Fancy Becoming a Humanist Celebrant?

Here at Fuze HQ, we like to think that attending your first ever Humanist ceremony is a bit like putting a Haribo Tangfastic into your mouth after a lifetime of eating plain rice. It’s a sensory explosion! As Humanist ceremonies continue to skyrocket in popularity, more and more people are getting to experience the Humanist ceremony magic first-hand, which has prompted a wave of inspired ceremony attendees to question whether becoming a Humanist Celebrant is the career for them? While the prospect of sealing the deal on hundreds of couple’s l.u.r.v.e and getting to eat your way through a lifetime of canapes is definitely appealing, there’s a WHOLE lot more to being a Humanist Celebrant than meets the eye. In today’s blog, we’re shining the spotlight on what it really means to be a Celebrant and how you can go about making your dream a reality: What is a Humanist Celebrant? Humanist Celebrants create and deliver one-of-a-kind, non-religious, inclusive and highly personalised ceremonies for weddings, vow renewals, funerals & baby-namings.

Celebrant – Paula Wilkinson by Silver Photography

What’s typically involved in creating & delivering Humanist ceremonies? The majority of prospective Celebrants get in touch with us after they’ve attended and been inspired by a Humanist ceremony. While this is fantastic because it means that this person will have an innate understanding of how a Humanist Ceremony plays out, it’s also crucial to comprehend that the 30/45 minute ceremony they just witnessed is the result of many hours’ worth of preparation and hard work. On the surface, a Humanist Celebrant seemingly skips into a beautifully dressed venue, brings the magic and then trots off home revelling in post-ceremony bliss. While this part of the story is true, scratch the surface and you’ll find that there’s a whole lot more involved in the creation & delivery of Humanist ceremonies: Marketing & networking: WAY before you find yourself standing in your Sunday-best hollering declarations of love across a windswept beach, you will have to have been “found” by potential clients. While Fuze HQ are continually busying themselves with matching clients to their perfect Celebrant, the majority of clients want to get to know all about the person who is going to be an integral part of one of the biggest days of their lives. In order to do this, clients will generally head straight over to prospective Celebrants’ social media platforms.  It is therefore crucial that Celebrants have a good grasp of using social media as it’s the best way to self-promote and market their services.   Fuze HQ will also arrange for Celebrants to attend local wedding shows in order for them to meet wedding suppliers and couples looking to marry in their area.    Creating the ceremony script:  The Humanist element of celebranting means that the focus lies heavily on the human/s at the heart of the ceremony.  This means that we like to truly get to know our clients.  In order to do this, we like to arrange a number of meetings to get to know them personally and to chat through their ceremony wishes. During these meetings the Celebrant will glean insight and information about the couple or family and this information is then used to create the ceremony script.  Each ceremony script is crafted from scratch, meaning that no two Fuze ceremonies are ever the same.   Invoicing & Accounts:  After the ceremony is done and dusted, Celebrants are also required to engage their business brain! Because Team Fuze are self-employed, keeping up to date with accounts, admin, invoicing and all other business is an essential part of the job.     What skills are required to become a Celebrant? So, you’re a marketing, script writing and business whizz, but before you decide to sign up for your brand-new career, it might be worth considering if you have the skills and attributes needed to become a Celebrant. Note:  Don’t worry too much if you don’t tick all or even any of the boxes as that’s what our fabulous online training course is for; however, there are a number of key skills that we feel combine to make the most sensational of Celebrants. As a general rule, here are the Team Fuze Top Four Sensational Celebrant Skills:  You LOVE humans  Being a Humanist Celebrant is centred around human beings and you’ll be required to build relationships quickly and re-tell their life or love stories.  In order to do this, you need to be genuinely interested in the people you’re working for. If you’d much rather be working with animals or behind a computer screen than communicating on a deep level, then this probably isn’t the job for you. You’re a good communicator & listener Communication is a key element in the role of a Celebrant.  Not only will you have to deliver the ceremony on the big day, you will also have to communicate your strengths and personality across marketing channels and have the ability to ask clients multiple questions without it coming across like an interrogation!   The better a listener you are, the more you will learn about your client/s and in turn, be able to create a ceremony than truly reflects their story, values and personality.  Listening skills aren’t simply listening to what a person says, they’re also about listening to their body language and what they’re not saying!   You’re creative In order to give the best service to your couples and families, and to mark yourself out from the crowd, it really helps if you possess an element of creativity.  While you certainly don’t need to be William Shakespeare, it does help if you have a good understanding of creative writing, sentence structure, pace and flow.     You’re business savvy Having any experience of running a business is a definite benefit for Celebrants.  As previously mentioned, Team Fuze are self-employed and as such, all Celebrants are effectively running a business so will need to get business savvy and organised.       How much can I expect to earn as a Celebrant? Fuze Ceremonies pay their Celebrants a substantial percentage of the ceremony fee and therefore, the more ceremonies a Celebrant gets under their belt, the more money they will earn.  We recommend that new starters run their Celebrant business as a part-time operation alongside their current job as it takes a number of months to get established and noticed.  When a Celebrant gets to this stage, the world is their oyster! How do I become a Celebrant? If, after reading all of the above, you still feel that becoming a Celebrant is the right career-path for you then you should definitely consider training with our very own Celebrant Training Academy.  We offer an incredibly comprehensive online training course, which covers all of the above and so much more at a very affordable price. Celebrant – John Leo Scott by Aliza Razell