Behind every 'I Do' with Your Ceremony Registrars

Welcome back to The Aisle Diaries Podcast - where we uncover what really happens behind the scenes of your wedding day 💍

This week, Sophie and Joella are joined by Becky and Anna from Your Ceremony - the team responsible for legally marrying couples across Cheshire.

If you’ve ever wondered:

• What registrars actually do
• How to give notice of marriage
• How to personalise your ceremony
• Or what happens right before you walk down the aisle…

This episode has all the answers.

✨ Expect honest insights, myth-busting, and expert advice on:

• The legal side of getting married (made simple)
• How ceremonies are structured
• Unique ways to make your ceremony feel personal
• The difference between register office and venue weddings
• Common mistakes couples make

Plus, we share real behind-the-scenes moments and what couples don’t see on the day.

🎙️ Perfect for anyone planning a wedding, working in the industry, or just wanting a real, honest look at what goes into saying “I do.”

✨ Because someone’s got to tell you the truth… and it’s never boring.

Produced by TAEPodcast - www.taepodcast.co.uk

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to the IOL Diaries Podcast, the place where you find out what really happens behind the chaos and grafhetic. Because someone's got to tell you the truth, and it's never boring. With tips for your big day, I'm Sophie and I'm Joella. Anyway. Hello and welcome back. So this week we have two amazing guests from a very special place. I'm not going to do an introduction for you guys, you can do it yourselves. Um so first of all, would you like to introduce who you are and where you're from and yeah, what you both do?

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Yeah, so my name's Becky and I am the registrar for Cheshire East at Cheshire East Registration Service.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

And I am Anna, I am a deputy registrar at Cheshire East Registration Service. So we are your ceremony. So your ceremony are the registrars for the whole of Cheshire. So we have the loveliest job of going out and producting ceremonies across our beautiful district.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Do you ever get a question that's like are you um like because you uh project yourselves on like socials especially, like and you get this all the time, probably as like an actual like essentially like a wedding business. But yes, you work for like Cheshire's and work for the council, but yeah, and you do all the legality kind of things, but you actually project yourself as in a way of like a personal business. Do you ever get the like the legalities kind of thing? Like, are you I don't know how to word it, like are you not for Cheshire's, like are you something else? Like separating one from the other.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Yeah, so yeah, we we've worked really hard over the years. Um our superintendent, so just to sort of give you a little bit of background, um our superintendent is Julie Hobson who instigated the your ceremony brand all those years ago. Um I don't know how many years ago now, quite a few, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:50

So yeah, I always go back about 12 years, but I reckon it's about 15 minutes now that we have been separated, not separated from the council because we are the council, but kind of have a personal have a brand for the ceremony programme. Yeah. Is there many like councils that actually do that? It's definitely getting more popular. Yeah, yeah. I like to say we're trailed. I've been like it. You all become us. But there are definitely lots of councils that kind of take their ceremony's program and turn it more into a brand, and just thinking off the top of my head, my Cornwall wedding. They do take it away from the world.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

I think it's a cracking idea. They would prefer it. Yeah, because I feel like when you actually do have probably a conversation at wedding fairs and things like that, you probably can get a more personable conversation from a couple of.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I remember being at a wedding fair once, and it was a photographer who was across the room, and he was talking to a couple, and the couple had said, Oh, I need to speak to the registrars while I'm here. And he was like, Oh, that's them over there. And she looked over, looked at our banner and went, Really? Which I take as a massive compliment in that like we don't look like council employees or typical registrars.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Yeah, and at first, the first thing I thought of just as I sat down is, Oh, you guys aren't what I expected. Yeah, you're bumped into one another when I thought painted faces, but no, we've never makes a dad normal.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Did you expect us to be here with our twin set in pearls and a briefcase?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Like a lanyard, put like eyes at the bottom of the glasses at the bottom of the neck.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

I know. I think that's kind of the historic way that people do.

SPEAKER_02 3:32

No, I think absolutely no, absolutely not. I think like the internet and everything else genuinely does portray us as that sort of stuffy, rigid, yeah, we're gonna tell you halfway through your ceremony kind of people, and that is just not us. Yeah, you can't do this, you can't do that, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

No, I love it. I love this vibe.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

I'm like, woo, you're not gonna find a must say like there is other counties that are like that. We do get told that actually.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Obviously, we you know work only in Cheshire, and we haven't really got any experience outside of that, but we are told quite a lot, can't we do it? It just baffles me. We can do what?

SPEAKER_02 4:07

It baffles me, yeah. Because I am totally your ceremony if I'd it baffles me that this isn't this isn't a life outside Cheshire East.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

And why wouldn't why people wouldn't want the best for who is ultimately at the heart of it all is the couple. Yeah, it's all about them, isn't it? So why wouldn't you want the best for them?

SPEAKER_02 4:28

As long as we can say at the end of it we've done all the things according to law to get you married, legally married, yeah. But what what you do kind of in between that, that's totally up to you. As long as we've covered everything that we need to do.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

What do you think? What do people try and do to make it more personalised? I know you've said you've got to stick to legalities, absolutely, or they wouldn't be married. But what do you find's most common with people going, can we do this? Or again, does it just depend? It totally depends on the couple.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

Yeah, totally depends on the couple. So I'm just thinking weddings that we have done in the past, there's one in particular that really stands out as a couple that had every choice that they made was so intentional, and there was a proper reason behind it. It wasn't just a I've seen it on TikTok, so I want to do this. Yeah, yeah. So I was talking to Clary about it the other day because it was one of Clary's weddings. It was a wedding at Crew Hall, gorgeous venue, and two fabulous grooms that were getting married. And one of the grooms had um sadly lost his parents and they wanted a way of honouring their parents and giving a nod to family and all that sort of stuff. And previously he'd seen a hand tying ceremony at another wedding. So if you don't know what a hand tying ceremony is, it's where your hands are kind of like bound together with cords like and the registrar ties a knot around. Well, you pop it around, don't you? And then pull the room. Well, the idea is there's a knot in the middle at the end. No, it's the tie in the knot. Exactly. So they'd seen this at another wedding and thought, oh, really like that. Yeah. I wonder how we can do it and make it really meaningful for us. So in the end, he'd taken scraps of materials that belonged to his parents and gorgeous. So it was his dad's oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

We often do have a tier.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

So it was his dad's work tie. I've got goosebumps. Um gave a button. His mum's belt from his dressing gown, from a dressing gown, a bit of his work shirt, and that kind of represented his family. That is so cute.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And that's so thoughtful as well. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

And then the other groom did a he did, I think it was a bit of silk from a tablecloth from his auntie's tablecloth, his something that belonged to him, and it was just so gorgeous. And then this groom's son then kind of put the like remaining piece of material on it. Yeah, which then was like the family tie pulling it together. So yeah. Oh my god, that's that's beautiful. But there are so many, like that's what I mean. That every choice that they made was just so intentional.

