad lib. I would never describe my method of creating and delivering a ceremony
• ■ Do I need more than one domain name for my website? Mar 29, 2022
  Elaine asks: When I obtained my Domain Name of domainname.com.au from Melbourne IT when I first started back in 2014, I was ‘advised’ to secure domainname.net and domainname.com too, to prevent ‘others’ from setting
• ■ Computer and internet security for a modern marriage celebrant Mar 11, 2022
  Every day I wake up and check the technology news - as is my habit - and scroll through the headlines I'm expecting to find a marriage celebrant in there. Why?
• ■ How to spy on other people's Facebook Ads Feb 18, 2022
  If you've been wanting a way to spy on what other people in the wedding industry are doing with their Facebook Ads, here's a very easy, open, and regulated way to do so.
• ■ There's Gold In Them Thar Questions Feb 18, 2022
  There's gold in the questions you get asked by other celebrants, people in the wedding industry, our clients, friends, and social media followers. Do you know what to do with them?
• ■ Rounded prices are better than unrounded for weddings Feb 14, 2022
  When it comes to pricing, and pricing yourself, there are so many contributing factors. The first is that you need to cover costs, the second that you need to make a profit - a wage, and the third that you make a surplus
• ■ A story for celebrants finding their tribe like Yeti coolers did Feb 11, 2022
  Before Yeti created a $5 million cooler and adventure brand, the icebox/cooler market (aka the "esky " market, despite Esky being a brand) was a a low-cost and cheap product market. Chris Hladczuk documents their story in
• ■ Other avenues for networking and referrals Feb 10, 2022
  I wonder how many avenues for networking, referrals, and help, us celebrants are leaving on the table?
• ■ Not-as-ongoing professional development Dec 21, 2021
  For the most recent information regarding ongoing professional development and OPD for Australian authorised civil celebrants visit celebrant.institute/opd As 2021 draws to a close, so does an era of celebrant-i
• ■ Why I hate wedding awards: “I am in competition with no-one” Oct 22, 2021
  For over five years now I’ve crusaded against wedding industry awards. I don’t like them, I don’t enter them, and I try to convince my friends and colleagues to avoid them as well. I understand how nice it feels t
• ■ My secret to business success: email Oct 21, 2021
  Any successful endeavour requires a number of ingredients. An award winning cake recipe will have more than one ingredient, and an Olympic gold medal swimmer didn't just swim their first lap that race. There's a p
• ■ How to start taking better photos at your weddings Sep 27, 2021
  An element of my social media content strategy I'm quite proud of is that I've really worked hard at making better photos, photos that I have made - and therefore own - so that I have photos and video for my own social m
• ■ How to record the location of a marriage ceremony on the water or in the air Sep 19, 2021
  Lizzie asks: "My couple is getting married on a boat in The Pittwater located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Please advise how I best record the "at " on the docs for a wedding adrift. " The Guidelines to the Marriage
• ■ The secret to having people share your social media posts Sep 8, 2021
  When you hear of social media posts going viral, it simply means people are sharing it. They're tagging their friends in the comments, sharing the post by direct message, and adding to the algorithm that decides who sees
• ■ How to get your couples to reply to your emails Sep 2, 2021
  If you've ever played the iconic Australian schoolyard game of handball, you'll remember that the aim of the game is to intercept the ball on your quadrant/half, then to get it back out as soon as possible. Think about y
• ■ Build my own website or pay a pro? Build a business brand or a personal brand? Aug 30, 2021
  Suzanne asks: "Looking for advice on professional web design v. self design. Objective to attract biz, be good return on investment and not rubber-stamp like. Also some good advice on logo vs personal service brand. " Two
• ■ Writing prompts for social media and blogging Aug 29, 2021
  The Copywriting Course's subject line generator might be just the gold mine you need to start writring that next blog posts, social media post, or recording that vlog or podcast.
• ■ Questions to ask your couples for your review or testimony Aug 26, 2021
  Jason Fried has posted a list of questions he asks referees he calls for new employees. I read through the list and thought that it would be equally impressive to see our clients answer some or all of these questions in
• ■ Be vulnerable about your growth intentions to actually grow Aug 24, 2021
  A study has found that adding copy to a new app's website around the lines of "we expect 1000 users to join this year " increased signups for the app by 20%. People respond to the developer's expectations and intentions o
• ■ Say, do you remember? Dancing (with new forms) in September? Aug 18, 2021
  September 2021 is bringing us new marriage forms, and to be sure that we don't confuse things, let me quote from the Attorney-General office email sent today. If you haven't received it, check your spam folder and then t
• ■ Should we charge more or differently for public holidays? Aug 6, 2021
  Continuing a long running series on this website starting with how your price is part of your marketing story, whether or not you should list your prices on your website with answers from Sarah and myself, how to respo
• ■ What does your profile photo say about you? Jul 30, 2021
  If you've taken our branding advice before, you're using the same headshot profile photo for your social media accounts and your website, and anywhere else you can upload an identifying photo, avatar, logo. But do you kn
• ■ Three practical ways to increase your price Jul 27, 2021
  I'm not backwards in coming forwards about celebrants raising their price. I've given a number of good reasons in the past, but as lockdowns and travel bans continue to fuel the bonfire that is the state of the wedding i
• ■ 7 Insurances celebrants should have Jul 9, 2021
  A member has asked about whether the Celebrant Institute membership includes insurance. It doesn't, and we'll be honest with you, that's because we reached out to a bunch of insurance brokers and insuring you lot in such
• ■ Wise words about reviews, for Billy Joel and wedding celebrants Jul 2, 2021
  I've got a confession to make: I can recall every single bad review I've had, and I barely remember the good ones. There's one I received while I was in Washington DC in 2015, a few days before I was about to spea
• ■ I've gone to court for cancelled covid weddings, and lived to tell the story Jul 1, 2021
  At the time of writing I personally have attended four court mediation sessions, and two court hearings. Theses are my stories. Dum dum. Ok, enough of the Law and Order jokes, but I am in the middle of a bunch of law sui
• ■ How and why you should position your speaker at a wedding Jul 1, 2021
  Many celebrants don't know the science and method behind choosing where to position their speaker in a ceremony. This video will take you through the basic elements of choosing where and why and how to position your spea
• ■ The thing about all of your social media followers Jul 1, 2021
  Whether you've got 10 or 10,000 followers across all the different social media channels, it's almost certainly true for all of them: less than 3% of your audience is ready to book a celebrant, hopefully you, ri
• ■ 7 days of content prompts for your social media Jun 14, 2021
  If you're feeling a bit stuck on what to post on your blog, or social media, or both, here's seven content ideas you can easily write right now. Then schedule them up to drop every day, and watch your online personal bra
• ■ Are you ready if someone tries to hack you and steal your client's personal data Jun 10, 2021
  Reading the news today about the meat manufacturer that paid up $11 million in ransom to cybercriminals after having its business shutdown over a hack recently, my mind turned to celebrants. I hold grave fears tha
• ■ "The truth is most of your followers won’t see what you share" on Instagram Jun 9, 2021
  Instagram has shared a post today about how and why people see what they see on Instagram. I'm not going to speculate on how much of this is smoke and mirrors, or politics, or conspiracy theories. Instead, lets take them
• ■ You should charge more, and here’s 10 reasons why Apr 30, 2021
  Mel is struggling with mapping out her pricing as a celebrant, and when she mentioned it to me I went straight to a conversation I had with my brother earlier today. He’s looking at starting a new business based on profe
• ■ How to be "out there" and trust the process Apr 13, 2021
  Krystal asks: "I seek perhaps some advice on how I continue to be "out there " without sailing into the boring seas or moving into sharing content on social media that isn't relevant. Maybe I need to be patient with the p
• ■ Advanced OPD topic on how to skin a rabbit Apr 8, 2021
  After a six month break from podcasting because our world's got crazy and busy, we talk about what was keeping us busy. Namely, reschedules and postponements and cancellations of weddings, and how that's affecting the wh
• ■ It's time to change the one month notice period to one week Mar 30, 2021
  To my fellow celebrants, I have a proposal regarding the one month notice period, and I'd like to run it up your flagpole, so to speak, and then take it to the Australian parliament: that the one month notice period requ
• ■ Facebook's a bit salty at us Feb 20, 2021
  After posting a guide on making sure you and your business is prepared if and when the Facebook ban hammer falls on you, the Facebook ban hammer fell on us.
