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 thousands of celebrants competing for the same couples.

If you’re relying on being good at your job to fill your calendar, I have uncomfortable news: being good at your job has never been less sufficient.

The old model worked like this: you did great ceremonies, couples told their friends, photographers and planners recommended you, and enquiries trickled in steadily. For some celebrants — particularly those who’ve been around for decades or who operate in tight-knit communities — this still works. But for most of us, especially those trying to make celebrancy a full-time income, word of mouth and vendor referrals are no longer enough to sustain a business.

The couples getting married in 2026 don’t wait for recommendations. They search. They scroll. They ask AI. And if you’re not visible where they’re looking, you don’t exist to them — no matter how good your ceremonies are.

This article is about being found. It’s practical, it’s current, and it’s focused on what’s actually working in the Australian market right now. It’s not about shortcuts or hacks. It’s about understanding how couples search, where you need to be visible, and what most celebrants get wrong.

How Couples Actually Search in 2026

The death of the single discovery path

Couples don’t find their celebrant through one channel anymore. They use multiple sources simultaneously, cross-referencing and validating as they go. A typical journey might look like this:

The research phase is longer than it used to be. But once they’ve shortlisted, decisions happen fast. You need to be visible at multiple touchpoints — not because you need to dominate everywhere, but because you need to appear credible when they find you.

When couples search vs when they book

Understanding the timeline matters because it tells you when your visibility matters most.

According to the Easy Weddings 2025 Australian Wedding Industry Report (surveying 4,000+ couples), the average engagement length in Australia is now 24 months. This is the first increase in their report’s 10-year history — up from the usual 21–22 months. The cause? Cost of living. Couples are taking longer to save.

Thirty percent of couples are having longer engagements specifically due to budget concerns. This means the shopping window for vendors has increased, with longer lead times between initial enquiries and the wedding date.

But here’s the thing about celebrants specifically: we tend to get booked late in the planning process. Industry data from overseas (which is directional, not gospel) suggests celebrants are often among the last vendors booked — sometimes just three months before the wedding. Only transport ranks lower. Venues and photographers get booked first, often 12+ months out. Celebrants? We’re an afterthought for many couples.

What this means practically: your visibility window is wide but your booking window is narrow. Couples might first encounter you 18 months before their wedding when they’re browsing generally, but they won’t reach out until 3–9 months before. You need to be memorable enough during that long research phase that they come back to you when they’re ready.

Google remains dominant, but it’s changed

Google is still where most couples start their vendor search. Easy Weddings reports that 21% of couples first discover their vendors through Google and search engines — second only to the Easy Weddings marketplace itself (31%).

But the type of search has changed. Couples aren’t searching “wedding celebrant” — they’re searching “elopement celebrant Yarra Valley” or “same-sex wedding celebrant Sydney” or “non-religious marriage celebrant near me.” Searches are more specific, more local, and more intent-driven than they used to be.

The other shift: Google’s results increasingly include AI-generated overviews that attempt to answer the query directly. For informational searches, this means fewer clicks to websites. For local service searches like celebrants, it means Google is summarising and recommending based on what it finds — which makes what’s on your website and how authoritative it appears more important than ever.

Couples are now asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini, and Perplexity for recommendations. They’re typing things like “recommend a good marriage celebrant in Melbourne for a non-traditional ceremony” and getting answers.

Where do those answers come from? Primarily from what these AI systems have learned about the couple, and about you from the web — which means from your website, other websites, online reviews, articles, blog posts, and other content that mentions you. AI systems favour well-written, authoritative content from sites with strong backlink profiles.

Your website is no longer just for humans. It’s also a data source for AI systems that might recommend you (or not). If your website is thin on content, generic, or poorly structured, AI has less to work with — and less reason to suggest you.

Social proof as a filter, not a discovery mechanism

Here’s something many celebrants get backwards: Instagram is not where couples find you. It’s where they validate you after finding you somewhere else.

Easy Weddings reports that 51% of Australian couples use Instagram for wedding planning, with Facebook at 19% and Pinterest at 17%. But when you dig into how they use these platforms, it’s primarily for inspiration and vendor validation — not discovery.

The pattern is: find via search or directory → check Instagram to see if the vibe matches → decide whether to enquire. Your Instagram doesn’t need to be a lead generation machine. It needs to reassure couples who already found you elsewhere that you’re legitimate, professional, and someone they’d want at their wedding.

Your Website is a Foundation

Why your website still matters

Your website is your shopfront. Not your billboard — your shopfront. It’s not about attracting passing traffic; it’s about converting people who’ve already decided to look at you.

