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Brisbane Marriage Celebrant Jennifer Cram
When you engage a celebrant you are not just choosing someone to perform a ceremony for you. Nor are you only paying for an hour of a celebrant's time on the day. Your celebrant needs to have all three of the qualities that are required to ensure that your ceremony delights you, engages the guests, and that no problems are caused for you either on the day or afterwards.

Ceremonial Skills
As an experienced and highly skilled celebrant I not only create every ceremony especially for you, ensuring that it reflects who you are and is conducted in a style that is authentic to you, I understand all the little nuances that make a ceremony flow well, how easily your photographs can be compromised, so I know how to structure and choreograph the ceremony and have developed numerous ways to make the ceremony unique and to ensure the photographs are fabulous.

Legal Knowledge
With me as your celebrant you can be confident that your marriage will be legal because I have an in-depth knowledge of the requirements of the Marriage Act and other relevant laws, so I know what must be done, why it must be done, and how it must be done, and I understand and care about what the consequences for you will be of not doing it. Where your circumstances are not straightforward I can provide you with advice and a way forward to ensure that your marriage is legal and that other types of ceremonies are conducted within the law. As a result I will be alert for anything that might cause issues with the validity of your marriage, create problems down the track with government departments either in Australia or overseas, and I will never give you advice that causes you to go to unnecessary trouble or expense. 

Life Experience
I have the maturity, experience, knowledge and skills to sensitively and creatively address sensitivities, relationship difiiculties with family members, cultural requirements and issues, or just plain nerves with empathy and delicacy, both in the creation and performance of your ceremony.

Your ceremony

My focus is on developing an extraordinary, inclusive, and unique ceremony for you and in consultation with you. This is my full-time business, not a hobby, so I will be delighted to work with you to fully understand your wishes for your ceremony and to spend considerable time to translate them into reality - a ceremony that delights, entertains, and engages your guests, keeps them talking for months afterwards (in a good way) and exceeds your expectations.

Your ceremony will include exclusive contempory elements. Even if you choose one of my Warm and Wonderful weddings (an alternative to the Registry Office in terms of price and simplicity, but nothing like the bland and standard ceremony the Registry Office provides), the ceremony will be created for you and will be performed with warmth and friendliness so that your guests are not only included, they are entertained. My focus is you, your ceremony, your story. The kind of magic that achieves this doesn't just happen. This is why I work very hard to gather information about what you would like for every aspect of the ceremony from you, together with the information that helps make the ceremony totally unique.

Through extensive knowledge of ceremonies and celebrancy, thoughtful and in-depth examination of every aspect of the traditional marriage ceremony and of other types of ceremonies, a natural bent towards creativity and pushing the envelope, and the wisdom that comes with maturity and life-experience, together with my track record of 800 ceremonies, I can guarantee that your ceremony will not be a ho-hum experience incorporating outdated gender stereotypes, tired old rituals or long-winded readings used as fillers, a blow-by-blow account of how you met and the daily details of your relationship, or presumptious and boring lectures. My aim is that no-one looks at their watch, and everyone goes away saying "that was so them...." so I take a very creative approach to fusing tradition with your personal style to create a contemporary personal ceremony.

I firmly believe that your ceremony is an investment in your relationship, with one another and with your family and friends presnt. Most of all it is an investment in memories that will last for the rest of your lives. But I am also aware that times are tough, so I offer a range of ceremony styles at fees that reflect the amount of time that each demands of my. I do, however, apply the same high level of skill and dedication to every ceremony.

If you are planning a wedding (as opposed to just getting married without any of the fancy stuff) what you spend on your celebrant compared to what you are willing to pay for a stretch limo or an expensive, is a matter of priorities.

One of my brides recently commented to me that a skilled and expreienced celebrant, able to inject a bit of humour into the ceremony without making it about the celebrant, able to weave the magic of the couple's relationship through every word, and able to incorporate into the ceremony unique touches that reflect the personalities and heritage of the couple is a bargain at $1000 (way above my top fee), but a bad celebrant is much too expensive qt $100. That's food for thought.

Give me a call to chat about what you expect from your celebrant and how I can meet those expectations in a way that is not run-of-the-mill.  07 3378 3005






What's the next step?

It was everything that we had hoped it would be.  We had nothing but positive feedback from all of our guests about your performance and the ceremony. By way of comparison and completely without waspishness, the last wedding which we attended was in October 2011, in Queensland, with a female celebrant, and we have to say that in comparison we see that hers was basically bland as compared with your performance. Yours was exceptional.  We would not have had it done any other way nor with anybody else as celebrant. Thank you for making it a very special and fulfilling day for us and our families and friends. - Liz and Tony



From our very first phone call to Jennifer we found her approach to be comfortable, calm and competent, whilst being professional yet personal. These thoughts were proved during our first face-to-face meeting. Jennifer conducted the ceremony in such  manner allowing our love to shine. Barely a dry eye in the house our guests commented it was the best, most meaningful, personalised civil ceremony they have ever attended. We would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Jennifer. We provide this testimonial with our heartfelt thanks. Kind regards and love Craig & James


Jennifer Cram if I am still in brissy I am definitely getting you to do the naming ceremony You are AMAZING celebrant for those of my friends reading this and want someone amazing this is the woman for you. - March 2013 Facebook comment from Casie, who married Nathan in 2012
 


Jenny I have had the pleasure of working with you many times and I can honestly say that every time has been beautiful, intimate and personal. Experience counts for a lot, but it isn't just experience or the age of a person that makes a ceremony for a couple, it is a person who has a beautiful soul and puts that into their work that truly makes it a unforgettable and personal experience for the couples. The genuine emotions that you bring out in couples are such beautiful moments for them to share and from a photographers standpoint make our job even more special to be able to be part of and document for our couples. - Scott Lawler of Scott Lawler Photography

Check out what others have said about my services as their celebrant.


My Fees:
My ceremony fees are open and transparent, ranging from $300-$600. You will find them in the PDF downloadable ceremony package summaries below and also on the pages about each type of ceremony.
What I charge reflects that I provide not only ceremonial services, but also, for weddings, legal services, together with the complexity of your ceremony.
How do you decide what is a fair price? I suggest in the first instance you look at the Registry Office charges. This will give you a benchmark for the most basic of ceremonies -  no choice of ceremony content, no personalisation, no PA system, no symbols, no traditions, no choice of venue, no rehearsal, no ongoing communication with your celebrant between booking your ceremony and the big day.  As a result your celebrant will do no research or gathering of information from you to personalise your ceremony, will spend no time on creating a ceremony for you, and have no travel time. And then decide how much it is worth to you to have a celebrant who will deliver a ceremony that is positive, memorable, fresh, unique, and entertaining, allowing you to fully experience all the emotion of a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.
No matter which package you choose what you will get for your investment is the confidence that comes with knowing your celebrant is a very experienced and skilled full-time professional with excellent credentials and references who will work for you and with you to ensure your ceremony is meaningful and beautiful ceremony that is personal to you and completely new and fresh to your guests.

Don't see a package that completely meets your needs?
Create your own package and I will quote on it, or tell me how much you want to invest in your ceremony and I'll design a package for you.

My Credentials
:
  • Authorised Marriage Celebrant appointed 2006
  • Experience of creating and delivering 800+ ceremonies
  • ABIA Accredited
  • Academic Qualifications in Celebrancy, Humanities, Information Science, Management and Education
  • Member Australian Federation of Civil Celebrants
  • Consistent High Quality service - finalist ABIA Awards 2009, 2010, 2012, 2012
  • Judged in top 2% of celebrants in Australia  - Designer of Dreams Awards 2011, 2012

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