How to become a celebrant in Aotearoa New Zealand?

Okay, so your bestie is getting hitched, and she turns to you one day and says, “man, I wish you could do our wedding!”.

Or, you’re engaged and on the hunt for a wedding celebrant and find yourself thining, “hey - this is something I might like to do!”.

Or perhaps you’ve been slyly following celebrant networks for some time and often think to yourself, “gosh, I reckon I would make a really great celebrant”.

Regardless of what your motivation is for becoming a celebrant, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article we are going to give you everything you might need to know and consider, about becoming an Independent Celebrant in Aotearoa.

First things first: what even is a celebrant?

A celebrant is a person who leads of officiates a religious or secular ceremony, such as a wedding, civil union, funeral or memorial.

In Aotearoa, to legally get married your wedding ceremony must be conducted by a legally appointed celebrant. There are two types of celebrants in Aotearoa: independent celebrants and organisational celebrants.

From hereon in, when we talk about celebrants in the context of The Celebrant Guide, we are talking about Independent Celebrants (unless we specify otherwise).

And so, how do you become appointed as a celebrant, and what does a celebrant do?

getting appointed

Getting appointed must be pretty easy, right? Surely it’s just a quick online form and we are done?

Alas, no.

While this is true in the United States and many other places around the world, in Aotearoa the process is a little more complex than that. And for good reason, too! It ensures that marriage celebrants in Aotearoa are ethically sound, can be vouched for by people in their community, and have the skills and attributes that make a good celebrant, great.

Skills like, for example, an ability to build rapport with couples, and creating ceremonies that suit them perfectly, as well as the obvious: an ability to speak publically.

Whilst the application process can feel daunting, rest assured that it’s not that scary and, once you’ve got all the paperwork ready, it’s pretty straighforward from there.

how to apply

To apply to become an Independent Celebrant in Aotearoa, you must (a) be a NZ Citizen, and (b) live here permanently

Whilst training is not a pre-requisite of applying to become a celebrant, the Registrar General (the guy who oversees Births, Deaths and Marriages and decides on the outcome of your application) views highly any applicants who take the step to train and/or join celebrant networks in the 12 months prior to applying to become a celebrant. In other words, the more you can demonstrate how seriously you’re taking this application, and the more invested you are in professional developement, the more likely it is that your application will be successful.

training and support

You’re reading this article so you’re already in the right spot for just the right training and support that we are talking about - you can sign up for our Certificate in Celebranting Basics here.

We created our Certificate in Celebranting Basics course for both celebrants who are newly appointed and those working towards becoming appointed, and pretty much covers everything we wish we knew when we started out as celebrants more than a decade ago.

At the end of the course, you will get a certificate as well as bragging rights for being awesome - and, if needed, we can write a letter of endorsement to BDM to support your application.

And, you can join The Celebrant Guide here as well.

The Celebrant Guide is an online support and training platform for all celebrants to learn, ask questions, share resources, gain knowledge and get to know other like-minded celebrants throughout Aotearoa through events, workshops and our private Facebook group.

the application form

Once you’ve got some training under your belt, you are going to want to move onto the application itself.

It costs $232 - and this is non-refundable so if you apply and are not successful, you won’t get that money back.

You will also need to include in your application:

4 letters of support from people in your community - these letters will need to show that you are of good character, and that you will make a great celebrant. You can download the checklist for what this letter should contain here.
2 “good character” referees - they need to complete this form (and they cannot be any of the people who wrote your letters of support).
A copy of your criminal record from the Ministry of Justice (get yours here).
Your celebrant qualification, if you have one (see our previous section: Training and Support).

Getting ready to apply

So, you’ve got all of your paperwork ready to go, you’ve completed your Certificate in Celebranting Basics and are ready to start your celebrant journey!

The first step is doing an online quiz - and you’ll also need to make sure that you’re RealMe verified.

And then, you’re ready to apply! You will need to upload all of your supporting documents digitally, so make sure that they’re scanned, photographed or saved to the device you’re using to apply from.

Apply here, upload the docs, pay the fee and you’re done!

what is the next step?

You will be contacted within 6-8 weeks with information about attending an interview and then you’ll find out if your application is approved (via email) within 8-12 weeks. Alas, there is no urgent service so you can’t fast track this, even if you have a wedding booked already.

It’s also reasonable to expect delays to this between August and December, as this is when all celebrants complete their annual renewals so BDM are pretty busy dealing with all of that.

Once you’re approved, you’re good to go - as soon as you get that email, you can legally perform wedding ceremonies in Aotearoa!
Woop woop!

what does a celebrant actually do?

Which leads us to our second part: what does a celebrant actually do?

It’s good to know a little more about what the role involves before jumping into the application process, so here is a summary, a tl:dr snapshot of the role of a celebrant in Aotearoa.

As a celebrant, it’s your job to run the ceremony - you are legally obliged to ensure that all of the legal components are taken care of in the ceremony:

That the couple’s full names (as they appear on the marriage paperwork) are said out loud at least once
That the couple say something like, “I take you as my legal husband/wife/partner” or words of similar effect
That the couple are (a) both consenting and (b) willing and happy to be there getting married.
That the ceremony is witnessed by two witnesses (aside from the couple and the celebrant). The witnesses must be (a) of sound mind, (b) not intoxicated, and (c) present at the ceremony.

Aside from the legal stuff, you’re there to create an awesome celebration of the couple’s love story in whatever way, shape or form the couple want it to be. Because we fully believe that, as celebrants, we are there to work with the couple, and for the couple.

Sound good?

Call us biased, but we reckon that being a celebrant is just the best job out there - it’s an amazing chance to showcase our own skills in public speaking, meeting people, creative writing and so much more, whilst celebrating some of the best moments in someone’s life.

And it’s so much more than the couple as well - as a celebrant, you’ll meet so many amazing whãnau members and friends, you’ll get to know and work alongside some of the best wedding vendors in the country (and, let’s face it - the world), and you’ll get to see some pretty special and amazing places as well.

Best of all, you’ll get to hang out with other awesome celebrants too.

All while doing something that you love, and getting paid to do it.

Trust us: it’s the best.

For more info check out this website, and if you have any questions please just reach out to us at kiaora@thecelebrantguide.com

So - You’re Thinking of Becoming a Celebrant?