• ■ When Facebook shuts you down, are you ready? Feb 18, 2021
  Your Facebook page, Instagram page, Google My Business account, your LinkedIn, and god forbid any of you have a Parler account, but they're all not your property. Running your business on the back of those properties is
• ■ Quick way to complete the Certificate IV in Celebrancy Feb 16, 2021
  A friend asks me today what the quickest way is to complete the Cert IV in Celebrancy, the qualification needed to become a celebrant in Australia. Friends of my friend reckon she'd be a great celebrant and they'd like h
• ■ Where to focus on your celebrancy in 2021 Feb 6, 2021
  It's been a weird year behind us as a wedding industry. I don't want to dwell on it for fear of crying, but I'm of the belief that sometime soon we need to focus our energies forward, and I wanted to encourage you to do
• ■ Ultimate Guide to Creating Automation For Your Customer Journey Jan 31, 2021
  I recently spoke via video at the Wedding Business CEO Summit and spoke on the process of creating a customer journey. My talk was called There’s A Fraction Too Much Friction: Automation For Your Customer Journey. I beli
• ■ How to accept crypto currencies for your work Jan 31, 2021
  A celebrant has written in to the Celebrant Institute asking the question: “How can I, and should I, accept crypto currency for celebrancy?”
• ■ Acknowledgement of Country in our weddings Jan 26, 2021
  First Australians have been marrying for thousands of years on the land we now call Australia. Terra Australis, the southern land, was home to people well before the Dutch or the British "discovered " it, so as much as Au
• ■ How to get couples to book you as their celebrant Jan 25, 2021
  "I’ve a question about that first meeting - I’ve met a few couples, tried coming from different angles ie. Asking what they have in mind for their ceremony, how they met, build rapport, let them talk or I do most of the
• ■ What if Google didn't exist? Jan 22, 2021
  Google, in light of legislation being introduced in Australia, has threatened to pull out of the Australian market. I'm sure they won't, if only because they won't walk away and leave $59 billion of income on the table a
• ■ 026 Social Media Challenge: It's not about you today Dec 31, 2020
  Social media, and humanity in general, can become a little bit self-indulgent at times. It's our tribal, animalistic nature, to look after one's self first. But something beautiful happens when you turn the camera away f
• ■ 025 Social Media Challenge: Meme me baby Dec 27, 2020
  Your challenge today is to create an entertaining meme. Not an educational meme, or an instructional meme, or a demonstratable meme. Today we meme for fun.
• ■ 024 Social Media Challenge: Can I answer you a question? Dec 23, 2020
  Today’s challenge is a little more casual after some intense training days, and it's about Quora.
• ■ 023 Social Media Challenge: The writing game Dec 19, 2020
  Today your challenge is to write non-stop for five minutes.
• ■ 022 Social Media Challenge: You can ASCII me anything Dec 15, 2020
  In the beginning there was the text, and the text was good. It was all we knew. We called it ASCII, ASCII codes represent text in computers. When I first used a personal computer in 1991 "computer graphics " were mostly j
• ■ The best tablet computer for celebrants, is it the reMarkable? Dec 12, 2020
  For almost the past three years an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil has been my computer that left the home. I'd always loved a Mac but I predominantly left that at my desk and if I left the office for a marriage ceremony,
• ■ 021 Social Media Challenge: Charting the course Dec 11, 2020
  Here’s a chart that tells a story about my business. Before you read on or scroll, what story do you think it’s telling?
• ■ 020 Social Media Challenge: Josh's Wheeeeeelllll of Content Dec 7, 2020
  Today you get a rare and direct peek into my brain. This next diagram explains how I think about content.
• ■ How to name your celebrant business Dec 5, 2020
  David Placek is the branding genius behind some of the biggest names in the technology world. The words Sonos, Intel Pentium, Apple PowerBook, Blackberry, Gimlet podcasts (home of Reply All), and the Impossible burger, a
• ■ 019 Social Media Challenge: Combine the five Dec 3, 2020
  We’re on the home stretch in this social media challenge, and you guys are absolutely nailing the challenge to the wall, good work!
• ■ How to collect wedding guest information for your own COVIDSafe requirements Nov 30, 2020
  Many governments are requiring people running events to collect data about who attends the event using QR codes and web forms. Your legal responsibilities regarding COVID and COVIDSafe plans are your responsibility and t
• ■ 018 Social Media Challenge: Create demonstrating content Nov 29, 2020
  I started this little streak of content prompts highlighting the fact that there five different kinds of good content. This is the fifth: demonstratable content.
• ■ 017 Social Media Challenge: Let me, entertain you! Nov 25, 2020
  Today’s challenge, once more without stipulation of network or medium, is to entertain us.
• ■ 016 Social Media Challenge: Inspire us Nov 21, 2020
  Today’s challenge is to mentally stimulate us, to make us feel something, something creative, beautiful, and hearty. Today’s challenge, as is the theme in this current swing of content, can go on any network/s of
• ■ 015 Social Media Challenge: Be educational Nov 17, 2020
  Good morning students! Today you’re all teachers and we’re taking your audience back to school.
• ■ 014 Social Media Challenge: Be relevant Nov 13, 2020
  There are five different kinds of good content. Before you click post on anything, ever, forever, it should be at least one. If it’s two, you might get a like, three and you’re having a party, four and you just put a has
• ■ 013 Social Media Challenge: Who do you love? Nov 9, 2020
  Today’s challenge is 98% in your hands, 1% in the calendar’s hands, and 1% from me.
• ■ 012 Social Media Challenge: Something beautiful Nov 5, 2020
  Ansel Adams said that we don’t take a photograph, we make it. Your challenge today is to make a photo, a beautiful photo, a photo you’re proud of, that you’d be happy to see hanging in my lounge room. It ca
• ■ 011 Social Media Challenge: A day in the life of... Nov 1, 2020
  One of my favourite uses of Instagram’s Story feature is to document the behind the scenes of what I’m doing. I see a number of benefits to the occasional behind the scenes personal documentary.
