In 2025, 70% of the couples I worked who chose a celebrant wedding partied on for the whole weekend. But why is it that a celebrant wedding appeals to multi-day weddings?
Picture: Nina Wernicke
I think it’s because couples who choose a wedding celebrant want to share more than a snatched Saturday with their friends and family. They want to relax, and enjoy the incredible moments they’ve created. They want to spend time living the experience of their marriage celebration alongside their guests. And they want to do it all in a place that reflects their personal style.
Your wedding ceremony sets the tone for your weekend, so it’s always a joy to plan and create how we’re going to do this with couples. Having a weekend long wedding with a celebrant ceremony on the Saturday also means that couples can have the Registrar come for their legal signing as part of the celebrations too, where two special witnesses can join them for the marriage certificate. It also means, that if you are having a religious element, for example a Sikh or Hindu blessing, that can happen after your celebrant led ceremony too. Guests can relax and gather in a space and place of their choice, enjoying the beautiful corners of your venue.
Weekend weddings with a celebrant in Somerset come in many shapes and sizes. I work with couples in statement and heritage venues, and historic country house wedding properties. I’m a history lover and truly appreciate the background and story of these venues, often weaving their importance into the magic of your ceremony in some way. If you’ve chosen the venue because of a love for the way it looks or feels, I’m going to make sure it remains a part of the memory fabric of your wedding day. Such places deserve to be explored and enjoyed by your guests. This is often a big feature of your wedding weekend.
Picture: Alan Law
The multi-day wedding is as intimate and special in the gardens of a private home, or farm, as it is in a historic property. Marrying on your own soil, or in the home you grew up in, has a beautiful, elegant story-arc to it. When ceremonies are at home, I love to write your marriage into the history of the place too, commemorating the place where you crossed into the next chapter of your lives together. What could be more special than waking up on the morning after your wedding in your family home, and seeing your friends slowly emerge with stories of the night before to tell over a relaxed breakfast?
my advice for a planning a multi-day wedding around your ceremony
- Consider having your ceremony slightly later than the usual 2pm. If guests are with you from Friday, this means a way more laid-back start, especially for hair and makeup. It also means that you can have a good brunch, a walk, a slow and romantic first look session if you need to, or simply, some time alone or with your inner circle. In summer, you escape the heat. In early autumn, you get sensational light, and in winter, you get that twilight candlelit glow.
- Talk to your celebrant about ways you can add deeper personalisation to your wedding ceremony by involving the guests in some part of it that could be created on the day as a surprise for you. I have lots of ideas for this – get in touch if you’d like to discuss.
- The more relaxed vibe means people can sit down at your ceremony with a drink, especially if it’s outdoors.
- The day after the wedding, when everybody’s connected and still re-living the details, why not make a feature of asking guests to tell you their favourite part of the day before using camcorders or a special ‘diary room’ area? Hearing everybody’s positivity and well-wishes from your weekend will see you through your post-wedding blues until your photos and content arrives! I can guarantee, if you’ve chosen a celebrant ceremony, people will be brimming with love for your personally written vows and the story of your love for each other.