SPEAKER_03 7:09

It's gorgeous, yeah, it's lovely. We get lots of lots of readings, and you know, quite popular at the minute is the personalization um of the vows, isn't it? Absolutely, yeah. That's gorgeous when couples do that.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

But very brave. It is brave, it is brave.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

But we we very much tailor it to please don't feel bad if you don't want any of that because your ceremony's just as special and it's just as personal to you.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Essentially, it is obviously to some extent, but it's not it's just about you two actually getting married because you love each other and you want to do it rather than.

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Think about like could the couple think about your journey, what's what's brought you here, absolutely um, all of that history which has gone. No, no, but yeah, it's no, it's really nice.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Well, it is, it's no go on, sorry. No, I was just gonna say leading on from but what Becky was saying, I did a wedding earlier on this year, it was my first wedding of the year, and I did close the ceremony by saying I don't know how anyone else is going to top this because it was just there was so much love in that room. They didn't include any readings, they didn't write their own promises. But you just felt it. There was so, so much love tangible sometimes, isn't it? That raw emotion of being that the bride sobbed pretty much all the way through. It was gorgeous. To the point where she said halfway through, she was like, I do consent, I do want to do that. I promise I do, I'm not crying because I don't want to be here, but there was just so much love in that room, and you get ceremonies where they want to include loads of different elements and ceremonies where they don't, and as long as you two are at the heart of everything, doesn't yeah, you can have whatever you want, yeah, and it will still be the most personal moment ever because it's you two getting married. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 9:02

Sand ceremonies are gorgeous as well. We love a sand ceremony. I love a sand ceremony as well. It's really nice for families, we always think, you know, especially if kids are involved. So what's that?

SPEAKER_00 9:11

I don't know that. What is it?

SPEAKER_03 9:12

So basically, and it fundamentally consists of um different colours, like different colours of sand with different containers, one one big container, and then sort of smaller receptacles that different coloured sand will be in. So, like the bride will have one colour, the groom will have another colour, and then say there are children, then they'll also have their own colour, yeah, and it's sort of that symbolisation that the family's all blending as one. And like the grains of sand can't be separated, just like the family can't.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, that's always what works really well, doesn't it? And I like how you can take that away from the women and how it's just keep safe, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Yeah, it's the same as the knot as well. Like you can you can you can frame it, you can put it on your shelf at home, you can do what you want with it, and it's got that sentimental value, but also something that's purseable afterwards as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

Absolutely, that's one of the loveliest things, isn't it? Like a tree planting ceremony as well. Yeah, that is that's fabulous because I I love how that's really symbolises how your the roots of your marriage take place from today. I think people forget all these things you can actually do.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

100%. Yeah, I never realised there were so many options like that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

So, what are the options for anybody that doesn't know and that is probably listening and has either booked you guys or booked another registrar in a different county or anything like that, what are the options from a variety of? Yes, you said like the sand pour in, yes, there's the knot tie-in. What else is there that they can probably do that will personalise in a way or that they can make a stamp on their own?

SPEAKER_03 10:40

Um we we we do so we send out a profile or the registrar that's going to be conducting a couple's wedding will send a profile out around about a month before, um, giving the couple an opportunity to obviously meet who's gonna marry them. Um all of that.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

They've got a ceremony guide in there.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Ceremony guide, yeah. We've got just just that's when it becomes really real for them. Um, and there's obviously we've we we we start right from when they're engaged in the book with us, we've got that dedicated ceremonies team, but moving forwards to that four weeks before, um the registrar at that point will send something out that will say, right, is there a personalised introduction that you maybe want us to say? Um behalf of you.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Yeah, or that's that's a gorgeous way of like saying of telling your love story right at the beginning, and just saying, like so I remember you always used to do lovely bits at the start of your ceremony.

unknown 11:34

I did that.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

I was quite next wedding tomorrow, you'll be doing it. But now where you put in like bits of information from the years of when they met. So like this this song was charting, this film had just come out.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

So if I know, yeah, if if I know like what year a couple had met, or how they'd met, or the circumstances surrounding it, or when they got engaged, like what year, just a bit of fun trivia.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Would you tweak it to make it more like matching what you know, like your personality? You know what you put that in for your couples. Would you do like something different for yours?

SPEAKER_02 12:12

So those personalised introductions we really do kind of take from the couple. Yeah. So that was like something that you would do with yours and say, like the years that you met if that information was given. Yeah. Um, so we kind of take the information from the couples as a personalised introduction that they give to us, but then probably rewrite it in how we would say it, because how I would say something is different to how you would say something.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

And how the couple would say something to each other. And yeah, what's at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

It shouldn't be a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Oh my god, yeah, like every couple is so different.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yeah. Oh my god, I love it. I honestly didn't realise it was so personal.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

I think a lot of people think that if they want to have a personal ceremony, it can't be ours, it can't be yours, and they need to separate the legal bits on another on another day. Yeah, but for us, we are so passionate about for our couples that there isn't a compromise that they can have legal and they can have personal. Yeah, obviously are some bits that need to say the same. They need to be the vows, for example, like the words that you say that legally marry you, they need to stay the same because it's if you didn't say them, you wouldn't be married.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

Um and those those in and of themselves, those words, yes, whilst those those those few words that they say are the same, it's so different for each couple. The emotion, um, the journey that's brought them to that point, it's it means something so different to each couple. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

I always think that so if I love you, but if I said to you, if I said those words to you now, yeah, it wouldn't have the same sort of emotional weight that it did when I married my husband. Yeah. Because it was our journey that brought us to getting married.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

It was us postponing our who married you.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

So it was one of our other registrators changed.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Right, and did you select her?

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Like X Factor Auditions at the registrar office.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

We're all like special, isn't it? And quite special, really. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

You hang up in a row and I'll just take your head off. Woo! But you took my notice though, didn't you? I did, yeah. Did we take your notice?