• ■ Was the tinsel an acknowlegement? Oct 31, 2020
  After meeting with the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section of the Attorney-General's Department, Josh and Sarah bring you all the updates to marriage forms, OPD in the years ahead, signing NOIMs online, plus we've got so
• ■ 010 Social Media Challenge: Let’s take the conversation to 11 Oct 26, 2020
  Today we’re taking that controversial thought in your mind, and we’re turning it all the way up to [eleven, Spinal Tap style].
• ■ 009 Social Media Challenge: Your genesis story Oct 22, 2020
  Today’s challenge is an easy one, you already know everything about it, the key to the challenge though is 1. Articulating it, 2. Telling it, and 3. Sharing it to as many mediums as possible Today we’re telling yo
• ■ Are you a workaholic? Oct 20, 2020
  It's a weird world in 2020, one where our workload has significantly decreased, yet in other less familiar ways, our workload has increased dramatically with postponements, court dates, cancellations, emails, sending man
• ■ 008 Social Media Challenge: Beat your own drum and testify Oct 18, 2020
  If someone speaks well of you, you've got to remember that, embed it deep into your soul, and know that you're good at this. And once you’ve done that you need to share that testimony There’s a whole philos
• ■ 007 Social Media Challenge: Blog a common reply Oct 14, 2020
  In computer programming there's a method of program called Object Oriented Programming, which recognises that some parts of the program are reused a lot. The programmers write the code once, then reuse it every time they
• ■ 006 Social Media Challenge: Nutella Day Oct 10, 2020
  Who would ever think that there would be a need for an [International Day for Nutella] to raise awareness of the delicious nutty goodness? Sara Rosso did.
• ■ 005 Social Media Challenge: Let’s get podcasting Oct 6, 2020
  Podcasts are so much more powerful than most people imagine. My little podcast, [The Rebel’s Guide to Getting Married], has maybe...
• ■ 004 Social Media Challenge: Reuse and recycle Oct 2, 2020
  I’m willing to bet that you have received a question about what you do before today, and you’ve hit reply with a really good answer.
• ■ OPD in 2021 is changing Oct 1, 2020
  For your ongoing professional development as a Commonwealth authorised marriage celebrant in 2021, only four hours will be provided by your OPD trainer. One hour of your five hour commitment will be delivered by the Marr
• ■ Tasmania (BDM) gets the internet Sep 30, 2020
  Sarah chats to Tasmanian celebrant Kathleen Pavlic-Ryan about the brand new online registration system available through Births, Deaths, and Marriages Tasmania!
• ■ 003 Social Media Challenge: Carrot Cake Sep 29, 2020
  Today’s challenge is to find something boring (like a carrot) yet necessary (like vegetables are for your diet) in your business
• ■ Moving a wedding from Queensland to New South Wales Sep 29, 2020
  Luke asks: One of my couples that had a Qld wedding booked, now want to change the ceremony location to NSW since the new border easing. What do I need to know and how do I go about doing a wedding in NSW? Is there a set
• ■ 002 Social Media Challenge: Introduce Yourself Sep 25, 2020
  Every month you should re-introduce yourself to your social media audience. I think you'd be surprised how many don't really know you for the real “you”, and those that do, could probably do with a brand re-alignment.
• ■ Creating elopement packages Sep 23, 2020
  A reader asks: "I have a handful of elopement related questions, and I think they will be more relevant than ever given how our world has changed in 2020 and how weddings have changed/will change in the coming year(s).
• ■ 001 Social Media Challenge: Lemonade Sep 21, 2020
  Making lemonade out of lemons is a popular story, obviously backed by Big Lemonade, but it encourages us to make our proverbial lemonade out of the lemons we’re presented with in life. For day one
• ■ Should I use a speaker stand, and should I use a PA for 10 guests? Sep 20, 2020
  Tam asks: I have my first wedding coming up next month. My question is in regards to using my PA system. I have Bose S1 with Sennheiser microphone. The wedding is only small (approximately 10 guests). Would you use a PA
• ■ Correcting marriage paperwork Sep 16, 2020
  There's a new fact sheet on the Attorny-General's department website on correcting marriage paperwork, and it's an important read. Luckily for us, our own Sarah Aird heavily impacted the final draft. We're copying and pa
• ■ Do our social media challenge Sep 15, 2020
  I'm writing a social media challenge for Celebrant Institute members to see out 2020...
• ■ If you have a non refundable deposit Sep 4, 2020
  An Australian wedding celebrant directory recently emailed it's members guilt-tripping them into keeping non-refundable deposits. What a guy.
• ■ Approach a wedding ceremony as a work of art Aug 22, 2020
  Neil Gaiman made a speech on May 17, 2012, as the keynote speech for the commencement ceremony to The University of Arts. As I read it I am thinking of the wedding ceremony as a work of art, and I'm sharing it with you t
• ■ Where should we get clients to review us? Aug 14, 2020
  Gail asks: Sooo... your couple love you and want to leave a review! Where is the best place/s for them leave this review to really market your business and what links would you send them?
• ■ Replying to new wedding enquiries with Bonjoro Aug 12, 2020
  A Celebrant Institute member was listening to back catalogue episodes of the Celebrant Talk Show and found one where I mentioned that my sales process involved potential couples requesting an information pack from my web
• ■ Seth Godin on selling your time Aug 10, 2020
  Seth Godin today writing about charging per hour, something I still see celebrants do. I wrote about the same topic a year ago so it's nice to have beat Seth Godin to something for once.
• ■ Live streaming a wedding, and what about the music copyright? Aug 7, 2020
  A member asks: Am I correct in assuming that couple's cannot live stream their marriage ceremony given music copyright issues? So there's a few issues to address in this one short question. The first is re
• ■ 222 reasons you need to secure your domain name for the love of God, please just do it Aug 7, 2020
  222 reasons why professionally operating marriage celebrants should secure their domain name registrar account and make sure their domain name is on auto renew.
• ■ You don't have to do everything Aug 7, 2020
  A celebrant enquired today about a couple who wanted to do a live stream of their wedding to family in Europe, but the celebrant didn't know where to start or what to do. I thought it was a good prompt for me to remind c
• ■ How to lodge marriage documents electronically with the ACT BDM Aug 6, 2020
  The Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, all have their own online systems for logging in online and submitting marriage paperwork electronically. The Australian Capital Territory B
• ■ What does Instagram Reels’ launch mean for the wedding industry? Aug 4, 2020
  Instagram’s latest feature ‘Reels’ is in addition to it’s existing product suite of regular Instagram news feed posts, Stories, and IGTV. This is a deep dive into how celebrants and people in the wedding industry can tak
• ■ How to be your own publicist Aug 2, 2020
  A solid foundation of my business success as a celebrant has lay in the realm of good publicity. Good publicity can’t make a filling business profitable, or an unskilled celebrant, talented, but if you’re already rocking
• ■ How to to-do Jul 28, 2020
  Gail asks: Hi Josh. You mentioned in one of the podcasts that you use ToDoist to organise your projects. Could you please run me through how you utilise this as I am also a ToDoist fan.
