Laugh LAUGH laugh

December 18, 2015December 18, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

laugh

Just look at at the word ‘laugh’ long enough you see it’s a really weird word … think about that! … are you smiling? (What has that to do with marriage and weddings, and me, who wants to be your celebrant? hmmmm…?)

L is for love, and like; both essential ingredients in the healthy relationship recipe.

But in my book laughter is the magic L word.

laugh smile joke

When I met my now husband Fred it was NOT his fashion sense that attracted me (though the total surprises this brings have many many a time made me laugh).

He made me laugh. He made others laugh. Still does.

Lucky woman I am.

the BGs, Fred and Casey … how much they’ve grown!

talking about quality, animals, celebrants and diamonds

November 13, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

Lately I’ve been reading in wedding forums about celebrants’ fees, in particular that some celebrants are blatantly undercutting others in order to get the business.

It seems all very dog-eat-dog… And considering how much is spent on some weddings, and the amount of work a professional celebrant does in creating a high quality ceremony, even the most expensive is very good value!

I’ve just been doing some research and I came across celebrant guru Dally Messenger’s

“What is a fair fee? Do you want a 1 or a 5 Diamond Celebrant?”

It makes a lot of sense – worth a look:

http://www.collegeofcelebrancy.com.au/Pages/5Diamond.html

As a bride said to me recently:

“you pay peanuts, you get …….”

Well, you know the rest!

significant others

October 26, 2015April 3, 2016 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

Focusing on what is important to each of you and both of you, will help you decide the promises you want to make each other, and what and who to incorporate in your ceremony.

I ask couples to reflect on why they’ve chosen to commit to each other, and I suggest making and taking some well-spent time out both together and independently to think about this. I provide a long list of questions to act as prompts.

Here’s one..two…three for today:

Who are the significant others in your relationship?

This is a very important question:

those who matter to each of you will somehow become part of, influence, affect, enhance your marriage
recognising this early can assist you in embracing and nurturing these relationships
they won’t always be your favourites – acknowledging this now will help you to develop strategies for these relationships in your future, and
think about who of these people you want to include, acknowledge, thank in your wedding ceremony, and how you might do that… (ideas about this is where I come in…..)

don’t ever stop dreaming your dreams

October 17, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

Don’t ever stop loving,

don’t ever stop believing,

don’t ever stop dreaming your dreams.

Laine Parsons

(from) a gift from the sea…

October 12, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

a really happy marriage of love and judgement is one of the things so very handsome that if the sun were, as the Greek poets fabled, a god

he might stop the world and hold it still now and then

in order to look all day long on some example thereof,

and feast his eyes on such a spectacle

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

where do you see yourselves in five years? ten? twenty?

October 6, 2015April 3, 2016 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

Focusing on what is important – to each of you and both of you – will help you decide the promises you want to make each other.

I ask couples to reflect on their relationship, on why they’ve chosen to commit to each other, and I suggest time out both together and independently to think about this.

I provide a long list of questions to act as prompts.

Here’s a big one:

Where do you see yourselves in five years?

Another: Where do you see yourselves in ten years?

And another: Where do you see yourselves in twenty years?

US? One thing we did was we made a rule ‘there are no rules’. (Didn’t see this one coming!)

what have you shared?

September 23, 2015September 30, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

As part of the process of preparing for their wedding ceremony, I ask couples to reflect why they’ve decided to formally commit to each other, and I suggest they take some time out to really focus on this. I provide them a long list of questions.

Here’s one for today:

Most memorable shared experience?

Ours? ...the most wonderful time at the end of a 6 month adventure…we celebrated 2 years married in a hut on the beach in true paradise El Nido. Fred bought the only bubbles in the village, it was corked, looked like beer, tasted just as it looks…and is one of our most precious memories.

Laughing with your other…

September 17, 2015September 30, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

Here’s one to think about today:

What’s your funniest experience together?

My answer is….

wow,…where do I begin?

I SUPPORT MARRIAGE EQUALITY

September 16, 2015September 26, 2015 / Lib Jones Celebrant: celebrating your story / Leave a comment

Equality in the right to marry is the only way.

Aside from giving me life-long friendships with some incredible women, the best thing about my education was that it instilled in me a strong belief in, and desire to work to achieve social justice. I’m proud that I’ve pursued this all my life, even if on a pretty small scale.

One of the reasons I became a celebrant is that it’s a role where I can continue to help others, and in regard to marriage ceremonies, I work with them and am privileged to share in and help at a happy time. As a celebrant I’m privileged to share in couples’ celebrations of love when they formally, legally commit to each other in marriage: as they share their love, and joy with their families, friends and communities.

However, so many couples in Australia are denied this opportunity; they do not have this right, as marriage equality doesn’t exist here. The reality is that couples in same-sex relationships are not treated with the same dignity as other Australians.

I believe that equal rights and liberties are essential for a healthy, fair society.

I believe that everybody must be given what should be the basic right to choose to marry – or not.