Marriage Celebrant Auckland -Blog 2
Blog One: Why The Circle of Life?
Story writing or creative writing was always my favourite subject at school. Now that I’m a grown up I get to write stories again – yay! I get to write the love story for my couples who are marrying. I get to write the story of someone’s life in their funeral Eulogy. I get to write the reason behind a baby’s name and what the baby means to their parents. And today I am writing my first ever blog. I plan to write and publish my blog every Monday on all kinds of different topics that are relevant to The Circle of Life – weddings, funerals and everything in between. Hopefully you will find something informative, entertaining, heart-warming, helpful and interesting in my weekly blogs.
As a fully trained and experienced Celebrant, I look forward to providing you with information that will help you plan your ceremony. I am a validated New Zealand Celebrant Association member and belonging to a professional body means I will always provide information that is factual, professionally presented and properly researched. I welcome your comments, feedback and questions.
What is The Circle of Life? Why did I name my celebrant business after a Disney movie? In the first instance I wanted a catchy and memorable name. You might be out driving and see my car which doesn’t have a whole lot on it. Just what I do – Celebrant – and my website – www.thecircleoflife.co.nz and my beautiful logo designed by talented kiwi artist Zheng Nuahzhi. Now we’ve all seen those vehicles with LOTS of writing, phone numbers, website, catchy slogans, bright colours and I don’t know about you, but there’s too much on there for me to remember. I want people to only have to remember the really important bits. The conversation between a couple who have seen my car driving around Auckland might go something like this…
“Hey honey we need to find a marriage celebrant for our wedding later in the year.”
“Oh yeah sure, hey didn’t we see a celebrant on a car last week, now what was the name again?”
“Um… wasn’t it a Disney movie….. and um….a song by Elton John…. ?”
“Oh that’s right….. The Circle of Life. I like the sound of that, lets get in touch”.
And bingo, they’ve found me. But the Circle of Life has special meaning for what I do. We are all born and we all die, that is the circle of life. In between those two major events, many of us marry, some of us divorce and some have babies. That’s also the circle of life. For every occasion in life that merits a ceremony, I write and deliver that ceremony. Why would anyone have a ceremony for a divorce you may ask? Remember a ceremony doesn’t always mean a celebration. A ceremony is about recognising the occasion in a formal way. Have a look at my website page on Uncoupling Ceremonies to learn more about how this could benefit the couple and more importantly the children of a divorce or separation. It’s not all grim news and a ceremony can provide some really positive outcomes for those going through the heartache of a separation or divorce.
I want to share with you a heart-warming story that relates to The Circle of Life and for privacy reasons will call my couple Mandy and Alex. One day Mandy and Alex were out driving and saw my car pull up beside them at the traffic lights. They had called off their wedding earlier that day because, tragically Mandy’s father had died the week before. It didn’t feel right for them to go ahead with wedding celebrations when they were mourning the loss of her father. When Mandy saw The Circle of Life she said to Alex “you know what, we should get married because really, it’s the circle of life… what happened”. I was so touched by their story and that they chose the Circle of Life for that reason. We had the most beautiful and meaningful ceremony where we honoured the memory of her father and still celebrated their union. My brand is really important to me and The Circle of Life is my brand. Sure I could have called my business Trish Williamson Celebrant but like I explained, I wanted something catchy and memorable. I used to work for a large company where your individual brand was your most valuable asset. This was because if you did something that didn’t reflect well on your brand, it was very hard to shake that negative association. Promotions were less likely to come your way and re-building your brand could be a lengthy and painful journey. I safe-guarded my brand always and felt confident that when I left the company my brand was in good shape. That experience cemented my belief in the importance of personal brand and I knew that I would commit 100% to safe-guarding my brand at The Circle of Life. I spent a lot of time (and even a couple of assignments in my Diploma of Celebrancy) deciding what my brand represented. It had to be more than just “be a really good celebrant” because there are already hundreds and hundreds of really good celebrants. I decided that all my customers would be absolutely and completely thrilled with the service they received from me. I decided to reply to every single email, text message, web enquiry and phone message on the day I received them. Why wait and why make customers wait? I decided to always be my best self with everyone - patient, kind, informative, calm, reassuring, confident and flexible. I decided to go out of my way to meet with potential clients at a time and place convenient to them. I decided to listen, really listen to people’s story. Not interject with “oh yes that’s happened to me” or “yes well this is how I like to run a ceremony” but to act on their wishes, their ideas, their story, told their way. I decided to have plenty of resources available to help guide people if they were stuck for ideas. In short I decided to make it easy for people to say YES to me because it was going to make their life a whole lot easier if they did! I’ve been amazed and humbled at the kind words my customers have written about me (see my website Gallery page) and am confident that my brand is working as I planned it would. But a brand is a living thing and there is always room for improvement, especially in being a celebrant. Every ceremony is a learning opportunity to do something just that much better next time. And not just ceremonies. Having a branded car means no room for error in parking or driving. I’ve been called an idiot twice in recent months for parking on the white lines in a parking space!
I’d love to hear your comments or suggestions on what you believe would make The Perfect Celebrant.