30 Aug Where do couples marry?
I loved ‘Family Feud’ the TV show the first time around (all those years ago) and I still love it. I prefer this style of game show to any general knowledge contest because you don’t need brains just wits. I think that it also appeals because it reminds me of lazy afternoons playing board games, ahhhh the simple things in life.
Anyway one of the questions on FF was, ‘Where is a place, other than a church where you can get married?’ Well I rattled them all off but when someone mentioned the Registry Office I thought, of course…..oops, how could I forget, my number one competitor. Interestingly the Registry Office was not among the answers. With this in mind I felt compelled to do some statistics digging to uncover the ratio of State versus Church in regard to wedding ceremonies.
After hours of getting dirty (from all that digging) I found that 70% of marriages are performed by Civil Celebrants and the remaining 30% by the Church. In regard to The Church, one third of weddings are held in the Anglican Church and two thirds in the Catholic Church…..of course these are rough figures and change from state to state. Not all clerics from different religions are authorised to perform marriages and if they wish to be recognised as registered officiants then they must undertake the Civil Celebrant training and authorisation. This means that even though couples may marry in a marginal religion they will be married by a Certified Marriage Celebrant.
The stats which I was really looking for was the ratio of ceremonies preformed in a Registry Office as opposed to Civil Ceremonies ‘in the wild’. Apparently this information isn’t publicly available but I will maintain my vigil on this subject.
As a Marriage Celebrant in Sydney I have preformed ceremonies in so many different environments, inside, outside, backyard, front yard, under pergolas, on steps of monuments, under bridges, on wharves, on headlands and beaches, by lakes, in the bush and under magnificent trees(my favourite) but possibly the most extreme is a wedding which I did in a jail, although the hospital wedding was an interesting experience.
There are so many great reasons to employ the services of a Celebrant as opposed to marrying at the Registry Office and dahdah there I have it next week’s blog.
The wedding image attached was a winter ceremony, held in a restaurant which overlooked the opera house. Glynn and Katrina had travelled from Townsville for a weekend of love and commitment. The following day they cruised off on their honeymoon. Just prior to their ceremony was the first time we had physically met although we had established a great relationship via Skype, email and telephone calls, by the time we met we were well connected.