Thank you for visiting this page about my fee and what it covers. If you'd like to book me as your celebrant, please visit my contact page.
My fee in November 2023 is $700 (first increase since April 2020)
This fee is all inclusive (unless I need to travel beyond the
Canberra/Queanbeyan region. See info below.)
If you'd like to marry in my beautiful romantic Heart Garden, you'll be very welcome. There's no extra fee for this. Adult guests: up to 12. All children welcome.
I've been a registered civil marriage celebrant for more than 20 years. I've never missed or changed a wedding plan through illness, or for any other reason. Sometimes I say that I'm 'the celebrants' celebrant' because six civil celebrants have chosen me as their celebrant for their own weddings.(How good is that?!) I have been celebrant at over1400 weddings.
Experienced...efficient...flexible...friendly. That's me!
I'd like to give you all the help you need in making your celebrant choice. I invite you to phone or text me on 0406 376 375 any day from 9am to 9pm with any questions you may have. Or use this Contact Form. Or would you prefer a video chat on Zoom? Or FaceTime?
I'm available day and night to answer your calls, texts and emails. (9am to 9pm any day)
If you'd like to see how I look and hear how I sound, please visit my new YouTube channel for my marriage celebrant service. There's also a sound file in the My Profile part of this blog.
Please note that I hold meetings only with couples who have booked my service as their celebrant.
Fee: $700 payable at our one-hour meeting, in Weston. (Or before)
When Registry Office weddings ended in the ACT in the mid-1990s, I set up this
service to give couples the opportunity to have a very simple, registry-style wedding. Since then, many hundreds of couples have chosen this option of a wedding, large or small, that's beautifully simple and simply beautiful.
There's detailed information about my Simple Service here.
I offer you two options:
If your wedding plan changes, a refund of $350 may apply.
Please note that after many years of helping couples with their Visa applications, while one of them is living overseas, I no longer provide this service. However, if you're both in Australia at the time of your wedding I'd be very happy to be your celebrant and help you with your Visa application.
Small private wedding in my Heart Garden in Weston,
My beautiful peaceful romantic garden has been part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme. It's a generous private garden, with a large garden bed in the shape of a heart. I love to share the peace and beauty of my garden for small intimate weddings (with a max of 12 adult guests). Children are always welcome.
I am also the Heart Gardener. I will work for many hours in the garden to make sure it looks its best on your wedding day.
On my Pinterest page, I've put a board of month-by-month photos, so you can see how the garden looks in the month you plan to marry. There's also a board of recent Heart Garden weddings. Please feel free to share any images you like.
I also post on Instagram, especially 'Just Married' photos, straight after the wedding ceremony (always with permission). As I wander around the garden with my morning coffee, I sometimes like to share, via Instagram, beautiful pictures that catch my eye. You may also like to visit my blog Come to my Heart Garden.
(By the way, you may notice that in any photos of wedding ceremonies that I put online, like this one of Mino and Belle, there's no celebrant standing right in the middle, between the bride and the groom. To my way of thinking, this is your special space, even your sacred space. I stand to the side. This also means that when your photographer and guests take photos of your wedding for you, you two will be centre stage - just the two of you, making your vows, exchanging rings and sharing your first kiss as husband and wife. I think you'll love that.)
In the summer, the garden has lots of colourful flowers. There are several large shady areas. In autumn, the garden is ablaze with glorious coloured leaves. In winter, the garden is open and sunny, with pots of colour dotted around. In spring, the garden fills with bulbs and blossoms, birds, butterflies and lovely spring perfumes. (Sadly, our large, magnificent winter-flowering blossom tree fell down in a storm in December 2016 and our biggest summer shade tree died in summer 2018.)
In cold or rainy weather, we'll have the wedding inside in my centrally-heated Green Room. It has windows in three walls, all overlooking garden. The bride and groom stand in the full-length bay window. Or on a really hot summer's day, we can hold the ceremony inside with evaporative cooling going, creating a much more pleasant setting for you and your guests.
Allow what I call 'a good hour' for your visit, and more time if you'd like to linger for photos and a celebratory drink. (Two hours is fine with me.)
The fee of $700 covers:
- The lodgement of your Notice of Intended Marriage and everything else required by law, including sighting and preparation of documents, and sending your papers to the Registrar after your wedding. I'll give you other information, such as notes about your three marriage certificates. You'll choose the wording for your ceremony at our meeting. There are several wording options allowed in law to personalise the legal ceremony set by the Marriage Act of 1961 and make it more your own. (Rather than using the standard wording you probably hear at most weddings, I'll give you every option the Attorney-General allows.)
