My story - why I'm a celebrant

Well where do I begin?

Pretty much my whole adult life, marrying couples is something that i have always wanted to do. I have applied several times over the past 20 years to train as a registrar, but i have never had the right kind of experience. Back in 2023, I was working as a retail and art gallery manager for Hall Place in Bexley, a job which I absolutely loved. I enjoyed being and would even go in on my days off to help out, much to my husbands annoyance.

I had been there for four years and couldn't see myself doing anything else, that was until the decision was made to close the shop by those above. I was devastated and tried everything to keep the shop open, but it was not to be. The art gallery was given to a colleague, and I was transferred to a college to work in the admin department, something that was very, very different, and I did not enjoy it!

I think I must have applied for over 100 different jobs from April to September, but for one reason or another, I was not successful. In August of 2023, I was chatting with a colleague at the wake of another colleague who had sadly passed from cancer. We were chatting about my job and how much I hated it, and she said to me, "I think you would make a really great celebrant". It had been a strange week, as the universe/God had kept showing me signs to follow this path, but I thought I was imagining it!

In the end, my lovely colleague made me promise to look into training as a celebrant. I went home, and the suggestion began to play on my mind. Twenty-four hours later, at 11 pm, I logged onto the Kent County Council website and began searching for a celebrant job - there was only one that had just been listed that day for a sessional celebrant for the following year.

I was offered an interview, which went very well and 3 weeks later, I received a phone call to say that I had got down to the last two applicants, but the other applicant already had experience, so they had to give the position to them. I thought that was it; it was never going to happen. Except in December of 2023, I applied for a trainee registrar position, I had an interview, which again went very well, and just after Christmas, I received a call to say that I had been successful!

But it was around this time that my husband began to feel unwell, and it was looking serious. If it was what we thought it was, there was no way I could accept the job, so I declined it and put all thought of my dream on the back burner.

To be continued!