• ■ We have changed membership systems Jul 25, 2020
  Just a quick note for members of the Celebrant Institute, your membership management, updating of cards, changing plans, logging in, and just using it, has become a whole lot easier. It's involved four weeks of wo
• ■ How to make a wedding expo work for you Jul 19, 2020
  10 ways to make wedding fairs, wedding directories, wedding blogs, wedding magazines, expos, and virtual wedding fairs, work for you.
• ■ Look out for a zero dollar invoice for the annual celebrant charge Jul 13, 2020
  The Attorney-General's department has let us know that they are starting to send out those $0 annual celebrant charge invoices today. Make sure you pay that $0 quickly otherwise you'll be in $0 debt, and the interest on
• ■ New South Wales' Uppercase Requirement Jun 25, 2020
  If you've been lucky enough to create a marriage ceremony recently, and it was in New South Wales, you might have noticed a change to their eRegistry software that requires all last names to be in UPPERCASE. If yo
• ■ We’ll do it live! Jun 23, 2020
  My friend, and article writing accountability partner, Jeremy asks: You mentioned in a previous podcast you would put up a post about how you live stream a wedding and what tools you use to do so. You still planning to p
• ■ Creating an intimate ceremony, and including kids Jun 22, 2020
  A reader asks: I am officiating my cousin's wedding next month and this is a particularly special one. It is going to be very intimate and relaxed - it's also really important as my cousin was actually diagnosed with sta
• ■ Getting ceremony audio to videographers Jun 5, 2020
  Maria asks: Hi Josh, you’ve mentioned you record the audio during your ceremonies to give to the videographer if they choose for better audio. Firstly, what equipment do you use and how do you hook it up and secondly, do
• ■ How to become a travelling celebrant Jun 5, 2020
  Alinta asks: I am going to take up the gypsy/not-yet-too-grey nomad life for a year or so and I wonder if it would be possible to be a sort of travelling celebrant? We will be travelling in a substantial caravan and aren
• ■ Should I become a celebrant? Words to an aspirational celebrant May 22, 2020
  I met one of my neighbours this morning and he mentioned he was becoming a celebrant soon so he could marry two friends who are getting married soon. I gave him the spiel I give anyone and everyone becoming a new celebra
• ■ How to video chat really well May 12, 2020
  Video chat, video conferencing, Skyping, Facetiming, or now, Zooming, is going to be a fairly major way we communicate through this season and into the future. The problem is, I see lots of people on Zoom calls not bring
• ■ Baby Got Backend May 10, 2020
  Morgan Roberts invited me onto his podcast to talk about the back ends of a business. Systems, Tave, Dubsado, all that really boring and important stuff. It's worth a listen if automation is a scary word to you.
• ■ What it means when they say that weddings are coming back May 10, 2020
  There’s a lot of talk about weddings coming back as COVID-19 restrictions are eased. This is not an article about when and what restrictions are being eased, but a reminder as to how Australia works and how to know if we
• ■ When a bushfire ravages a land May 10, 2020
  I drove through a recently bushfire affected region last week. The ground was still blackened, but not as much as the tree trunks. The foliage and grass that would normally cover the bush floor was slowly achingly coming
• ■ How to marry people overseas May 8, 2020
  Maria asks: I am hoping to be able to travel and marry people in other countries so how do I go about doing that? I understand the law is different in each state in the US and of course Canada so is there an easy process
• ■ Check out an 11 year old celebrant survey Apr 21, 2020
  11 years ago (in 2009), celebrant directory website Celebrante, conducted a survey of about 1400 celebrants. I’m cleaning out my Dropbox folder and found the survey, so I thought it’d be an interesting piece of qua
• ■ Witnessing a NOIM over Zoom in the COVID-19 lockdown Apr 20, 2020
  With Police Officers and JPs being the most popular witnesses to notices of intended marriage forms when a celebrant cannot attend the witnessing...
• ■ When you are not different even Google is against you Apr 17, 2020
  A really powerful way for you to spend your time and energy whilst weddings are essentially furloughed, is to evaluate, reevaluate, and evaluate even more, your current business systems and marketing strategies. I like t
• ■ Communicating with couples about COVID-19 Mar 23, 2020
  Do you know the Greek myth of King Sisyphus? As retribution for tricking the gods, he was punished to an eternity of pushing a large boulder up a steep hill only to have it roll back down just as he reached the top.
• ■ Coronavirus income support for self-employed marriage celebrants Mar 23, 2020
  This blog post does not serve as legal or financial advice. We’re all just reading the Economic Response to the Coronavirus, fact sheet on Income Support for Individuals, on a Monday morning, the 24th of March at 9
• ■ So, you’re being affected by a pandemic Mar 17, 2020
  If you’re a marriage celebrant, or officiant or even just a wedding vendor of some description, and your main clientele are inhabitants of planet earth, you might find yourself in a position in the coming weeks where the
• ■ "Ceremony writing is my least favourite part" Mar 6, 2020
  Jeff asks: I’m heading into my busiest year yet, I’m so happy I get to work alongside so many great humans who want to be married! The downside (if we can call it that) - my ceremony writing process is my least favourite
• ■ Changing from selling to serving Feb 29, 2020
  Many of us have a problem with selling. It’s understandable, most of us have been sold to before, and we’ve hated it. A “salesperson” is often the sleaziest person in the room, and none of us want to be “that guy.” But h
• ■ Ten reasons you should take credit card payments Feb 28, 2020
  If your couples don't have an easy way to pay you with credit card, I'm of the belief that you're not only missing out on cash flow and cash, but you're also missing out on the goodwill you would generate by making your
• ■ Moving town as a celebrant Feb 26, 2020
  Kath asks: Hey Josh, Just wondering if you have any advice on what I should be doing in preparation to "move/expand " a celebrant biz interstate. I am moving to Hobart mid year and would like to make a start on some marke
• ■ You don’t have to do everything Feb 26, 2020
  My favourite computing device is my iPad. I’m actually travelling for up to six months of this year with only my iPad - it’ll be my main computing device. There’s two or three little bug bears that really annoy me about
• ■ A podcast, not by us, with Jerry Saltz Feb 17, 2020
  I’ll be honest, I haven’t been able to kick the thought that as much as this podcast episode seems like the least likely thing to recommend to a pack of celebrants, I just have to. So here it is. Jerry Sa
• ■ What are your travel fees for? Feb 17, 2020
  Linda asks: As a regional celebrant I am struggling with travel and how to incorporate this into my fees. I have an "anything over 200km round trip " clause which may seem a lot but its realistic to where I live. My probl
• ■ Music for making ceremonies Feb 7, 2020
  Maybe you're a better worker than I am so you don't need this, but over here in Josh-world I'm as easily distracted as a mouse in a cheese tasting room. So seeing this resource made for programmers made me curious
• ■ What happens if we don’t submit the official marriage certificate to BDM within two weeks Feb 4, 2020
  A Celebrant Institute member asks: “I know celebrants are required send all the legal documents after the wedding day or submit via lifelink within 14 days of the ceremony but what actually happens if we forget?” Sarah’s
• ■ Will a hot outdoor wedding cook my PA system? Jan 26, 2020
  Sophie asks: When performing a ceremony out in the blazing sun with no undercover area nearby are either of you protecting your speaker/receivers etc from the direct sun? I’m nervous about it all overheating and thought
• ■ How to make marriage paperwork PDFs, and where to send them Jan 25, 2020
  While I’ve talked a lot about how I sign my paperwork on an iPad, you’re welcome to choose your tablet and software of choice, I haven’t detailed exactly where the paperwork comes from. Of course you can [download
• ■ Queensland BDM needs more info on parents Jan 24, 2020
  A member asked for help with the Queensland BDM pushing back on a marriage registration and wanting more info on parents.