- My presentation of your ceremony at your wedding. I'll print your wording on elegant parchment paper, with your choice of font. After your wedding, I'll put your personal Certificate of Marriage and your wording into a clear plastic protective wallet for you to take with you. You may like to bring personal vows to your wedding to read to each other during your ceremony.
- A beautiful private setting. I'll provide, free of charge, a lovely, quiet, private setting for your ceremony in a peaceful, spacious garden, specially prepared for your wedding.
BYO bubbly if you wish. I'll set out crystal champagne flutes for you and all your guests, if you choose to bring a sparkling drink to toast the newlyweds. (Need not be alcoholic). You may like to bring a favourite music track to play through my amplifier as the bride walks in.
- One hour meeting (in Weston) at least one month before the wedding is included in my fee. And of course, day and night access by phone, text and email with any questions you may have.
The fee of $700 covers:
- All of the services listed above, except for the crystal glasses and garden prep.
- At your wedding, if you have around 30 or more guests, I'll use my top quality, small yet powerful, portable PA system, with battery-powered cordless microphone and amplifier. I'm happy to use my PA at smaller weddings on request. You may like to attach your phone/mp3 player to the amplifier for music as the bride arrives. If we need to work with an interpreter, we can use my extra microphone.
- With any more than, say, a dozen guests, we'll do the signing as part of the ceremony. A presentation of the newlyweds can end your ceremony, after the signing. Because the signing's been attended to, you're then free to mingle with your guests. (I'll bring the paperwork and sound equipment. I'll ask you to provide a small table and one chair.)
 |
| Taisa and Ernesto married in my Heart Garden 7 September 2019 |
If you'd like to marry in my beautiful romantic Heart Garden, you'll be very welcome. There's no extra fee for this. Adult guests: up to 12. All children welcome.
I've been a registered civil marriage celebrant for more than 20 years. I've never missed or changed a wedding plan through illness, or for any other reason. Sometimes I say that I'm 'the celebrants' celebrant' because six civil celebrants have chosen me as their celebrant for their own weddings.(How good is that?!) I have been celebrant at over1400 weddings.
Experienced...efficient...flexible...friendly. That's me!
I'd like to give you all the help you need in making your celebrant choice. I invite you to phone or text me on 0406 376 375 any day from 9am to 9pm with any questions you may have. Or use this Contact Form. Or would you prefer a video chat on Zoom? Or FaceTime?
 |
| Beautiful Spring Bride Taisa |
If you'd like to see how I look and hear how I sound, please visit my new YouTube channel for my marriage celebrant service. There's also a sound file in the My Profile part of this blog.
Please note that I hold meetings only with couples who have booked my service as their celebrant.
'Simply beautiful and beautifully simple'
Service
When Registry Office weddings ended in the ACT in the mid-1990s, I set up this
 |
| 2020 - Beautiful June Bride Jasmine |
There's detailed information about my Simple Service here.
I offer you two options:
- Small simple wedding, any day, in my Heart Garden in Weston, beginning any time from 10.30am to 4.30pm. Up to 12 adult guests. All children welcome.
- Simple wedding at any other venue, with any number of guests, at any time, on any day or night.
If your wedding plan changes, a refund of $350 may apply.
Please note that after many years of helping couples with their Visa applications, while one of them is living overseas, I no longer provide this service. However, if you're both in Australia at the time of your wedding I'd be very happy to be your celebrant and help you with your Visa application.
Small private wedding in my Heart Garden in Weston,
beginning 11am to 4.30pm (up to two hours in the garden)
My beautiful peaceful romantic garden has been part of the Australian Open Garden Scheme. It's a generous private garden, with a large garden bed in the shape of a heart. I love to share the peace and beauty of my garden for small intimate weddings (with a max of 12 adult guests). Children are always welcome.
I am also the Heart Gardener. I will work for many hours in the garden to make sure it looks its best on your wedding day.
On my Pinterest page, I've put a board of month-by-month photos, so you can see how the garden looks in the month you plan to marry. There's also a board of recent Heart Garden weddings. Please feel free to share any images you like.
 |
| Belle makes her vow to Mino The Heart Garden Late Spring 2016 |
(By the way, you may notice that in any photos of wedding ceremonies that I put online, like this one of Mino and Belle, there's no celebrant standing right in the middle, between the bride and the groom. To my way of thinking, this is your special space, even your sacred space. I stand to the side. This also means that when your photographer and guests take photos of your wedding for you, you two will be centre stage - just the two of you, making your vows, exchanging rings and sharing your first kiss as husband and wife. I think you'll love that.)