SPEAKER_03 14:25

You took my notice. Yes. So it's a whole journey. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

I love that. So because people always feel the pressure, especially when like they come to me, they always feel the pressure of the notice, they always feel the pressure of that question beforehand, and yeah, and I'm like, literally, you've got nothing to worry about. Like, if you get anything wrong, they're gonna be they're gonna be fine, they're gonna give you a minute, like nerves are gonna kick in.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

And that's the kind of myth busting that we want to we want to do, isn't it? It's like it's not scary, it's not, no, it's really not. We're not there to test anyone. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, you've got a question wrong, you've got title, yeah. But they can change anywhere. He didn't answer the same one.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

And I was like, What? Because you got married at Stockport, didn't you? Well, Stockport Town Hall.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah, but I get my notice was uh Where you live Maccalsfield. No, it was uh um Namwich.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Yeah, you were with us then, the municipal building in Korea.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, I was, um, and then did the legal ceremony at Stockport Town Hall, and then I went to Santorini.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Oh, it wasn't open back then, was it? Because it reopened COVID times, maybe because yours was just after, uh just before it reopened.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Oh okay, yeah. Um yeah, yeah, no, we got a question wrong, but everyone was like, Oh, it's it's quite intense, isn't it? And I was like, No.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

No, it's really fine, it's really not designed.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

Yeah, you know what? I think we all realise as well that couples kind of come in because they've heard all this where does this come from? Oh you know, I love social media, yeah. Part of my job, I I do I'd run the socials for us, but sometimes people are their own worst enemies on social media, and they make mountains out of mobile holes. Yeah, um, there's just loads of misinformation out there, and that's yeah, absolutely. Notice of marriage is one of them.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Just it is absolutely fine. He went in one room, I went in another, and we like to see you after. That was that.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Yeah, everybody does as well.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

I think I think I think my husband got our wedding day wrong on it when when we gave our notice of luggage. Yeah, the registrar was like, Do you want try shall we try again?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Give it another whirl, give it another couple.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

People do it as well with like jobs for parents and things like that, because my dad's middle name, he was like, I don't know what Safe's dad's middle name is. He was like, How would I know that?

SPEAKER_01 16:42

But like these these are the things that like you you do know, but that you don't think about knowing on a daily basis. Absolutely. And parents' details, parents' details.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Yeah, I don't know his dad's middle name, not gonna lie. And parents' details are that's not even the a legal part of the notice. Yeah, it's it's family history. Yeah, that's why we ask. Yeah, but then also it kind of allows people to have that conversation before the big day. Like if you're not sure on spellings of names and all of that, if you're parents, then you're not gonna know it when you're in your wedding dress, are you? So it's it's that, oh, I'll go away and I'll ask and I'll check if if I want my parents on there. Um, and then that conversation's happened before we do that interview. Yeah, at the before they get married.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

So there's no even like the five-minute conversation beforehand as well. That's literally all it is.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Literally five minutes, it's just refreshing all we're doing is checking that everything from when you gave notice is still right, and if it's not right, then we'll change it.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Because you've got to think people like people move house, exactly. They book their weddings as well, for example, like two years in advance. You could either move house, you could also have children, you can also family could also pass away. A lot can happen in a year, can't it? Yeah, exactly. So I know I totally I totally can justify for you when I say it is not scary.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I do think on the day though, from talking as a supplier, yeah, it's gonna be quite contradicting now. I'm not saying you because I've never I've never we've never seen one of them, like I said earlier. But I have experienced a lot of intense five minutes. Really? And like they don't read the room, the bride's still hair in hair and makeup, she's flustered. See, that's concerned. And everyone, there's like ten people in the room all like around are trying to finish off their job. So i.e. mate, touch up the lip blocks, yeah, you know, the hairstylist trying to put the veil in. The bride's it looks like she's from pillar to post, and then the registrars are like I need to ask you this.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Can you like just I know I know we're all busy and I know we're all working on a time frame, yeah. But let's just read the room.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Yeah, we try and we very much try and do it so that she's ready, yeah, and she's come into whichever, wherever. Obviously, every venue's different, but some sort of holding area. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Where not in the room where she's really important, yeah, finish doing your lipstick, or there's there's mum fixing a last bit of a dress or something because it's photos are important as well, aren't they? You've got bridesmaids slapping about and things, it's just it's not productive, no or conducive to a relaxed serene walk down the aisle.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Absolutely, and I think well, I wouldn't be thinking straight in that scenario either.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

So if you wouldn't answer something right, no, we try like and I know from you guys as well, like it's like for example, when let's just take the plough, for instance, because it's top of head, we had the conversation before about them. Yeah, so obviously, with that old now bridal suite, we tend to either get everybody, all the bridesmaids, whoever say for a bride in this instant, out of that room, up to the top behind the curtain, you then have that conversation with them in the room on the room. She's ready, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

You know, she's because all the all you do in that bridal room, you sat there thinking, I need to get me flowers, I need my bag to go over to this person. Is my mum walking down the aisle with so and so too many questions going in your head without people adding more questions to it, and your important ones as well, like you guys are you know, the real deal.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

So, like it does need to be.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

We definitely are not about adding pressures to anybody's day at all.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

It's also about communication on the day as well. So, from my point of view, as a planner and coordinator, it would be that I would then be like to you guys, she's ready now, let you go in, or it'd be like to the venue, give her five minutes, she just needs to spend five minutes with the registrar or he or whoever it may be. And it's just about that communication, and yeah, again, it just comes down, we all say it all the time, but communication is key massively without through any supplier, but also on the day as well. So if you are feeling flustered, just say, I need five minutes, yeah, yeah, or I need to just go to the toilet and just stand on my own in that room for a minute.

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Because it is nerve-racking for them, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 20:50

It's a day that you've been. Three years you could be counting down and envisaging so much that something isn't quite right, it will send you into a spiral and something that you've never done before. Yeah, like you're going to have all these things going through your head, aren't you? You don't need anything. Adding to not sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

So, speaking of venues, then, what makes it different for couples who are getting married at a venue compared to a registry office? Like, what are the differences between the two?

SPEAKER_02 21:19

Actually, I'm gonna say something here that so did you know that it's actually a register office and not a registry office.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

I've been saying it so long. Everyone does.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

I think everyone thinks that it's the registry office office because we yeah, we are the office where the registers are. Yeah, we are the register office.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

That's a blow in my mind. I feel like no one knows that.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

I'm the person, so Can you book in the camera and say it? It is register office, not registry. I'm the person though, who do you know when you've got you book on a Kindle and you see registry office pop up in the

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Oh my god, I'm gonna change my final details. I have never known that. Like registry office when I went to sign P's birth certificate. Like all of that I didn't know it was a register office, but that makes so much there. Okay, so on that note, a register office. Have anyone who saw my nose come back through you were like, nope, that's not me.

