Supplier Feature; The Best Job in the World

Thank you to Alison at Daisy Cupcakes for this amazing insight into "the best job in the world".

Yes, you read right – I have the best job in the world! I am a Registrar, and it is my privilege and my pleasure to spend my days marrying people and I LOVE IT!

I love it because it’s obviously such a wonderful thing to be able to do for a couple, being present on such a happy day and making their dream come true. But I also love it because I absolutely adore seeing the beautiful dresses, flowers, shoes and jewellery and smelling all the fabulous fragrance in the room!

My work is not full time, I am what is called a peripatetic Registrar so I am not based in an office. So how does it all work?

The Superintendent Registrar co-ordinates all the wedding bookings and prepares a staffing schedule usually three months in advance, so all the weddings I am due to attend are then put in my diary. As a peripatetic Registrar, I play a dual role – sometimes I am the Deputy Superintendent Registrar who takes the ceremony and sometimes I am the Deputy Registrar who does all the paperwork at the wedding and makes the entry in the Marriage Register.  There are always two Registrars at a civil wedding to cover both roles.

On the day of the wedding, we arrive at the wedding at least half an hour before it is due to begin and we are shown to our interview room. We always meet first with the photographers and videographers to ensure they know the photography policy and when they can take photos, and we also see any musicians to make sure they know when to stop and start for the ceremony.

And then it’s time to prepare to interview the lovely bride and groom to check all the details are correct.  First the groom, so that he can then go to the ceremony room and make sure all the guests are getting seated, and then the beautiful bride. This interview time is very precious, it gives us as Registrars, an opportunity to understand exactly the ‘feel’ of the wedding, and it gives the bride and groom a tiny bit of quiet time before the ceremony. We explain what is going to happen to settle their nerves and check that we have got everything right, so that the ceremony is perfect.

I love the atmosphere when walking into the ceremony room! Everyone looks fabulous, there is a lovely smell in the air, happy music is playing and the level of anticipation is sky high! I ask everyone to turn off mobile phones (!) and remind the guests not to take photographs until the end of the ceremony and then IT’S TIME!

‘Would you all please stand to receive the bridal party’

And now the bride makes the entrance she has been rehearsing for a lifetime – it’s magnificent to watch, and I feel so lucky to be there at that moment. And 20 minutes later -

‘Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present to you for the very first time, the brand new Mr and Mrs .......'