It’s also, increasingly, an information source for AI systems. When ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overview is deciding whether to recommend you, they’re pulling from your website. What’s there? What’s clearly communicated? What makes you different from every other celebrant?

A directory listing is rented space. Your website is property you own. If Easy Weddings changes their algorithm or pricing tomorrow, your website is unaffected. If Instagram decides to throttle your reach, your website is still there. Own what you can.

What your website must communicate clearly

This sounds obvious, but most celebrant websites fail at the basics:

Your name. Not just your business name — your actual name. Couples want to know who’ll be standing in front of their guests. Many celebrant websites bury the celebrant’s name or only mention it once on an “About” page. Put your name in your headline, your navigation, your footer. Make it unmissable.

Where you work. Not “Melbourne and surrounds” — actual locations. List the suburbs, regions, and venues you serve. Be specific. “I’m based in the Huon Valley and regularly perform ceremonies throughout Southern Tasmania, including Hobart, Bruny Island, and the Derwent Valley” is infinitely better than “I travel throughout Tasmania.”

What makes you different. This is where most celebrants fail completely. If your website could have any other celebrant’s name swapped in without changing a word, you haven’t communicated what makes you different. What’s your approach? What do you believe about ceremonies? What kind of couples do you work best with? Take a position.

How to contact you. Make it easy. Contact form, email address, phone number — whatever works for you, but make it visible on every page. Don’t make people hunt.

The content that actually ranks

Not all website content is equal. Here’s what tends to perform:

Ceremony location pages. If you perform ceremonies at a particular venue regularly, create a page about it. “Weddings at Stones of the Yarra Valley” with your photos, your insights, and your recommendations will rank for couples searching for celebrants who know that venue.

Service-specific pages. Separate pages for elopements, same-sex ceremonies, legal-only ceremonies, commitment ceremonies. Each of these is a distinct search term with distinct intent.

FAQ pages. Answer the questions couples actually ask. Not fluff questions — real ones. How far in advance should I book? What happens if it rains? Do you write the ceremony or do we? How much do you cost? Every question is a search term.

Blog content that demonstrates expertise. Not “5 tips for writing vows” that reads like every other celebrant blog. Content that shows you actually know your craft, have opinions, and can help couples think about their ceremony differently.

Google increasingly answers questions directly on the results page. If someone searches “how long is a wedding ceremony in Australia,” Google might just display the answer without anyone clicking through to a website.

This means generic informational content is worth less than it used to be. What still drives clicks? Specific, local, authoritative content. Content that answers “should I book Josh Withers for my Hobart wedding” rather than “what is a marriage celebrant.”

Common website mistakes celebrants make

The speed problem: your website builder might be holding you back

Most celebrant websites are built on platforms like Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress. These are “dynamic” sites — every time someone visits a page, the server has to build that page from scratch. It pulls content from a database, runs code, assembles everything, and then sends it to the browser. This takes time.

A “static” site is different. All the pages are pre-built. When someone visits, the server hands over the finished page immediately. No database queries, no processing, no waiting.

The result? Static sites load significantly faster. And speed matters:

I build my sites and client sites using Astro, a static site generator. The difference is measurable — pages that load in under a second rather than 3–5 seconds. For a celebrant website, which is essentially a brochure site, there’s no reason to carry the overhead of a dynamic platform.

If rebuilding your entire website isn’t realistic, at minimum: compress your images properly, remove unnecessary plugins and widgets, choose a lighter theme, and test your speed with Google PageSpeed Insights. Address what it flags.

This is the section where most celebrants’ eyes glaze over. I get it. “Backlinks” sounds like technical SEO jargon. But this is the single biggest factor most celebrants are missing, and it’s exactly why I’m spending time on it.

A backlink is simply when another website links to yours. That’s it.

When the venue you work with has a “preferred suppliers” page and includes a link to your website, that’s a backlink. When a wedding blog features a real wedding you officiated and links to you, that’s a backlink. When a local business association lists you in their directory with a link, that’s a backlink.

Google (and now AI systems) treats backlinks as votes of confidence. If other reputable websites are linking to you, you must be worth linking to. A celebrant with a beautiful Squarespace site and zero backlinks will get outranked by someone with a basic site that’s been featured, linked, and cited elsewhere.

Why most celebrants have almost none

Most celebrants don’t know what backlinks are. They’ve heard “SEO” and think it means “put keywords on my website.” They’ve never checked how many backlinks they have. And because building backlinks takes effort, most people simply don’t do it.

This is uncomfortable to hear, but it’s the truth: your website could be beautifully designed with perfect copy, and it will still underperform if nobody else on the internet is linking to you. Google sees a site with no backlinks as a site with no authority.