SPEAKER_00 22:28

You can't watch more.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

But I can say it. That's just like one of those, like we as registrars you see it all the time, don't you?

SPEAKER_03 22:39

But nobody would be like I can't say it. Nobody that doesn't do that would know. So it's not like you know, like you've just said, I feel like no one knows that. Nobody does know that, do you?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

No. I was so shocked when you just said that. So yeah, so what is the difference then between the register office and then going to a venue and actually having you conduct it there? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Okay, so every every district needs to have a register office. Um so our register office is at the municipal buildings in Group. Every district by law needs to have a room, a statutory ceremony room. So that's typically where you'd have your couple the couple registrars or two witnesses, and that's because everybody has the legal right to be able to get married in the uh in England and Wales. It's like a human right, yeah. Um so everybody has that legal right to be able to do so, and that's why that statutory ceremony uh is offered. So you can opt for a statutory ceremony in the registrar office, which is the two couple, the couple, your witnesses, and the registrars. Or the registrar office is now like Stockport Town Hall, will have different approved rooms within the building. So we've got our statutory room, yeah, and then we have our mayor's parlour room, which is uh the couple and tan guests, and then we have our mayor's reception room, which is the couple 50 guests, yeah. 50 guests, a bit bigger again, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Just bigger couple of options. Similar to um Chester Town Hall as well, because they've got a wedding there in a couple of weeks. I think it's like I think they've got a 70 to 80.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

I think they've got all the options as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

I did the Robert Hyde room, that was like the Oh, we take a few notice here, don't we? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

But then obviously you've got your uh that's that's your your your register office as such with those approved rooms, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

And it depends on the type of ceremony as well, doesn't it? So a statutory ceremony is a naturally shorter ceremony where you're saying your vows, you're legally marrying, and you are signing your schedule. Yeah, whereas if you are having a ceremony in a venue, for example, that is a longer ceremony. With the bill all our ceremonies, like the ones that approved premises, you can personalise and enhance them as much as you want to. So that's some districts charge for that, like extra, but we don't.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Or even a tiered system. Um but no, we we don't do that, do we? No.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

So that's really it's the type of ceremony really that yeah differs. Why would they charge more? Because it's more time.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

It just it's different it's different pricing structures for different different local authorities, I think. Whereas we we kind of put our prices like transparently on the website three years in advance, and you know exactly what you're getting. Yeah, but that I think that's so important. Yeah, easier to read, isn't it? Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

You know exactly what and then you can budget in as well as because I think it's a cost that people do actually forget about. You're like, oh, I'm gonna get married, but then you're like, oh, I'll get the registrars on the day, and it's like, well, actually no, you also have to pay the registrars like you have to pay them to be there. Like, yes, they may have be able to conduct weddings there and everything like that, but you actually do have to take that into your budget in consideration.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

I think people as well, like at venues when it says, you know, like ceremony, room hire and things like that, might think that that automatically includes we come with that, yeah. Yeah, but you don't on booking us though, like what our diaries open up three years in advance, we're always so our prices are always there three years in advance. But if you want a specific ceremony time, two o'clock, everyone loves a two o'clock. Everyone loves a two o'clock. So yeah I I got married at 12 o'clock because I was and I've booked. She wanted the whole day. I did. I wanted all the day. I want I was I I paid a lot of money for this dress and being in my dress and wearing it all the time.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

I think it depends on the type of guests that you've got successively for that one. Like, I think if you've got guests that you know that are gonna peek with alcohol in the evening always, nine o'clock, everyone's pooped and going to bed.

SPEAKER_03 26:44

Yeah, how far people are travelling, I guess, as well. Yeah, you know, can have anything.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Guests have got to be there, like 11.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

It's early, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Yeah, and you don't you kind of you don't want them to be absolutely flawed by the time wedding breakfast is coming. I have seen it where they've been absolutely hammered wedding breakfast and they've not been able to eat, and then it's just spoiled again.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Oh, so at a 12 o'clock wedding.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Yeah, it's all that I think it's all factoring in to that decision-making process, isn't it? Like, you know, how big your wedding is, what you want from your day.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

I find if they do what for a 12, it's exactly the same sentence you've just used. I want a longer day. I do want a longer day. Yeah, it is. That's the only reason why.

SPEAKER_03 27:21

It's over so quickly, anyway, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Yeah, I felt like that day you blinked and you missed it. Yeah, yeah. And I'm so glad that I had a videographer and photographer and all that sort of stuff in that. It really was like blink and you miss it.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Although, when a bride says to me, I want a longer day, but I'm not getting up, I'm not getting up at crack of dawn. I'm like, if you want your makeup in your hair, do you want to get that? You're going to do that, honey.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

You've got to say, they forget before that 12 o'clock ceremony, I will say to you, you need to be in your dress for the latest quarter past 11. Yeah. Because you need to also then do your first looks, you then need to do your touch-ups with your your bridesmaids, if not 11 o'clock at last. Yeah, you've got to say bridesmaids or whoever, or groups and whoever it may be that you want to do a reveal. You might even want to do one with your future partner, like with your future husband, wife, whoever. And that always takes a lot longer because you are so nervous in that last hour and you're never gonna be in that moment again, are you?

SPEAKER_03 28:16

So if you didn't do it, you'd be gautted, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_01 28:19

I'd rather have too much time than too little time. Exactly. Yeah, because also as well, at the end of the day, you've got a schedule to keep on, and I think this is where one of the stigmas probably comes from in the sense of like, oh, that registration's gonna leave. Like, yeah, I have seen it before where I have been in a different county, not in Cheshire East, where they have been like, We are going to leave, and it was yeah, they were like, We're going to leave if you don't come out in ten minutes, basically.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

And literally just was how late were were they?