• ■ Comparing a Josh wedding ceremony and a Sarah ceremony Jan 23, 2020
  A topic we don't cover enough here in the Celebrant Institute membership is ceremony presentation and style. It's such a personal topic and each of us has our own style. But today we thought we'd lift the cover and show
• ■ Which iPad and which apps do you recommend for celebrants? Jan 23, 2020
  Jake asks: I’m currently taking bookings faster than I planned would happen and have decided that an iPad might be a better way to keep everything in one place, meaning my emails/ceremonies, and documents. But the main
• ■ Value your interaction Jan 18, 2020
  Interaction is a privilege. But it doesn’t often scale.
• ■ When you’ve got an odd name pronunciation Jan 10, 2020
  I married a couple recently and the bride had one of those names where there was a few different ways it could possibly be pronounced. In that situation, when we first meet, I introduce myself with my name, and expect th
• ■ A modern day version of the busy cafe getting busier Jan 9, 2020
  If you’re not already familiar with the reason why, when faced with two cafes next to each other most of us will choose the busier cafe, the reason is social proof.
• ■ Partnering with charities? Watch out for the ACCC Jan 8, 2020
  Eyewear brand Oscar Wylee is in trouble with the ACCC for its charitable donations. In an era of such transformative social change, more and more businesses are choosing to align themselves with charitable organisations
• ■ Receiving ID documentation securely Jan 8, 2020
  Sophie asks a very important and pertinent question (which I’ve slightly edited for brevity): A question regarding the safety of couples sending digital copies of their ID via email or within a system like Dubsado.
• ■ 40 Questions To Ask Yourself Each New Year Dec 31, 2019
  To bring in the new year, [Stephen Ango asks himself 40 questions]. I liked his list but thought I’d alter it for Celebrant Institute followers so we could reflect on where we’ve been and look at where we’re going. Ident
• ■ Your price is part of your story Dec 22, 2019
  I thought I'd share a quick and small story about a wedding I didn't get booked for.
• ■ Changing the redundant parts of the Marriage Act - December 2019 Update Dec 21, 2019
  If you've been following an earlier blog post where we made submissions to our local MP regarding removing some redundant parts of the Marriage Act of 1961, well, I got an update:
• ■ When wanting to be featured or talked about, know this one thing Dec 14, 2019
  A favourite read of mine is the regular Susbtack email from Ariel Stalling. You might know her name from a little blog called Offbeat Bride. In this week’s mailout, Ariel tells the story of how someone a little bit like
• ■ What are the ABIA awards? A guide for celebrants Dec 12, 2019
  A reader asks: "I've noticed the ABIA awards presentation nights have been occurring but what is the ABIA awards and how do people win the ABIA awards? What is the scoring based on? I see these marks of 99.93 etc. " I’ll
• ■ Please put the (sales) gun down! Dec 7, 2019
  A quick Saturday morning flick through the social media feeds showed me six celebrants doing a bad thing on social media. They’re not breaking the law, and in their minds they’re not doing a bad or evil thing. Man
• ■ Communicating timelines with couples Dec 4, 2019
  Alex asks: My question is regarding communication with couples - specifically timelines. Before I became a Celebrant I remember hearing a few off-hand remarks from a family friend and also a cousin about their Celebrants
• ■ Contacting our local MP about the now redundant requirement of two official marriage certificates Nov 30, 2019
  On this week’s podcast episode I talked about contacting our local member of parliament to request a change to the Marriage Act of 1961. The act requires two official certificates of marriage be prepared, which in a digi
• ■ Is there room at the top of the market? Nov 28, 2019
  Jeff asks: A general price question: when you both set your prices (to their current rates), were you/are you in line with what others charge or are you much higher? Pretty sure I’m the highest priced officiant in my reg
• ■ One of the greatest voids in the world today is original content Nov 28, 2019
  A repetitive theme in my writing is the encouragement for you to create your own content. I really do believe that creating original, helpful, relevant, personal, content is a majorly easy way for you to have a win today
• ■ Where do all the people come from? Nov 28, 2019
  Jeff asks: When you look back on leads, what seems to be working? Do you have a rough breakdown of where/how couples are finding you? Do you find Instagram/Facebook ads work? Venue referrals? The Google...?
• ■ People hate ads Nov 22, 2019
  I’m eventually going to start sounding like a broken record, but we all need to get it into our head: ads as we used to know them no longer work. People hate ads.
• ■ How to surprise a couple with a ceremony Nov 21, 2019
  Jeff asks: When/how did you now it was ok to not share ceremony content with the couple but just have them trust you on the day of? Couples and guests really love what I put together (I guess I've figured out that much h
• ■ Josh’s ceremony inclusions Nov 21, 2019
  Jeff, a Canadian celebrant, asks: I'm wondering what sections you two include in your ceremonies? I have a very similar trajectory for each ceremony, and add or subtract (readings etc) based on what the couple are lookin
• ■ Making customer journeys easier, and inclusive, like Sephora Nov 21, 2019
  Sephora has identified that not every customer desires the same journey, so they created a fork in the road to cater for two different personality types.
• ■ Becoming a celebrant for a side hustle Nov 18, 2019
  Every week one or two potential new celebrants email or DM me about starting a celebrancy business as a side hustle, hoping to make a few dollars on the side to provide for their family's extra needs or to put some cash
• ■ Online advertising just doesn't work the way we hope Nov 12, 2019
  There is a fascinating article on The Correspondent today about the next "dot com bubble " being online advertising. The link is a long, but easy, and really (seriously) interesting read, but for the benefit of CI blog re
• ■ It’s time to wean ourselves off this teat Oct 18, 2019
  The most popular question I’m asked in person by my wedding industry colleagues, and here on the Celebrant Institute, is which website do I advertise on or which directory do I list in that works? Somewhere along
• ■ We've got a seat at the AGD's table Oct 18, 2019
  Twice a year the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section (MLCS) of the Attorney General's Department meets with representatives of celebrants associations to discuss the potential impact of policies and legislative changes t
• ■ How to say the monitum with warmth Oct 15, 2019
  Tracey asks: I'd really love some input about how/where in the ceremony you would say the Monitum. In amongst all the beautiful 'love' words it can feel a bit cold and clinical. I'm yet to find a way to bring it into the
• ■ How to update your Bose S1 speaker’s software Oct 14, 2019
  You can update the software on your Bose S1 speaker, and it comes with new features like using your speakers with the Bose Connect app, whilst also making the speakers operate with greater stability.