Why directories often don’t help as much as you think

Many celebrants assume that being listed on directories gives them backlinks. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.

A “dofollow” link passes authority — Google sees it as a vote of confidence. A “nofollow” link doesn’t — it tells Google “this link exists but don’t count it for ranking purposes.”

Many directory links, especially free listings, are nofollow. They’re still useful for visibility and traffic, but they don’t build your site’s authority. Paid listings may or may not be dofollow — check with the directory if you want to know.

This isn’t to say directories are useless. They’re not. But they’re useful for visibility and enquiries, not for building the kind of authority that helps you rank better on Google.

Venue supplier pages. If you work regularly at certain venues, check whether they have a supplier page. Ask to be added with a link.

Real wedding features. When a wedding you officiated gets featured on a blog or in a publication, there’s usually a link to each vendor. This is one of the most natural ways to build backlinks in the wedding industry.

Local business associations. Chambers of commerce, local business directories, tourism associations — if you can get listed with a link, that helps.

Press mentions. Local news, podcasts, industry publications. If you’re quoted or featured, try to get a link included.

Guest posts. If you write an article for another website in the industry, you’ll usually get a link back to your site.

Citations from peers. If another celebrant or industry educator mentions you in their content with a link, that counts.

You can check this for free:

What you’re looking for: how many different domains link to you, what those domains are, and whether they’re relevant. A link from a wedding venue matters more than a link from a random directory in an unrelated industry.

I’ve experimented with buying expired domains and didn’t think through the ethical implications of that so I’m doing it less than I used to despite it being a good source of relevant backlinks.

The uncomfortable truth

Building backlinks requires outreach, relationship-building, and consistent effort. You need to email venues asking to be added to their supplier page. You need to submit real weddings to blogs. You need to pitch yourself to local media. You need to build relationships with photographers who might feature your work.

Most celebrants won’t do any of this.

Which is exactly why it works for those who do.

This is the SEO equivalent of “the best marketing is the marketing other people aren’t willing to do.” Everyone can build a pretty website. Not everyone is willing to spend six months methodically building backlinks through genuine relationship-building. If you do it, you’ll outrank people with better-looking websites who haven’t.

  1. Identify 10 venues you work with regularly. Check if they have supplier pages. Email and ask to be added.
  2. Submit real weddings to wedding blogs. You’ll need the photographer’s permission and images.
  3. Offer to write a guest post for a local wedding blog.
  4. Join relevant local business groups and ensure you’re listed with a link.
  5. Build relationships with photographers and planners who have blogs and might feature your work.
  6. If you do something newsworthy — a milestone number of ceremonies, a community event, something unusual — pitch it to local media.

This isn’t quick. It takes months. But every backlink you build is permanent infrastructure that keeps working for you.

Directories: Worth It or Not?

The Australian directory landscape

The main players for celebrants in Australia are:

Each has different reach, pricing, and audience characteristics.

Free listings are worth having. They take minimal effort and occasionally generate enquiries. But understand their limitations:

Paid listings offer:

Whether paid is worth it depends entirely on the ROI for your business, which brings us to…

How to evaluate ROI on directory spend

Most celebrants don’t track this. They pay for a directory listing and have no idea whether it’s working.

Here’s my approach: I expect a 5x return on marketing spend. If I’m paying $1,000/year for a directory listing, I want to see at least $5,000 in bookings that I can directly attribute to that directory.

To track this, you need to ask every enquiry where they found you. Not just “Google” — specifically. “Did you find me on Easy Weddings, or did you Google my name, or something else?” Track this in a spreadsheet. After 6–12 months, you’ll have data on what’s actually working.

If a directory isn’t returning 5x, question whether it’s worth the spend. Maybe your profile needs work. Maybe the platform doesn’t reach your target couples. Maybe the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Optimising directory profiles

Most celebrants half-arse their directory profiles, then wonder why they’re not getting enquiries.

The directory trap

Directories are rented space. You don’t control them.

If Easy Weddings changes their algorithm tomorrow, your visibility changes. If they increase their prices, you pay more or lose visibility. If they shut down, your presence there disappears.

Directories should supplement your own website, not replace it. They’re useful for reaching couples who are actively shopping on those platforms. But your long-term marketing should prioritise things you own: your website, your content, your email list, your relationships.

Social Media in 2026

Instagram: validation, not discovery

Instagram is still relevant for wedding vendors. But the algorithm has become increasingly hostile to service providers. It rewards engagement — comments, shares, saves — not expertise. Reach has declined significantly for business accounts.