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Five past.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Oh, really? The ceremony was taken goodness, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Yeah, so like but also as well, like I was I was like, they'll be out in five minutes, it's absolutely fine. It wasn't a ceremony that I it wasn't a wedding that I was working at, but I was like, just tell them that they'll be out in five minutes, it's it's okay. Yeah, um and that they they won't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Imagine like the panic and things, don't they? I mean, I think with obviously there are schedules that you have to keep to because that's not just for us, isn't it? No, absolutely not. No, chefs and your lunch and then again, isn't it? Everything's running on that sort of schedule that you it's starting with your ceremony, isn't it? No matter you've got your canopays, and I always think like if the bar staff think the ceremony's starting at two and it starts at half past two, could you imagine if they start pouring champagne? Non-fusion champagne, yeah, but absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

What is the so everybody knows like what is the longest? Because I know from you guys, obviously, you can do things that would be like shorter than the ceremony, you still get yourself married, you can do it. We can do it in different ways. There are things that I've seen from you guys as well, but what is the latest you could probably be like, right, okay? Actually, we do actually really need to kind of like get this along, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

I think we have to just take each each case on its individual merit read.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Have you ever had somebody really, really late? Like to the point that it's like 20 past two. What's the cut off?

SPEAKER_02 30:08

I got told it was 15 minutes. On it, like Bet was saying it, it totally is on individual cases. I think when with us, obviously, we are on the water.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

This isn't what we're saying, by the way, you have to be late for your wedding, but you do not be late for your wedding.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

No matter on the end of the day, I don't know where that fashionably late came on and late for your wedding. Like to know, I am anxiously early. That's my personality trait. And you will be having that conversation with the registrars the second they arrive. I think it it definitely is like a case-by-case sort of basis. We have got at the weekend, we'll have a member of like the management team. Yeah. So it could be Becky, who is on call and Batphone. Yeah. Mission control back at the office, aren't you? Right. Which team's here, which team's there? Can we parachute someone in that sort of team?

SPEAKER_03 30:54

We can have 11, 12 teams out in the summer. That's yeah, completely huge, you know.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

How big is the team?

SPEAKER_03 31:02

Um I think all in all, there's about 50 of us in total. Really good. Yeah. So yeah. You're definitely not just booking that one person, you've got that from the moment you book us, it's that whole team.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

You've got everyone behind you.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

It's a ceremonies team up until your registrar's allocated to you. So any questions, any queries, any problems, any worries, um, they are sort of there on the end of a phone, on the end of an email. Yeah. Um, we do we we hold we hold the couple's hand as much or as little as they want us to.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Um but like if there was someone late, like you'd be on we've had you know, when people have buses, and I remember doing one actually once, and I can't remember what it's at, but the bride's mum had the bride's dress in the car, got stuck on the motorway. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

There are things that are completely beyond. She's not getting married without a dress, is she?

SPEAKER_02 31:48

And she's not getting married without a mum. So yeah, that's no. So you you just call the emergency number, you say, This is what's happening. What can we do? Someone can make an executive decision somewhere, and whether that be changing it to three o'clock or four o'clock or whatever. Or playing another team or parachuting someone in it, might be that we were going off to some another venue, yeah, but actually that team over there were going back to the office so they can parachute in over here. Oh yeah. There's there's flexibility with having a team, and that isn't saying everyone can be late for the Saturday. And especially if you've got me there, you ain't being late for me at all.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

I can tell you that now. How many? Um, how many do you fit in in a day then? The individual registrar.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Oh, the individual registrar? No, anything anything between three and four usually is is is the normal. So when you're on the 4 pm, you're like, well, no. Adrenaline. I've got everyone I'm like. Yeah. And to be honest, that couple, that couple that gets us at 12 o'clock and that couple that gets us at four o'clock, they deserve exactly the same energy.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

I didn't think you'd do four to be fair. Yeah, no, we can.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Yeah, yeah, because you're always kind of like the four ceremony, haven't you? Yeah. It depends also whether you've got ceremonies, the statutory ceremonies in the office.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Yeah, whether we're in the office first and then we go out.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

And you can go out, but so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Do you ever just get home and just sit there and just like not want to talk to me?

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Don't talk to me. Exactly. Like, do not talk to me for the next three hours. I have 30 minutes, and I'm I say like, let me recharge. He tries to talk to me, and I'm like, not there yet. I'm not there yet. No, you still got 25 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

You say this as well. You go to you go to a wedding, don't you? And you're like, absolutely fine, pumping yourself up in the morning, like listening to music. And then you get home, you're driving home, and you're like, quite listen to the music.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

I love the music. I love it when my husband says to me, Where have you been today? And I'm like, absolutely no idea. Give me a minute. I don't know who I'm on my what's my name.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

I I always say, like, if you've it's like you feel hungover post-wedding, but like you've not even got a hangover. And adrenaline is the adrenaline, and it's the come, and nobody actually realizes realises that when you aren't a supplier, like the come down that you have from a wedding, it takes a while.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Because it is genuine, kind of different as well. It is genuine, like I am genuine, yeah. But you've got it. You've been going on.

SPEAKER_03 34:21

That image, you've got that image to uphold, and you've got that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah, like what you have going on, like you could be having contractions at a wedding like me. Oh my days. Wow, that was last year. Yeah, uh 8th of 8th of February.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

You could have shingles like me. Oh gosh!

SPEAKER_01 34:40

You could just literally just be have like you could be having something else going on in your person, but you have to, it's the somebody special day. So much, don't you? It's never about us.

SPEAKER_00 34:51

Yeah, if you're in this wedding industry and you don't love it, you're in the wrong job. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Because you really have to. Yeah, yeah. So, another kind of myth that I know that I want to kind of get out there for everybody is the difference between registrars and celebrants. So, can you talk us through that, what the difference is, and how it obviously works? It's totally a hot topic. Absolutely. Totally a hot topic.

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Um, we can legally marry people, um, and and celebrants can't. So that's fundamentally the difference. In Scotland they can though. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

So in England and Wales, yeah, um, it's a it's a registrar that can legally marry. Legally marry, yeah, yeah. Whereas an independent celebrant can't you can't do that. Yeah. I think it's so hard because like like I couldn't sit here now and talk about weddings in Stockport. No, I couldn't talk about weddings in a church, I couldn't talk about church-led ceremonies. I couldn't I couldn't really give proper informed information about an independent celebrant-led ceremony. That wouldn't be fair to them either. It's absolutely not because you end up making assumptions about people's service. And that's it's not fair on the couple who are totally bamboozled by the time of looking at everything. Yeah. You've got all these things and decisions to be made and stuff like that. And it wouldn't be fair on other people, like other people in the industry, is it, to start talking and making assumptions about what they can do and what they can't do.

