10/10/2026
🎈TEN YEARS!!! 🎉
Yep, today I get to celebrate and reflect on 10 years of being a celebrant.
And what an incredible ride it's been - marrying couples aged from 19 to 90, in all sorts of diverse places - from traditional reception venues to backyards, riverbanks, mountaintops, cafes, railway station platforms, woolsheds; beside dams, hospital beds, ancient gums and granite monoliths.
Weddings of all sizes from 5 to 200, couples choosing only the minimum legal requirements to full-blown love fests with storytelling, rituals, poetry, music, lots of guest involvement and everything in between.
Nearly 500 couples married and what stands out to me most is how great it is to get married in 2026! Couples doing it their own way, without feeling hamstrung about what a wedding should be. Weddings full of authenticity, personality and creativity.
Trends still come and go - huge love letters and lawn games aren't around so much any more, matchy matchy bridesmaids and groomsmen are no longer de rigueur (4+4 was very popular for a while). Now we see wedding parties of all shapes, sizes and genders or often none at all!
I've seen the introduction of marriage equality (at last!) and remember dancing around my kitchen, crying, when that announcement came through. I kept marrying people through the great pandemic, painstakingly counting the numbers of guests so that we wouldn't be breaking the law (I hope I never have to do that again).
I'm proud of starting Elope Bendigo with my beautiful friend Bendigo Wedding Photographer - Jess White Photography during the pandemic and how it continues to flourish with Alli Campbell, Bendigo Marriage Celebrant - Alli Watts and Bendigo • Ballarat Wedding Photographer | Carmen Bunting having joined the team. You are all awesome!
Thanks for reading, if you've made it this far, and a huge thanks if you are one of my past couples who have trusted me to be your celebrant and stand with you on one of life's absolute best days. It is an honour that I will never take for granted.
Thanks also to my incredible industry colleagues - I have met so many lovely people working in the wedding space - it is truly a job where EVERYONE wants to do the best they possibly can for the couples getting married!
WHAT A GIG! xx