Easy Weddings reports 51% of Australian couples use Instagram for wedding planning. But when you dig into how, it’s primarily validation. They find you somewhere else, then check your Instagram to see if you seem legitimate and if your aesthetic matches what they’re looking for.

What this means: your Instagram doesn’t need to be a lead generation machine. It needs to look professional, feel authentic, and reassure people who already found you elsewhere. Posting twice a week is plenty. Daily posting with diminishing reach is exhausting and often pointless.

TikTok: opportunity or distraction?

Seven percent of Australian couples use TikTok for wedding planning (Easy Weddings 2025). That’s growing, especially among Gen Z couples who are now entering peak marrying age.

TikTok requires a completely different content style — authentic, fast, personality-driven, often unpolished. The time investment is significant. If you have the personality and energy for it, it’s an emerging opportunity. If you’re forcing yourself to do it because you think you should, it’ll show and it won’t work.

For most established celebrants, TikTok is a distraction from higher-ROI activities.

Facebook Pages and Groups

Couples aren’t really on Facebook Pages anymore. Organic reach is essentially dead for business pages.

But referrers are on Facebook — other vendors, parents of couples, people who might recommend you. Your Facebook Page is worth maintaining at a basic level for this reason.

Facebook Groups are a different matter. Groups like “Melbourne Brides 2025” or similar can generate enquiries. But be cautious:

Groups are better for networking with other vendors than for direct couple acquisition.

Pinterest: the underrated long game

Seventeen percent of couples use Pinterest for wedding planning, and the content has a much longer shelf life than Instagram. A pin can drive traffic for years, while an Instagram post is forgotten in 24 hours.

Pinterest works well for visual content — ceremony setups, styled shoots, location inspiration. Every pin should link back to your website.

If you’re going to invest time in any platform beyond Instagram, Pinterest is worth considering.

The content that converts vs the content that gets likes

Likes don’t equal bookings.

Pretty sunset ceremony photos get engagement but don’t necessarily drive enquiries. Generic “love is love” posts might get likes from other celebrants but don’t convince couples to hire you.

Content that converts:

“What happens at a legal-only ceremony” as a carousel post will outperform “Another beautiful day celebrating love 💕” every time.

Sustainable posting for people with ceremonies to do

You don’t need to post daily. You don’t need to be on every platform. You don’t need to create constant content.

What matters is consistency. Pick one or two platforms. Post regularly — weekly is fine. Batch your content creation so you’re not scrambling to post something every day.

A strong presence on two platforms is better than a neglected presence on six.

Referrals and Word of Mouth

Still the highest-converting source — but you can’t control it

When referrals work, they work brilliantly. A warm recommendation from a trusted source is the easiest sale you’ll ever make.

But referrals aren’t scalable and aren’t reliable as a primary source. You can’t control when they happen. You can’t increase them predictably. Full-time celebrants can’t build a business on hoping referrals come in.

Think of referrals as a bonus on top of your actual marketing strategy, not the strategy itself.

Vendor relationships

Photographers, planners, and venues can be significant referral sources. But understand the reality: they all have their preferred suppliers already. Breaking into those circles takes time, excellent work, and genuine relationship-building.

The best approach:

Vendor referrals build slowly over years, not weeks.

Past couple referrals

Happy couples will sometimes refer you, but usually passively. They’ll mention your name if someone asks, but they’re not actively promoting you.

How to encourage referrals without being pushy:

The “invisible referral” problem

Many couples find you via referral but tell you “Google” when you ask how they found you.

What happened: someone mentioned your name, they Googled you, and they remember the Google search more than the original mention.

This muddies your data. To get clearer information, ask specifically: “How did you first hear about me?” and “What made you reach out today?” Two different questions can reveal whether they searched your name (suggesting prior awareness) or searched for celebrants generically.

Emerging Channels and Considerations

AI search engines recommending vendors

This is the big shift happening now. Couples are asking ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity for vendor recommendations. These systems don’t have internal databases of celebrants — they recommend based on what they’ve learned from the web.

That means: well-structured websites with clear information, strong backlink profiles, and mentions across the web are more likely to be recommended. This is SEO 2.0. You’re optimising not just for Google’s algorithm but for AI systems that synthesise information differently.

If you want AI to recommend you, you need to be visible across the web in ways that AI systems can find and understand.

“Hey Siri, find a celebrant near me” is becoming more common. Apple’s new Siri is increasingly powered by AI (including Google’s Gemini models later this year), making it more conversational and capable.

Voice search favours local, clear, specific results. Your Apple Business and Google Business profile matters enormously here. If it’s complete, accurate, and well-reviewed, you’re more likely to appear in voice search results.

