Testimonials

From the happy couples

 

Dear James,

We wanted to send you a huge thank you for being our celebrant and for marrying us this weekend.

The ceremony was exactly what we wanted - relaxed, intimate, it shared our story with a bit of humour. Nothing wishy washy, no bull shit. James, it was perfect
and our guests absolutely loved it as well. Comments our guests made included:
“Best ceremony I’ve ever witnessed” (multiple guests expressed this)
“It was a good change, a ceremony actually about the couple”
“Beautiful love story, you could have written a novel”

We are incredibly grateful for the time you took to get to know us and your efforts to deliver a prefect ceremony for us. We enjoyed spending time with you in the months leading up to the wedding. Your personality and humour matched ours.

We don’t think anyone could have done a better job than you did. Forgive me, I didn’t give you much of a chance to catch your breath before getting started. I was just so excited to marry Sam.

Thanks for everything mate. We look forward to recommending you to our friends and colleagues.

Take care. All the best. Look forward to seeing you again soon.

Xo Sam and Liz
— Sam & Elisabeth Streeter
Shane and Samantha Martin
We enjoyed every minute we spent with James in the lead up to our wedding. James is down to earth, relaxed, professional, reliable, well presented, accommodating and simply a good guy to marry you. We felt thoroughly comfortable during the ceremony with James at the helm; so much so that some of our guests asked us how long we had been friends. We recommend James to couples who want a genuine and personalised ceremony with someone who cares and just wants you to relax and have a good time. Wouldn’t have had it any other way. Thank you James!
— Shane and Samantha Martin

James !!! Where to start .. I could not recommend you more highly , and have done since our wedding. From the first time we met with you we knew that you were the one to marry us. You made it so easy and fun and that is exactly what we wanted from a celebrant. You understood exactly what we wanted . By the time you did marry us it was like we had known you all our lives and it was an absolute pleasure. We were referred to you by friends and we have referred you to anyone we know. Thankyou once again for being part of our day we would not have had it with out you . Thanks again
— Vanessa and Dane Schuurman
James, You have no idea the sigh of relief I had after speaking with you for the first time. I had been looking online for celebrants, and in all honesty not a single person really felt right to officiate such a hugely significant moment in our lives (yay for getting your site up and running!! Now people can find you!!). I emailed Miriam for some advice, as I figured she could hopefully make a recommendation for someone who wasn’t completely cheesy or cliché. From the beginning, you were great to communicate with and made everything easy, authentic and fun - which was pretty much our entire approach to the wedding summed up in three words. Both times we caught up prior, you were totally professional and approachable without any of the pretentiousness that can come with the wedding industry. You spoke our language, were open to our ideas and provided the perfect advice so that everything truly ran seamlessly.

On the day you were fantastic. Your demeanor is warm, confident and assuring. The ceremony was such a beautiful moment in our lives and we are so grateful for how you pulled it all together and presented it so perfectly. We honestly could not recommend you highly enough, or thank you enough for being our celebrant! We wouldn’t change a thing :)
— Gabrielle O'Halloran
James was recommended to us from our Photographer. Our wedding style was quite relaxed and every celebrant I was looking at wasn’t fitting the vision I had for the day. Either too formal, or making the day about them or just in general over the top.

We met with James for a coffee and he was so pleasant. Hes a really relaxed charismatic guy with a no BS approach about what we needed to do when :) The service we got from James was awesome and everything was so easy (phew one less thing a stressed bride has to worry about!)

We planned the ceremony with James and he gave us a helpful template with traditional and non- traditional parts or we could design our own (for the non legal parts of course). We met with James a week before and we went over the final run sheet and practiced our vows. He was always available for a phone call and very responsive via text and email. I would always have an answer within a few hours.

On the day he was there to help with set up of music and ease our nerves. James came into me before the ceremony to check everything was good to go to let us know guests were ready whenever I was.

The plan was to remember our vows but when I walked down the aisle I knew they had gone out the window. James could feel this and we ended up repeating after him. another Phew!

Post ceremony Luke and I had a quick speech thanking everyone and James was a big part of that. Our day was with close family and friends and James had such a big contribution to this we couldn’t thank him enough.