SPEAKER_03 36:18

We you know what we do in Cheshire East and what we're doing is different to other places, isn't it? What we do in in our district may differ to to somebody else. And yeah, it's there's there's room for everybody, we always say, isn't it? Yeah, there is no room.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

And I think people forget that that you can actually have both absolutely so you can actually do a legal ceremony with you you guys, you can do it where it's just if you wanted literally two witnesses and them in a in a ceremony room, fine, perfect. We can plan it so that it's you've got all your guests coming afterwards. It is it is your ceremony.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

Like we are your ceremony, and it is your ceremony, it is your choice. You do what you you you do what you want to do that makes you happy. I feel like though I'm not blowing smoke up your bum hair.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

I feel like after meeting you two, you wouldn't need a celebrant. Like you give off a very I know you're very different. Personal vibe. The approach is very well that and that's what we're all about in essence. It's about you, you've still got the legal element, yeah, and you've still got the personalised element. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

I mean, obviously, stripping it all back, there's only a few things that we really can't do. Um, and that's there can't be any religion in any ceremony that we that we do. That's the law.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

It's in the music and the read readings, is that right?

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Music is a little bit sort of it's a it's one of those like sort of sort of grey areas. So the handbook, so that's where we get like all our information our guidance from from the General Register Office that says that if it's not in context, so it's not like religious in context, like a hymn, a hymn, yeah, you know, you can use it in your ceremony.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

So you might have an incidental reference to God, so I think or like Kanye West, where it's God of is the god of clear or whatever. Exactly. Yeah, that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head that like mentions the word God in terms of religion.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

And people do tend to get themselves a bit like, oh, it's they just ask us, they say, can we have this? And it's like, we'll have a look at it, and we're like, Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's not a hymn, you're not. There's no there's no actual physical worship of any any god going on.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Yeah, um, it's it's like Ave Maria, isn't it? You can't have the the words version, but you can have an instrumental version. So there's there's definitely ways around things if you want to to personalize that in as well.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Yeah, it's it's religion, and then and then the the the biggest bigger one is probably seemly and dignified. Um so by that sounds so proper, doesn't it? But to be honest, you'd you'd you don't uh during your ceremony, I mean save it for the speeches, yeah, you know, it's yeah, you're not talking about your Hendu or Stadzu in the middle of your ceremony. It's there's the time for all that to have.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

This is the emotion part of your day, like and this should be about you two and not anybody else in that room, and it should feel like it's just you two, and that yeah, just that's it.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Nobody drop an F-bomb in the middle of the ceremony. That's sort of it, save it for your speeches, save it for the dance floor, you know? Yeah, respect the sort of the significance of the occasion.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

You are I'm a bit funny about speeches though, as well. We spoke about that. I just think why are you talking about that during a speech when somebody's grandparents might be there? And that's that's just my opinion, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

I'm like, it's such a like a significant day in people's lives. We don't need to be talking about that tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Like it's fine, exactly with the girlfriends or with a wine or what else that's like. It doesn't need to be yeah, projected onto somebody filming it as well. To be honest, there's there's really not a lot that we we can't do. Um, but as I say, we can only really wouldn't it wouldn't be fair to any other industry professionals to sort of say yeah what they do and what they don't do. What they do and what they don't do, because we don't we that's not what we do.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

A bit like coming in and saying, like, well, Joella does this, or you know what you can't because like I see you at a wedding and like yeah, like we work together really well, but like it's not I don't know the ins and outs of your exactly so I couldn't start talking and meet and giving advice to pop as well, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

I always say to them though, I am like, like, look, if something does terribly go wrong, like literally, I will get a script off the internet, like that is fine. There's one actually now in my kit bag. I'm like, I will be your celebrant for the day, we can call the registrars and get them back later. It's fine. Like, I'm like, it is you just gotta find that problem solving solution on the day, and it's absolutely fine if nothing does go. But also, I think it's really important for couples to know that you can actually do both on the same day, like you can because no matter what, you legally have to get married to be legally married in the UK, like you you have to sign that paperwork. There's no way you can do it without signing the paperwork.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah, um I think also with that is just like some some little bits is just having an awareness of where where ceremonies are taking place and things like that, isn't there? So for example, if your legal ceremony is coming after a celebration ceremony, so a non-legal ceremony, is just making sure that there is no sort of alcohol, but not that ambiguity about so if so in your non-legal ceremony, if someone said like you are now married, just making sure that those sorts of words and phrases aren't used exactly because they're not, yeah. They're not married at that point, and it's just those sorts of protecting the protectability of it, protecting the venue, yeah, yeah, and the guests there making sure that you're not gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Well, I certainly just didn't think that into it, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

I would always say if you are gonna do both on the same day, always do your legal one first and then have a celebrant afterwards, and you can always do it where you can you can always do it where you can time it perfectly in the senses. Nobody needs to leave that room essentially. If you want everybody in that room, you can work closely with a celebrant from a registrar's point of view, and vice versa, so that you can do your legal ceremony, you guys walk back down the aisle.

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think it would depend. There does say in the handbook that it needs to be a significant like an actual break between the two.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

Yeah, but we'll always work with you know, we'll always work with couples, we'll always work with other ceremonials.

SPEAKER_02 42:26

Well, you guys know that a religious blessing, isn't it? We've had, for example, where the couple have had a our ceremony, the legal ceremony, and then they've tootled over to the chapel and had a blessing on the same day because that's only they've told us that they want to do that.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

We'll do that, and we've we've legally married them and we've done our bit and we've said goodbye, um, and then then all the guests have sort of you know schlepped over to the to the chapel, which is beautiful, isn't it, to incorporate both, yeah, and something that they couldn't do as part of a civil ceremony. So, you know, then they go on.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Communication is key at the end of the day, like what you said before, and I think if you don't communicate with the reg communicate it with your registrars, then you guys aren't gonna know. Let us know. Let us know what's going on. There's nothing more than looking well in the cell. Yeah, so fill your profile in, let us know. That note, then like what advice would you give to couples who want their ceremony to kind of feel unique in a way of doing things like that? Like you just said about obviously, yes, you need to legally take that break and have that significant break in between, but are there any other ways that you to personalise the ceremony?