Venue-exclusive or preferred supplier arrangements

Some venues maintain exclusive or preferred celebrant lists. Getting on these can provide a steady stream of enquiries from couples who’ve already booked that venue.

The trade-offs:

Build relationships with venue coordinators. Understand their needs. Be someone they trust to make their venue look good.

Niche positioning as a discovery strategy

Elopements. LGBTQ+ weddings. Cultural ceremonies. Destination weddings. Weekday weddings.

Specialising in a niche helps you rank for specific searches and makes you memorable to couples seeking that particular thing. “Sydney elopement celebrant” is easier to rank for than “Sydney celebrant.”

You don’t have to exclusively serve a niche. You can position as a specialist while still doing other weddings. The positioning is about marketing and visibility, not necessarily about limiting your work.

Building a Discovery Strategy That Actually Works

Audit where your current enquiries come from

If you don’t know where your enquiries come from, you can’t improve your marketing.

Track every enquiry source for at least six months. Be specific: not just “Google” but “searched ‘Barossa Valley celebrant’” vs “searched my name after a friend mentioned me.”

Use a spreadsheet. Ask every couple the same questions. After six months, you’ll have data — not guesses — about what’s working.

The 80/20 of celebrant marketing

Most of your results will come from a small number of activities. For most celebrants, that’s:

That’s it. Three things. Everything else is nice-to-have but not essential.

Don’t spread yourself thin across every platform. Focus on what actually generates enquiries.

What can you actually maintain consistently?

A half-done presence on six platforms is worse than a strong presence on two. If you don’t have time to post on TikTok regularly, don’t start a TikTok. If you can’t maintain a blog, don’t start one.

Be honest about your time and energy. Choose channels you can sustain.

Consistency over intensity

Regular, sustained effort beats sporadic bursts every time.

One blog post per month, every month, for two years beats ten blog posts in January followed by silence. Same with social media, directory profile updates, and outreach for backlinks.

Marketing is a long game. The celebrants who win are the ones who show up consistently, not the ones who occasionally go hard.

Measuring what matters

Enquiries, not impressions. Bookings, not followers. Revenue, not vanity metrics.

If an activity isn’t generating enquiries, question whether it’s worth your time. Pretty metrics that don’t convert to bookings are just entertainment.

What’s Changed Over The Past Years

Google’s continued pivot toward AI

AI Overviews are now prominent for many searches. This changes what content gets clicked. Generic informational content is worth less; specific, authoritative, local content still wins.

Directory consolidation and pricing

Some directories have increased prices significantly. Others have changed algorithms. Keep track of your ROI and be willing to adjust spend if the returns don’t justify the cost.

Social platform algorithm shifts

Instagram reach continues to decline. TikTok remains unpredictable. Facebook organic reach is essentially dead.

None of these platforms owe you visibility. If you build your entire marketing strategy on rented land, you’re vulnerable to changes you can’t control.

Couple behaviour post-COVID normalisation

The post-COVID wedding boom has subsided. The 127,161 marriages in 2022 (the catch-up peak) have normalised to 120,844 in 2024.

Couples are more budget-conscious. The average wedding cost ($35,315) now exceeds the starting budget ($27,455) by almost $8,000. Two-thirds of couples receive financial help from family.

Engagement lengths are increasing. Guest lists are shrinking (average 88 guests, down from 98 pre-COVID). There’s a trend toward smaller, more personal weddings — not quite elopements, but “micro-weddings” with 11–30 guests have increased 12% year-on-year.

The attention economy getting worse

Everyone is competing for attention. Couples are more distracted, more overwhelmed, more saturated with options.

Clear, direct, specific messaging cuts through. Generic “I’d be honoured to be part of your special day” does not.

There’s no single answer to being found by couples. But there are wrong answers.

Doing nothing is a wrong answer. Hoping referrals will sustain your business is a wrong answer. Ignoring your website while paying for directories is a wrong answer. Posting daily on Instagram while your Google Business Profile sits incomplete is a wrong answer.

The sustainable approach

Own what you can: your website, your content, your email list, your relationships.

Rent what you must: directory listings, social media presence, paid advertising.

Prioritise owned channels. They compound over time, they don’t disappear if a platform changes its rules, and they build genuine authority.

Where to start depends on where you are

If you’re new:

If you’re established but plateaued:

If you’re busy but want to level up:

The celebrants who will thrive in 2026 and beyond are the ones who understand that visibility is a system, not a lucky break. Build the system. Maintain it consistently. And stop waiting to be discovered — go be findable.

Originally published on the Celebrant Institute: https://celebrant.institute/marketing/where-2026/.