Everyone commented on how great of a celebrant he was and they only saw half an hour of him! All the work behind the scenes was high quality and no mucking around or inadequate information was ever the case. Once we were married on the day our certificate arrived 3 weeks later :)

I would recommend James to be their celebrant as he is accommodating to tailor the day around your requirements and overall great guy - can he marry us again ;)
— Hollie and Luke Roberts

“Jon and I loved working with James. It was such a personalised service at every step of the way which made for the most beautiful ceremony. On the day, James was calm and really guided Jon and I through. What people say is completely true. It really is the best day of your life and working with people like James, make that possible.”
— Jon and Daniela Hicks
James was our civil celebrant for our wedding in early April this year.
James was incredibly accommodating during the entire process, which for the bride and groom can be a very stressful one.
It was very difficult to decide on who we wanted to invite into our lives to share such a monumental event, and once we found James we realised that we had made the right choice.

James was incredibly flexible when it came to our personal choices for our vows. He was not only flexible but amazingly supportive in terms of providing advice and recommendations based on his previous experience as a celebrant at other weddings. For me this was incredibly comforting, as I’m sure for a lot of other brides you are anxious and tentative around this particular event and you can really second guess your own decisions.
Knowing that you have all of your family and loved ones present, and that you will be saying these words out loud to each other in front of them can bring out performance anxiety in the most confident of public speakers. However, even when I fumbled and my husband fumbled during our vows, James was there to pick up the slack and move things along in the smoothest of fashions creating a calm relaxed and loving environment for not just ourselves but for our guests as well.

James was efficient when it came to organising the paperwork and also willing to work collaboratively with myself to organise timing, music, paperwork signing on the day and all the other bits and pieces that go towards making the day as stress free as possible. James showed initiative when it came to slight hitches during the set up of our wedding, and even offered extra help when it came to moving our ceremony venue.
I found James to be confident and more than capable when it came to taking care of my future husband during the build up to the big event, and I could not be happier with how everything went on our rainy wedding day.

James was one of the most reliable people I could have hoped to have dealt with prior, during and after our wedding.

I would strongly recommend James and his service to any couple looking for an easy going, approachable yet incredibly confident and professional civil celebrant
— Chris and Erin Pender

It is a tribute to James’ professionalism and personality that by the time our wedding day arrived, he felt like an old friend. He made us feel that he really understood us as a couple, and proved it on the wedding day with an amazing ceremony that represented who we were perfectly. He catered exactly to our needs every single step of the way, from a late booking, to Skype calls in different timezones, last minute meetings, and changes to the ceremony text with calmness, approachability, and warmth. Our families and guests raved about his performance, and I would not hesitate to recommend him to every single engaged couple I know.
— Cam and Nina Smith

James, we absolutely loved the work u did and everyone said you were brilliant! We cannot thank you enough for making us feel so relaxed on the day!!
— John & Sarah Levitt
 
We had James as our Celebrant and couldn’t be happier. James is very professional, he has a calming nature about him. We wanted our wedding to be very unique & James rose to the challenge. We would recommend James to anyone wanting a great celebrant for their special day.
— Marc & Mandy Sorrentino

Thank you James for performing a lovely ceremony. It was such a beautiful day and your professionalism while maintaining a relaxed atmosphere with our guests amazed us. Thank you for giving us the exact ceremony we were after. You put us at ease from our first meeting and your support leading up to the day was great. We would highly recommend you to any future couples looking for a celebrant
— Roy and Val Graham

James is a great Celebrant and we would strongly recommend him to anyone looking to make their day complete. He is very professional yet has a relaxed nature which made us both instantly at ease, especially on the day. James wrote a personalised script detailing our story and really took the time to get to know us and give us exactly what we wanted!
— Nathan & Aimee Reid

From the moment Nathalie and I met James we felt at ease. He took the time to go through everything to make sure we understood exactly what was needed and made himself available for any questions whilst we made decisions on what we wanted as part of the vows etc.

For such an important day you need to have someone who you can trust and who is a great at what they do. Nathalie and I have no hesitation to recommend James to anyone. Thank you James for making the day extra special.
— Steve & Nathalie Gow

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Finding a celebrant who is kind, genuine, relaxed yet professional can be no easy feat. James has found an effortless balance of these traits and was incredibly patient, respectful and supportive of me on my big day. I have no hesitation in recommending his enthusiastic self to any bride & groom. I wish you all the best James, and am so grateful you were up there in the spotlight with us!
— Tim & Lauren Sayce


PH: 0418 763 117

Email: james_civilcelebrant@outlook.com