SPEAKER_03 43:28

I think I think fundamentally at the heart of it, we always try and say, don't we? Don't try and do anything that doesn't feel right or authentic to you. Um, as a couple, and I think kind of touched on it earlier, whatever may be trending, whatever may not be trending, if it feels right to tell your story, if if you think, you know, I'd love to do that, but you know, it's it's really just not us. Like my husband doesn't publicly speak very well, or he'd feel really uncomfortable doing that, then don't do it.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

I love it. I love when couples write their own personal promises. And I think I would I would have included that. I can't get through I couldn't get through my own voice without trying. I'm not being with you on this. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

I love it. I think it's I'm actually mesmerized. Like a lot of my friends have done it. And I'm like, that is so bad. My brain doesn't work that way. But I know. I would love to do it. Instead, I wrote a letter. That's exactly what I did. Yeah. But I know standing there in front of everybody, I'd be like, So why would you why would you put that pressure on yourself exactly?

SPEAKER_02 44:34

It's gorgeous, it's beautiful. You get some lovely photos of you holding your vowel, but for me, I'm not that confident.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Yeah, like in terms of publicly speaking like that and sharing my feelings, I'm not that confident. Like you said, your emotions into it as well. Like if you are gonna start crying and things like that, then it's taking that pressure off you as well.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

And how much you pay your makeup.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yeah, everything. I honestly think that's why women are a little bit more observed on the wedding day. Because the hair are making the light, I'm not crying, not ruining it. Yeah, dab, don't cry, because obviously the the the whoever, like the male or the person who's not wearing anything, they're just like, yeah, I'll let it all out. I've got nothing to kind of lose. No, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

But yeah, it's just be be authentic to yourselves.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Talk to us, yeah. I think the beauty of weddings is that couples are really putting their own stamp on their day, and we love that, don't we? Absolutely. Talk to us and see like we might have some ideas if you're not sure. Would it work? We go to the venues all the time, don't we? So a couple says, right, we want to do it this way at the venue. Do you think this would work? Yeah. Well, I can sit there and say, Well, I had a couple who wanted to face the other way, which is lovely. And I was like, you need to talk to your photographer, make sure that it works for them, make sure they know it's now talk to us. We have that experience to see whether and offer our advice where where we could see it working, which parts of the ceremony it would fit better in, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

So we get a chance then at the beginning to sort of go and speak to the suppliers and go and talk to the photographer, and it's like the last thing that we want to be is in the way. Yeah. So if we if we've like got a handle on what's going on, or as an event planner, coordinator, we know what's going on, we will absolutely be. You always ask the question, you always ask as well.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

You're like you're like I know from being first hand that even like, for example, like I know from again, just thinking of the part, I think it's just because we've got the had a conversation about the part earlier. But like that is such a tight top at the top of there, and if you've got like a moon gate at the top of there or anything else in in terms of takes it down, you could have a whole content team down at the bottom of there, a photographer, a video or a content creator, and you could have five bridesmaids at the top, and then you've got a registrar table at the side as well. There is a not a lot of room in the sense of when you have a whole content plus five bridesmaids plus two registrars, yeah, exactly, and then you two as well.

SPEAKER_03 47:02

Yeah, I mean we will always like we you don't want the back of our heads in all the photos, absolutely not. So we'll always try to be out of the way, won't we? Always we'll even speak to the videographer, like which way?

SPEAKER_00 47:13

Yeah, I'm a best jumping, you know, at the end for the kiss shot, if they want a kiss shot, you know. Like me, you must be in so many photos. No, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 47:21

It's actually really it's hard to find a photo of you actually working.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

It's it's so hard to find a photo of us. I'm in the middle at the moment of redoing our website. Yeah, so I'm going through what something going through all the photos. I'm like, there are no photos of us because we are so like used to like dodging, yeah, skedaddling out of the way. Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

I wish I could be too bad in me. I look forward stretching.

SPEAKER_00 47:47

No, I always say like I get sent, I know it's not about me, but sent like lovely photos, like you could share this on your socials, and I think, oh my god, I could never do that concentration thing.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

I always have to say to you when there's a photographer in this movie smile because I only like yeah, yeah. Um but yeah, I have to do it though if I'm butt buttoning up a dress and putting on a buttonhole, I'm like this.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

And I'm like, You do like your job, like you know, smile on the photo.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Photographers always tend to catch me when I'm literally mid-laugh with like my mouth and fill and all the double chin.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Photographers do better. But no, we we find it really hard, don't we? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

To find photographs of us. So speaking on a whole of like every single kind of like wedding you've done, what is your, as we call it, a bridal spiral? So, what has been something that's been like chaotic? It could be stressful, it could be like a funny memory that you've had. You're laughing already, Becky. Oh yes, give me some.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

You don't get you don't get this far into the job without having a few, do you? I think you know that you know that age-old saying about kids and animals. Yeah, they're always the funniest. We've had some, yeah, we've had some howlers with animals, haven't we? Owls, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:02

I don't owls and rings, owls as ring bearers, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:06

Flying off, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

Absolutely. Yeah, and they're sitting right at the top of the of the room.

SPEAKER_03 49:11

There was one, there was one I remember notorious. Um, and through no fault of his own, I think it was one of the groomsmen or the best man. And as the owl was coming to swoop down, because you've got like a gauntlet on, haven't they? And you with the with the he put his arm up like randomly for something. So this owl was like, There, I'm going there. And off he went, and it was like, oh my god, that's the wrong place. So yeah, and you know, we've had a few way with dogs and yeah, you know, with eating the bouquets and it's nice to have to be able to do it. It's normally quite funny. I think if people are gonna use animals, they kind of not expect it to go wrong, but you've got it. A little bit of an element of surprise.

SPEAKER_01 49:52

Yeah. They're bringing the personalities with it. Unexpected happening, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

But that they're probably that's yeah, owl, owls and dogs and yeah, animals in where kids are.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

Yeah, kids like the they're coming down the aisle and it's like, she gonna go. Is he gonna go? Maybe just stop halfway down. I'm staying right now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Stage fright is massive with kids, it's big, it's huge. Everyone thinks it's a lovely idea, and then and it is, it is, it's fabulous, but they get stage fright. So my advice would just be to have a little practice, walking down the aisle before we go.

SPEAKER_03 50:26

Well, it is overwhelming for a grown-up, never mind her. Although I have to admit, I do then love the little ones who think it's their show.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

And they're like this. Now, this is about me now. That's what I want to move on to. I work with a hairstylist on Saturday at another wedding, and um she was sharing her story of her wedding. She was like, Yeah, my little one just literally slung himself on my dress. So they just had to get married with the little one in the bottom of a dress, and everyone's getting it before.