In the summer, the garden has lots of colourful flowers. There are several large shady areas. In autumn, the garden is ablaze with glorious coloured leaves. In winter, the garden is open and sunny, with pots of colour dotted around. In spring, the garden fills with bulbs and blossoms, birds, butterflies and lovely spring perfumes. (Sadly, our large, magnificent winter-flowering blossom tree fell down in a storm in December 2016 and our biggest summer shade tree died in summer 2018.)
In cold or rainy weather, we'll have the wedding inside in my centrally-heated Green Room. It has windows in three walls, all overlooking garden. The bride and groom stand in the full-length bay window. Or on a really hot summer's day, we can hold the ceremony inside with evaporative cooling going, creating a much more pleasant setting for you and your guests.
Allow what I call 'a good hour' for your visit, and more time if you'd like to linger for photos and a celebratory drink. (Two hours is fine with me.)
The fee of $700 covers:
 |
| Qian and Min married in the green room 8-08-18 |
- My presentation of your ceremony at your wedding. I'll print your wording on elegant parchment paper, with your choice of font. After your wedding, I'll put your personal Certificate of Marriage and your wording into a clear plastic protective wallet for you to take with you. You may like to bring personal vows to your wedding to read to each other during your ceremony.
- A beautiful private setting. I'll provide, free of charge, a lovely, quiet, private setting for your ceremony in a peaceful, spacious garden, specially prepared for your wedding.
BYO bubbly if you wish. I'll set out crystal champagne flutes for you and all your guests, if you choose to bring a sparkling drink to toast the newlyweds. (Need not be alcoholic). You may like to bring a favourite music track to play through my amplifier as the bride walks in.
- One hour meeting (in Weston) at least one month before the wedding is included in my fee. And of course, day and night access by phone, text and email with any questions you may have.
Simple wedding at any location, large or small,
any day or night, at any time.
The fee of $700 covers:
- All of the services listed above, except for the crystal glasses and garden prep.
- At your wedding, if you have around 30 or more guests, I'll use my top quality, small yet powerful, portable PA system, with battery-powered cordless microphone and amplifier. I'm happy to use my PA at smaller weddings on request. You may like to attach your phone/mp3 player to the amplifier for music as the bride arrives. If we need to work with an interpreter, we can use my extra microphone.
- With any more than, say, a dozen guests, we'll do the signing as part of the ceremony. A presentation of the newlyweds can end your ceremony, after the signing. Because the signing's been attended to, you're then free to mingle with your guests. (I'll bring the paperwork and sound equipment. I'll ask you to provide a small table and one chair.)
 |
| Nicole arrives with her father for her marriage to Luke Lanyon Homestead 6 April 2019 |
My fee of $700 fee covers everything except travel beyond Queanbeyan, and Canberra extremities of Hall, Watson and Lanyon.
(Extra travel is $1 per km, for my return journey from the edges of Canberra/Queanbeyan, up to $300 max e.g. for a trip to the south coast or southern tablelands. For Murrumbateman for example, add about $25)
When you contact me -
I'll email you a Notice of Intended Marriage and three files of simple, comprehensive information, before we have our first meeting.
 |
| I was celebrant for Kellie and Manuel on 7 November 1992. They renewed their vows, after ten years in 2002, then again in 2012 at their home in Burra, twenty years after their wedding. And then ten years later in 2022!  |
If you pay before our meeting, please send me an email or show me the transaction on your phone screen. If you prefer, you can make the transfer during our meeting, or pay in cash. I'll give you a receipt.
If you have any questions about my fee, or getting married in general, please feel free to phone or text me on 0406 376 375, fill in this contact form.
If you contact me, there's no obligation implied for you to book my simple service for your wedding. I have an extraordinary amount of experience as a civil marriage celebrant and I'm very happy to share this with anyone who has questions.
If I am your choice of celebrant, thank you. I'll be delighted to be part of your special day. Let's make you a wonderful wedding, just the way you both want it!
- Michele the Celebrant
13 November 2023
Your day is my focus
That's my promise
It's my pleasure
 Zenaida walks along the garden path to her groom Peter The Heart Garden 26 October 2023  A very private elopement The Heart Garden November 2022 |
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