V14 To be or not to be a celebrant at your adult child's wedding?

Often celebrants wonder about the wisdom of being a celebrant for their son or daughter's wedding.

Just another perspective... I was really looking forward to marrying my daughter however she and her husband wanted me to be the Mother-Of-the-Bride, not the celebrant. From their perspective, being the MOB is a stand-alone, once-in-their-lifetimes role whereas I conduct hundreds of weddings. I did however, do a reading.

Whilst trying to set my mind aside from how I might have done things had I been the celebrant, I did enjoy being MOB in the front row.

Interestingly I also learned a mother's perspective (which the celebrant pointed out) - if you sit on the same side as your child as per the traditional seating, you get to see the back of her head when she turns to her husband for the vows!

I now offer the alternative to all my couples and their parents and it works!

And rather uniquely perhaps, as her father's a lawyer, my daughter used to joke "I don't want to have a mother who married me and a father who could divorce me!”

Jennifer Floyd

Civil Marriage Celebrant

Ashburton, Victoria.