SPEAKER_02 50:52

I I was just thinking, I was listening to your podcast before of where the bride had picked up the child and the child with the the poo disaster.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

No, yeah, so it was it was a couple of mine, they got married last year, and she picked up um one of the children attending her wedding and six, five, six months old, and got poo on the dress.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

Poo Nami.

SPEAKER_01 51:18

I got every single stain out that you couldn't even tell that it was in my bag. Oh my god, that's amazing. So just stain remover live in your bag. Stain remover lives in my bag. Just basically hire me for the kit bag. Oh yeah. She's like, Yeah, what is in your bag?

SPEAKER_02 51:32

Do you know? There is everything.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

There's yeah, there's actually a spare suit in my car. There's definitely need a review. So to be fair, it can be a bit like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I will actually do that because I I do need to restock it anyway because we didn't season starts next Thursday. So yeah, I will do it.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

Oh yes, you need to do like a pack my bag with pack my bag with me.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

So big question before we um wrap up. So the big question we're trying to ask everybody is just to supply it so that we love it hearing the stories, but also like from your point of view, what is the worst and the best thing about working within the wedding industry?

SPEAKER_02 52:12

Yeah, you can only do one each, it's just entirely up to you. I think the worst, and I think it's we've touched on it periodically, is that and it's really niche to us as registrars and uh registrars and treasuries, yeah, is the just sheer amount of kind of assumptions made about registrar led ceremonies on the internet. It's frustrating, isn't it? It is, it's really frustrating, and I'm gonna art myself here in that I need to if I'm sat with a glass of wine on a Saturday night and you know your algorithm points you to stuff, I have to like go and put my phone in jail and be like, Don't touch the phone, keyboard warrior. Just don't touch the phone. You are professional, but just that it is really frustrating. When you we just want to do a good job, don't you yeah, when you try your hardest to do everything that we do for a couple, and uh it's we are so lucky in Cheshire's, like I say, we are in our lovely little Cheshire's bubble. We have suppliers and venues that champion everything that we do, they see our ceremonies, they see how we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

We've got such a good relationship with them, haven't we? In the main. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

The online world is just totally different, and that is probably the most frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Yeah, like you don't know. The online world, yeah, yeah. You don't know. When we gave you a shout-out, I don't know what it was on TikTok or we were just talking about. I don't know what the comments are. It was, it was on TikTok because you commented, you replied to the comments. We did see, yeah. The comments on there were just like lovely.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Yeah, it just goes to show that you do do your job really, really well. Yeah, that's and that's all we want to see. Would that be like the best thing?

SPEAKER_03 53:47

I think the best is probably that that we never underestimate the privilege of like being part of somebody's big day. It's definitely not just a job to us, it's not no when you're like you've just said earlier, you've got to love it. Yeah, you've got to love it, and we absolutely do, don't we?

SPEAKER_02 54:02

Like you in the morning, like you are getting the bride at her most sort of like.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

Yeah, I am, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:08

You're setting that whole day up, that vibe for the whole day.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

You'd be like who with it. Yeah, you'd be setting it up for a read the room, we might have a qu a quieter bridal party, that's fine. Exactly. You know, it doesn't always have to be like Ray Ray, like it can be as calm as you want, it can be as quiet as you want, it could be just me and you. Yeah, that's fine, but I am starting your day.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

It's a privilege to be that a bit, isn't it? Yeah, and I think for us, like when it's quite intimate when you've got you and the couple in front of you. It's that sort of you see that handhold and that squeeze, you know, when they see each other, you just see that look in their eyes.

SPEAKER_03 54:51

I'm a crying, I'm a crying always.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

It's it's just like we did. That was my show.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

The amount of times that I had to tell people just touch each other at the end of the aisle because like it grounds, yeah. It grounds you completely because some people will just stand there and they're like this, and I'm like, remember where you are, remember who you are.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

Do you look a little bit like one of those balloons as well? Bobbing in the wind. So you kind of leave something, but you do it.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

Just like even I I always just say to them just before she walks down the aisle, and I'll say it to the groom if if it's a groom or whoever it may be, first thing. I'll just say, as long as when you get to the end of the aisle, you grab the other person's hand and just hold their hand because you won't, even if it's just one while you've got your bouquet in your hand before you pass it over, whatever it may be, just make sure you're touching that squeeze each other. So that's a good tip as well.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

You can literally see like and just to then guide them through the rest of the ceremony and for them to be there, and to to be able to legally marry someone is is absolutely. Yeah, we never we never take that lightly. And to see and to see them say their vows and to because I think that's what some people underestimate, really, is how much those vows really do mean. Yeah, you might say, Oh, it's just a legal contract said out loud.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

People think, oh, the legal bit, but actually, like when they leave the sunglasses on the whole side, like that's another story.

SPEAKER_02 56:15

But but when you see them and when they've attached that meaning that they know that these are the words that do marry you, and you can see them be like, oh my gosh, I'm sick. That's the legal bit.

SPEAKER_03 56:26

That was like just like takes them over that. That's your next chapter, isn't it? That's your next bit. Yeah, that's me and you starting that life together.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

It's part of who you are, and it's part of your story as well.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

Absolutely. I always think as well, like something that just constantly pops into my mind is that the vows, yeah, they are standardised, but isn't it just an honour to be able to say them uh as well as so ever many other couples in front of like before you they all have their own love stories, but no history in history and generation and tradition and all that sort of stuff, and now it's your turn, you get to do that, and you're going into the next chapter with your the love of your life, and it's just it's just beautiful, it's the best job in the world, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 57:15

Yeah, it really is, absolutely, yeah. And that is the bit that chokes everybody up, isn't it? Totally.

SPEAKER_01 57:20

Yeah, oh my god, we did it.

SPEAKER_03 57:21

Yeah, it's just lovely.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

I'm really sorry, guys. We're gonna have to wrap this up. We could talk and talk and talk about everyone. We could yep about when you are. I'd just say we could as well. Like we could literally sit here for like I could sit here for two hours and just listen to all your stories, like even hours and hours and hours. We could yours. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much for coming on as well. So, for everybody that is listening and watching, where can everybody find you guys?

SPEAKER_02 57:44

So we are yourceremony.org.uk, we are on Facebook as your ceremony, we are on Instagram as your ceremony001 because your ceremony was taken. And we are on TikTok as your ceremony as well.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

Amazing, and where can everyone find us though?

SPEAKER_00 58:00

At the Iour Diaries Podcast on TikTok, Instagram, uh, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the email addresses.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

Um, at the aurdiaries podcast at gmail.com. Brilliant. Thank you.