From episode: Unleashing the Fun: A Chat with Celebrant Mel from Marry Me, Mel
we today have a special treat for you. We're talking to an amazing celebrant who is here in Port Stephens, Hunter Valley, Newcastle, travels I'm sure in lots of different places, but we are so excited to be talking to Mel. Good morning. Good morning. How's that intro? I love it. You need to be my hype girl. We are so excited to be talking to you today because I will give everybody a little bit of background. When I first met Mel, she walked in with his fabulous dress on, fabulous she, she just looked incredible and her energy was infectious. So I'm super excited to have you here. Oh, I love that. Thank you for having me. I'm Mel, obviously. I have been a celebrant for almost three years now. I do do this full time, but I have a three -year -old as well. So that's like a never -ending job. Non -boring, fun, vibrant, inclusive ceremonies is what I do. Making it all about the couple, but also getting the guests involved. So that's a big thing for me. You don't want to be at a ceremony and sitting there and you just like, sit still, be quiet. You're really good at that though. You really bring, like I have seen some video footage of you actually. I haven't told you that. And you really do. You bring everybody into it. It's everybody's experience for, for the couple, you know? So I love that about you. And yeah, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt. No, I feel like, like weddings these days, they can be quite expensive. And if you've got all these people there, like say, you know, my, my, well, most of my weddings are about 80 guests plus, right? So, you know, you think if you've got 80 people, they're sitting in silence, we don't want to hear crickets. And these, the couples have invited these people because they want them to feel something and they've carefully selected these guests to come and enjoy it. So a big thing for me is I make everyone feel involved and just banter with them. And a lot of my stuff, like, as much as, you know, I do prepare their story and, you know, put my little spin on their love story. A lot of my stuff is just off the cuff. And, you know, I just sort of go with whatever is happening during the ceremony. Cause one thing for me is I embrace the chaos. Well, you know what, that was actually one of the things that I wanted to ask you, and it was, how do you work with your couples to like create that unique experience for them and their unique, I think, ceremonies? What is the, what is the thing that you do different to other people or what is it that you think celebrants need to do to make that happen? I don't think it's something that I do differently. I think it's something I do well though. I feel like a lot of celebrants possibly follow this path, particularly ones that offer that unique personalized ceremony. But I love doing face to face meetings with my couples so I can get a gauge of them. I read body language, you know, just have conversations with them and get their vibe as a couple. I find out all about them because essentially for me, and you would know as well, with booking your wedding vendors, you really need to get along with them and you need to build that relationship with them. Because essentially for me anyway, I'm not sure about the gloss girls, but I become their third wheel. Yeah, from the beginning of the day, you're in the middle of the day, and then the DJ's at the end of the day, right? Yeah, so it's like essentially, you know, I become their third wheel. But without all the other fluffy benefits, we won't go into that now. This is I'm sure a G rating podcast. Anything is possible with Mel. So I get to know them quite well, and their ins and outs of their relationship. I build their trust so they open up to me because essentially, if they're not going to open up to me and tell me stuff about themselves, I'm not going to get much info and I'm going to do a shit job and I don't want to do a shit job. So it's really important that you vibe with your celebrant. Something I do as well, and I'm sure again, I don't think it's something exclusively that I do, but I do send a questionnaire to each of my couples and I get them to answer it separately in their own words. And from those answers, I pick and pull that apart. And that's my bread and butter to create their love story in their ceremony. But I don't tell it word for word how they tell