• ■ High pitched squeak out of the speaker system Sep 26, 2019
  Thanks very much for your helpful article about PA system recommendations. I hope Bose & Sennheiser are kind to you! I upgraded to both recommended items & during testing at home & at a venue it worked perfectly, but onc
• ■ How to use two Bose S1 speakers in a wedding ceremony Sep 25, 2019
  Sophie asks: “After a beach ceremony last weekend I vowed to never lug my massive speaker around again - its ridiculously heavy, I’m pregnant, plus sand = a terrible time. I loved your set-up at the conference and def di
• ■ Josh's plan for posting on social media Sep 20, 2019
  When I post on social media, I've got one plan in mind. Not to sell, not to do a deal, not to whinge or complain. I want to be known. So when people that like me make a decision about a celebrant, I'm who they think of.
• ■ Three reasons your celebrant website should be secure Sep 20, 2019
  As you're viewing this blog post you'll note that in the URL bar, the part where you type the blah blah blah dot com bit, next to the domain name 'celebrant.institute' you'll see a little padlock???? icon that is a sign
• ■ How to get more wedding enquiries Sep 19, 2019
  Liene at Think Splendid shares five powerfully simple ways to get more enquiries to your wedding celebrant business today. They're so simple that you are hopefully already doing them, or if you're not, this is a quick an
• ■ How to be a wedding reception MC Sep 17, 2019
  The art of MCing a wedding reception is definitely one most celebrants could master, but it's a little different to being a marriage celebrant, so here's master MC, Glenn Mackay, of G&M Event Group at the 2019 conference
• ■ $6 Dollar Breakfast! Sep 10, 2019
  After dropping my car off to be serviced this morning I hit the local cafe strip to find a breakfast befitting of someone wanting to sit in a cafe for breakfast and a coffee while answering emails and writing blog posts.
• ■ Sally’s dilemma is our dilemma Aug 27, 2019
  What most clients pay Sally for—the deliverable, is that five minutes of video footage. But what Sally dreams of doing and being paid for is finding stories worth telling. It’s easier for Sally to sell the outcome—the vi
• ■ Why people hire the mediocre celebrant instead of you Aug 27, 2019
  If you want people to appreciate that what you offer is better, that what you offer is actually good, the market needs to have more actually good businesses in it. It seems like you should be able to stand apart by being
• ■ Non-refundable refund demanded Aug 7, 2019
  Veronica asks: I know where you stand on refunds. Yesterday, I had a bride who cancelled her November wedding due to the relationship splitting, texting me nasty abuse and demanding the clearly stated non-refundable
• ■ Five easy SEO hacks you can do that are driven by research Jul 22, 2019
  Everyone knows a guy who knows a guy who can get you on the front page of Google. I'd argue that you might not want to be on the front page of Google for everything, but it doesn't hurt for the right people to be able to
• ■ Celebrants (and creatives) are not paid per hour Jul 22, 2019
  I believe with all my mind, body, and soul, that service people aren't paid per hour, they're paid for how much value they bring to that hour. So here's my July challenge for all celebrants...
• ■ What does Queensland BDM email people after their marriage is registered? Jul 18, 2019
  I've been telling couples that after their marriage ceremony the Queensland Births, Deaths, and Marriages will email them with "an opportunity to order their marriage certificate " but I had not actually seen one of those
• ■ 24 ways you give the rest of us an advantage (or, Liene brings the fire) Jul 12, 2019
  Liene at Think Splendid has dropped some absolute fire on the wedding industry today. I love this. You should read the piece and follow her links for context, but here's the drop:
• ■ Who are the wedding awards for? Jul 11, 2019
  I’m sitting in a cafe in Queenstown sitting next to a table of people I don’t recognise, but judging by their conversation, they’re actresses from the USA who have varying thoughts about the Tony Awards.
• ■ Your priorities are visible Jul 9, 2019
  Some emails get quick replies from me, others have to wait a week. Sometimes I'll go a few days without posting on social media, but I haven't missed a wedding yet. I have a simple set of priorities in my life. My family
• ■ Start how you’d like to finish Jun 28, 2019
  Britt’s grandma always said that you should start how you want to finish.
• ■ The stories you’re forgetting to tell on social media Jun 21, 2019
  Your stories are more powerful than you think. This article is about sharing the stories about you and your celebrancy that you've forgotten to share.
• ■ Shut down the myths around getting married and hiring a celebrant Jun 14, 2019
  I'm flying to Europe soon and I've put in for a first class upgrade. On Qantas you can apply for an upgrade and it costs you thousands of frequent flyer points. That's how you fly first class, either that or you pony up
• ■ Simplify your celebrancy practice Jun 7, 2019
  In the chaotic and wild adventure that planning and hosting a wedding is I always try to remain a calm, cool, friendly face to my couples. This sounds like a great idea, but you need systems and processes to allow yourse
• ■ Would you follow you? Jun 3, 2019
  Would you follow yourself on social media? If you saw that a friend of yours commented on one of your posts so it floated up to your news feed, and you clicked through to your profile, would you follow it?
• ■ An example of finding your 'Almost Nobody' Jun 1, 2019
  In a post yesterday I described the hard work of finding your 'Almost Nobody'. This, I argue, is your life's work, and something that will forever be changing. A good example of me doing that work in my own business is b
• ■ Almost Nobody, wants you to be their celebrant May 31, 2019
  Almost Nobody, wants you to be their celebrant and that is really good news. Everybody, wants a celebrant that is nothing like you. This article will help you get that prized enquiry from Almost Nobody!
• ■ How to leave a celebrant association May 22, 2019
  A few recent conversations with celebrants on social media have prompted me to the question: what is membership in a celebrant association for? Traditionally the associations lobbied the Attorney-General's office, and th
• ■ How value is really created May 22, 2019
  Stop talking, ask questions and listen, and you’ll learn about them. In order to think like your customer, you must focus on your customer. Your customer could be a prospect, an existing client, a boss, a co-worker, a fr
• ■ How to actually compete with other celebrants May 17, 2019
  We spend a lot of time looking at other celebrants, but here's a helpful and practical way to look at your competitors and actually form a competitive advantage.
• ■ Talking ‘Inside Baseball’ May 11, 2019
  "Inside baseball " is one of my favourite Americanisms, it's a figurative adjective meaning the details are appreciated by only a small group of insiders or aficionados. It usually refers to a detail-oriented approach to
• ■ Posting pro photos on social media etiquette Apr 30, 2019
  Mark asks, I was hoping you could explain the etiquette for posting photos on your Website, Facebook and Instagram account when supplied by a professional photographer please.
• ■ Acknowledging sonder Apr 27, 2019
  Have you heard of sonder?
