Married in Australia

“This time next year you will live in Australia, blog professionally and be known as Mrs. Smith.”  If a fortune-teller had told me those words last year at this time, I would have laughed and demanded my money back.

I wasn’t opposed to any of those situations, they just didn’t seem plausible.  But here we are, going on our 7th month of married life and all of the above have turned out not only to be plausible, but working better than I ever imagined.

In Australia, the official that performs marriages is called a celebrant, and that title seems so fitting to me.  The celebrant that officiated our wedding was such a friendly and happy individual, we liked him immediately.  We wanted a very simple ceremony, and he really focussed on tailoring everything to reflect our personalities and wishes.

Sitting down to discuss the ceremony details with Christopher Steele seemed much like having a chat to a family friend, but a friend that could take care of all the snarly details that comes along with big occasions like this.  He made the whole thing run smoothly, and all we had to was focus on starting our lives together.

I like the idea of starting a marriage with someone called a celebrant rather than a justice of the peace as we do in America.  I’d like to think of marriage as a celebration, like a birth.  Two separate individuals are being born as one new entity.  Having a justice of the peace seems more like a sheriff from the old west to me now.

As we move across the threshold towards the latter half of our first year I have a lot to be grateful for.  Things that I wouldn’t have even dreamed possible are everyday life. Whenever I look at our marriage certificate, the term “celebrant” makes me smile and remember not to let the newness fade into unappreciation, and to celebrate every minute.