Please can people who are celebrants come talk to me?

[Shallysally]

So I’m thinking of a career change and have seen a company advertising celebrant training.

This would be a total change for me, currently work week days, I’m a social worker so quite stressful. I know I can’t carry on in the job until retirement. I’m mid 50’s.

I know it will mean a lot of weekend and evening work, meeting with couples, weddings, as well as week days if I go down the funeral celebrant route too.

Am I being realistic about earnings in the industry? Currently top of salary scale so earn around 40k per annum.

Bump. I am interested too

Hopeful bump

@Oldbiddy24 I’ve been looking into it and attended a webinar with a training provider.

Not sure about going back to weekend working but the pay off may be worth it.

Have you done any research?

Very little yet, but was looking for a change and for some reason, being a celebrant appealed. I would like to find out the best places to research more about it and if I would get cut out for 5

*cut out for it,

There's no way you'd get the same money, OP. It's not just salary, it's your sickness benefits at a point where you're getting older, and your pension too.

It's freelance so you'd be reliant on people having heard of you. Most people who'd use a celebrant would book up a long time in advance, so you'd have no money for the next year or so.

It's too scary to contemplate. There's a similar thread where a woman wanted to groom dogs. Far too risky, financially.

I haven’t looked into it myself, but someone I know on Facebook did the training around 2 years ago and as far as I know has only had one wedding and is still on Universal Credit. I honestly don’t know if this is normal or if they used a training provider that was less reputable.

Maybe this isn't the thread for me but ... What is a.celebrant???

I know someone who did the training and got one job out of it. The celebrant who did my wedding is busy and booked but there aren't many in each area, which suggests it's a niche product. It might change when the government changes the rules to allow celebrants to do legal weddings but that could take a long time.

You may be able to get a £40k salary gross, in several years time when you've established yourself and have a good reputation and references etc and are doing 3-4 funerals a week plus the odd wedding. Or if you're just doing weddings, you'd need to do upwards of 6 a month, every month (or larger numbers in the busy summer months and less throughout the rest of the year).

However, you'll need to be able to support yourself while you do that.

The average charge for a funeral celebrant is between £220 & £280. Weddings are around £600. But, there's time with the family/couple, time writing the service, travel time, insurance and various other costs to consider; it's not just standing at the front on the day.

You probably need to do it alongside your full time job for a while to get established, because I doubt you'd earn more than a few thousand in your first year.

Hi OP…I’m a celebrant (I do weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies). I trained 7 years ago with Civil Ceremonies and am a member of the AOIC.

I have a beautiful website, huge presence on Social Media and have done a lot of ‘extra’ training since I qualified (at GREAT personal expense!)

I love the jobs that I get…my clients have always been wonderful and it’s such a privilege when you meet them and learn their story.

However…I still have to work my ‘normal’ job (I’m a teacher!) although I have recently cut down to 3 days a week. This is ONLY because I reached the age whereby I could claim my teacher pension!

I am very well known in my area and respected by Funeral Directors locally…but so are very many other celebrants, so the work is ‘shared out’ I guess 🤷‍♀️ I’m lucky if I get two funerals a month (we charge £220 in my area as we wouldn’t get work if we charged more than ‘the church’ do 🤷‍♀️). It’s a BIG time commitment as you visit the families, maybe twice, then liaise with them and the FD until they are happy with the service. I’d say a minimum of 8 hours work goes into each funeral ceremony (plus travelling/service time). It’s a lot!

Weddings: I average at about 5 a year (sometimes not even that 😢) and I’m one of the lucky ones! Celebrants I know and/or trained with, get one or two a year. The work that goes into these ceremonies is immense…in terms of £ per hour it’s very little.

The training companies will fill your head with positive vibes but the reality is very different. Don’t believe anything they say about marketing/job viability etc. The market is saturated and there simply isn’t the work for new celebrants trying to squeeze in.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s really lovely as a ‘hobby job’ alongside your ‘real job’…just don’t throw thousands of pounds at a training company who will be less than honest about the reality of the job market. Only do it if you understand that it will take YEARS before you even break even from your initial investment.

@MILTOBE thats what I’m wary of. I’ve been self employed before and since moving to local government there’s a lot to be said for 6 weeks annual leave and paid sick leave! Also very aware of my pension too.

@savvy7 its a person who conducts wedding, funeral and naming ceremonies.

@CelebrateAndDream thanks for your honesty. Looks like I need to come up with a different get out of social work plan!

@Oldbiddy24 hope this has helped you too 😊