• ■ What should I do at a wedding expo? Apr 27, 2019
  Hi, I am a new country celebrant with three weddings booked late this year, early next year but none performed so far. I am attending a wedding expo soon ( in the country) and am not sure what to do. I have collaborated
• ■ Can we marry people on the water or in the air in Australia? Apr 22, 2019
  Elle asks: I have a wedding where I am marrying the couple on a boat, we are all going to get on and cruise for 10mins until the couple get a feeling like yep lets pull up here and then I will do their ceremony, then the
• ■ Firing a couple Apr 16, 2019
  A celebrant friend has been going back and forth with a couple who want a celebrant that's not her. Maybe they've been on the blogs and Pinterest and they've decided that this is how you deal with a celebrant, or maybe t
• ■ Getting the deposit paid Apr 16, 2019
  Veronica asks: How to you get clients to pay the booking fee, without sounding desperate or annoying?
• ■ How to make a great ceremony without a rehearsal Apr 16, 2019
  Tori asks: I would really love to hear from you both (knowing that you prefer rehearsals Sarah, and you don't tend to do them Josh), what is your approach to ensuring a ceremony runs as smoothly as possible and flows wel
• ■ What do celebrants legally have to say? Mar 13, 2019
  Kelly asks: What do we legally have to say? Just read guidelines and act section 45/46 and I’m reading we only need to say monitum and a couple the legal vow. I read/was trained that we have to introduce ourselves as the
• ■ How I perform ceremonies without notes or a script Mar 7, 2019
  My couples tell me they love it, wedding vendors are always surprised, and other celebrants are always blown away. They are bewildered by my ability to perform a marriage ceremony without a script or notes.
• ■ How a real celebrant should read the Guidelines, and other thoughts on marriage celebrancy Feb 26, 2019
  The recent post on sighting ID included some powerful language from the Attorney-General's office:The Guidelines on the Marriage Act 1961 for authorised celebrants is issued to assist celebrants to comply with the Marria
• ■ A massive change to how marriage celebrants can sight ID Feb 22, 2019
  For the past six months I have been pursuing a line of inquiry with the Attorney-General's office Marriage Celebrants Section over the line in the Guidelines section 4.4.2: It is not acceptable for a celebrant to accept
• ■ Do you really want that exposure? Feb 11, 2019
  On a road near my house there's a billboard that promises to expose my business to many thousands of people. A similar promise has been made by the producers of Married at First Sight and other TV shows. Everyone wants t
• ■ How to tell an enquiry "It's not you, it's me" Feb 11, 2019
  Tenielle asks: Hey guys, I'm hoping you can lend me some advice or wording to send to a couple. Met with them on Saturday and whilst they are lovely, the vibe was NOT there. Conversation was really stunted and it didn't
• ■ The Unofficial Guidelines on the 'Guidelines on the Marriage Act 1961 for Marriage Celebrants' for Marriage Celebrants Feb 2, 2019
  Deb writes in asking "I appear to get myself into hot water time and time again, by saying that the Guidelines are just that GUIDELINES, and the act and the regs are the actual LAW. Am I right? "
• ■ How to become the celebrant in the know Jan 17, 2019
  Anka asks: I’m wanting to start blogging this year and making myself known as the “celebrant in the know” within my area with some personality thrown in as well but I’m not sure exactly how to start? Any suggestions or t
• ■ How do I do marriage certificates? Dec 30, 2018
  Julia asks "I was just wondering how you all prepare your pretty Form 15s. Does anyone use traditional calligraphy? Hand write? Use a template on a printer? " I'll answer Julia's question along with a wider explanation of
• ■ How I make personal ceremonies Dec 29, 2018
  When creating a marriage ceremony, my goal isn't to personalise my ceremony, but to make it personal. That's a subtle but pointed difference. Personalising my ceremonies is the
• ■ Marketing: if I was starting today Dec 27, 2018
  If I was starting as a celebrant today I would do so many things differently. This article is hopefully timely for our readers, after all it is enquiries season! My rough research tells me that mo
• ■ Scheduling multiple ceremonies in a day Oct 28, 2018
  Sean asks "Do you have any advice on taking multiple bookings in a day? Accounting for travel time of course what's the minimum amount of time you leave yourself in between ceremonies, and is this
• ■ Remarkable Oct 22, 2018
  Thoughts on creating remarkable work, as a marriage celebrant.
• ■ How to sign marriage paperwork on an iPad Oct 17, 2018
  I've had a few people ask how I sign marriage paperwork on an iPad, and I had the grandest of intentions of preparing a fully professional video detailing that. However we're expecting a baby any day now and I figured a
• ■ My disappointment every car service Oct 16, 2018
  Every time my car gets serviced, at 10,000km a service that's about four to five times a year, I have this sinking feeling as I drive away from the mechanic's workshop. After spending six odd hours away from me, and an a
• ■ Beginners guide to not getting hacked Oct 12, 2018
  Reading the news today I realised that after Kristy Merlino’s email and Mailchimp accounts were hacked, that Kanye West’s iPhone passcode is 00000 and that Facebook doesn’t care about your privacy - it might be possible
• ■ Old marketing versus new marketing, example 503,000,091 Oct 12, 2018
  Old marketing would put the right message in the right place so the right people would find it. The celebrant would advertise in the wedding magazine because people having weddings bought wedding magazines. The tools wer
• ■ The art of differentiation Oct 6, 2018
  "Differentiation starts with the choice to do one thing well " says Bernadette at The Story of Telling blog. I wanted to break that powerful statement down and offer up some food of thought for celebrants today.
• ■ What it’s like to be deregistered Oct 4, 2018
  351 Australian marriage celebrants were deregistrated this week because they “did not pay the celebrant registration charge“ and here are the three letters they received after their initial invoice: Date: Wed, 8 Aug
• ■ Calculating your fee Oct 2, 2018
  Liene over at Think Splendid has published a super insightful blog post about how she prices herself for her speaking gigs. I wonder if we as celebrants have considered not only our costs of doing business expense
• ■ Two marketing positions better than “cheap celebrant” Sep 26, 2018
  There are only three positions you can take in any marketplace: First, Best, Cheapest. That’s not to say only three businesses can win in any marketplace, after all, there are almost 10,000 celebrants serving over 120,00
• ■ How to get enquiries to reply to your emails Sep 21, 2018
  Great question today: Let's talk follow up emails. You've received an enquiry, or worse, have met with a couple. You've sent them an email back, but it's crickets from their end. How do you word your emails to try and el
• ■ Uploading documents to NSW BDM from a Mac Sep 10, 2018
  A little tip for celebrants using the NSW Lifelink system. I tweeted at the NSW Justice Department decrying their developers of not allowing Mac users to upload documents into Lifelink and one of their staf
• ■ Giving your clients what they want: bad deal Aug 24, 2018
  I have been simmering on the idea that our clients don’t actually know what they want, despite almost all wedding vendor websites claiming to give them whatever they want, for quite a while now.
• ■ How to MC a wedding reception, a guide for celebrants Aug 22, 2018
  We've had a number of questions about MC'ing wedding receptions recently, so I've wrapped it all up in this quick and easy how-to guide. The host, or MC, of an event is as unique role as the whole event is held in yo
• ■ iPad Celebrants, you need this tip Aug 22, 2018
  If you're a celebrant who reads off your iPad, you might not be aware of a simple way you can help photographers and videographers. If the ceremony is inside with lower lighting, your iPad's screen brightne
• ■ Joining an association, Josh’s view Aug 22, 2018
  Jo asks: What professional association do I join? One? Two? All? I know this is tricky question and high levels of diplomacy may be required - but how does a newbie choose between the associations? My RTO has given no ad
• ■ Which directories should we advertise in? Aug 22, 2018
  Sarita asks: I'm a relatively new celebrant and just after some advice on the world of wedding directories. There seem to be loads. Apart from the obvious ones like easyweddings, ABIA, there's lots of smaller ones like p
• ■ Celebrancy: The price Aug 18, 2018
  Self-employed creatives can talk about price and fee until the end of time. I've had celebrants privately, publicly, to my face, and behind my back, make all of the comments about why I charge too much, or not enough, an
• ■ Doing deals with other vendors Aug 17, 2018
  Pete asks: I have a question about the legalities of commercial arrangements with third parties given that as a Celebrant we're government officers and our duty to avoid potential conflicts. Just about everyone ha
• ■ Are you starving yourself because you won't turn left? Aug 16, 2018
  This week I've been in Vancouver, British Columbia, for two marriage ceremonies and it has been an amazing experience, with the one caveat: in Canada they drive on the incorrect side of the road. You might think this has
• ■ Where to host your website Aug 16, 2018
  Emma asks To squarespace or not to squarespace? What are your tips for starting a website? This article has the opportunity to be a long and nerdy one, so I'm going to be purposely brief so that you can make an edu
• ■ Getting your financials in order Aug 9, 2018
  "I just did my tax and I'm very frustrated!!! I need advice on what software or system to use to make it easier. Most I see are not designed for a sole owner operator that has not registered for GST (I earn less than 75k
• ■ What to do about crying Aug 9, 2018
  "Here's a fun one for you guys. How do you deal with crying? I'm currently studying and in my performance assignment, my "bride " burst into tears and I realised I was totally unprepared for what I imagine is a very commo
• ■ Answering "How much do you cost?" Aug 8, 2018
  Amber asks Leading from the price on website debate - how do you answer the "How much do your services cost? " enquiry? I try to start a conversation and speak about value and the experience but sometimes it is just frust
• ■ How to publish Facebook ads that work Aug 7, 2018
  I don't know. If there's anything you can expect from me today and into the future is that I'm not going to talk BS. The good news is that I know as much about Facebook advertising as most marketers and advertisers do, a
• ■ How to network in the wedding industry today Aug 5, 2018
  Networking amongst your industry colleagues, other wedding people, like photographers, venue co-ordinators, planners, and others, is a vital part of being an active member of the wedding industry. For the longest time th
• ■ The Facebook opportunity Aug 5, 2018
  Facebook, owner of Facebook but also Instagram and WhatsApp, is pushing hard to get more advertisers on its platform. In last week's earnings call they made two statements which stood out to me: “When we think about Inst
• ■ What should we do on social media? Part 3 Aug 3, 2018
  A member asks: When chatting with celebrants recently I heard again and again that most celebrants aren't really that interested in following the general Instagram "best practice " advice that you see on social media blog
• ■ You don't know what 'word of mouth' looks like Aug 2, 2018
  I wanted to share a story straight from my inbox today, to show you how word of mouth actually works and how your marketing efforts today pay off for years:
• ■ What should we do on social media? Part 2 Aug 1, 2018
  A member asks: When chatting with celebrants recently I heard again and again that most celebrants aren't really that interested in following the general Instagram "best practice " advice that you see on social media blog
• ■ What should we do on social media? Part 1 Jul 30, 2018
  A member asks: When chatting with celebrants recently I heard again and again that most celebrants aren't really that interested in following the general Instagram "best practice " advice that you see on social media blog
• ■ A simple upgrade to your website and social media Jul 28, 2018
  A quick and easy weekend exercise for everyone today: read the front page of your website and your about page. Look at your recent social media posts and your bios on the networks. Are you talking about the product or th
• ■ The do's and don'ts of email marketing Jul 26, 2018
  A pertinent question about building and maintain an email list today: For anyone looking to follow your example of maintaining "an email list of all couples I meet at expos, fairs, open days, along with all who enquire w
• ■ How to position your PA speaker for a wedding ceremony Jul 23, 2018
  Veronica asks: After reading this article and listening to the podcast "A tribute to the greatest episode in the world ", you mentioned speaker placement. Being a newbie to the industry, where would you suggest is the bes
• ■ There's two ways to provide a service Jul 23, 2018
  From the heart and soul of Seth Godin today, I'm copying and pasting this from his amazing blog for you today to chew on over how your provide your celebrancy service: Two ways to solve a problem and provide a service Wi
• ■ Increasing your enquiry conversion rate Jul 21, 2018
  A question today about enquiries and how to increase our conversion: I have a question about converting enquiries as I am finding that I get a good amount of enquiries but feel my conversion rate could be way better. Won
• ■ Five ways to make your ceremonies better Jul 19, 2018
  A recent Seth Godin post about presentations of the corporate/Microsoft Powerpoint kind, spurred me on to thinking about our presentation style as celebrants. My ceremony presentation style has it's roots in a) what I'm
• ■ How to get professional photos to share on your socials Jul 19, 2018
  A common conversation amongst everyone in the wedding industry who is not a wedding photographer is asking photographers for photos. It's great when you get them, it means your social media feeds have a professional feel
• ■ Pricing on websites; to list or not to list??? Josh’s view Jul 18, 2018
  Ella asks: "Price points seem to be a hot topic everywhere… Would you recommend putting your fees on your website? Some celebrants display their price on their website, others don’t. Some also seem to provide services ch
• ■ In praise of the not-young celebrant Jul 8, 2018
  I'll never forget my very first wedding expo, where I arrived to the convention centre so green that I didn't realise there was an expectation that I would design a booth. So we painted a board with blackboard paint and
• ■ How to protect the copyright of your ceremony scripts Jul 6, 2018
  Tenielle asks: Just a quick question about intellectual property of ceremony drafts. Hasn't happened to me, but have heard of stories of celebrants issuing a draft ceremony for the clients to look over, and then that cer
• ■ Get testimonies that matter Jul 5, 2018
  Celebrants offer such a personal service, your service is very different to mine, to every other member of this website, and the thousands of other celebrants available. We can communicate our differences in text and pho
• ■ Tax deduction ideas for celebrants Jul 4, 2018
  It's every business owner's favourite time of the year: EOFYmas! As the End Of Financial Year celebrations takeover our lives I wanted to highlight the deductions I think we celebrants should be thinking of, and if you d
• ■ The only thing you can rely on in the wedding business Jun 30, 2018
  This afternoon a couple got engaged and they have never heard of you, they've not made any decisions about their wedding, and it's highly likely they don't know anything about the wedding industry, how it works, what thi
• ■ Maybe I'm incompetent? Jun 24, 2018
  The Celebrant Institute, this website, exists for celebrants who struggle with their competence. It's ok, you're not alone in thinking "maybe I could do better. " Marriage celebrancy is my full time job, it's all I do, an