Jeremy Hodson
CIVIL CELEBRANT. 📍NSW
“At the end of the day, it is a real honour to assist in creating a story that hasn’t been told. “ – Jeremy Hodson
Whilst the weather app promised a day of looming overcast weather, it began as a stunning autumn morning. The air provided a crisp harshness that sent whatever nervousness I had, away, for my first interview. The wind was blowing just slightly enough to assist pushing my momentum across the road while the traffic light beeped in time to the rhythm of a mantra I had stuck in my head. You see, when I get nervous or scared, I have always hummed the melody of the way Dory from Finding Nemo nervously sings to herself the phrase, ‘Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming.’ I find that it provides clarity and calms me down, to keep striding forward towards my intent.
Once I met Jeremy and shook his hand, I automatically felt that I was in safe hands for my first interview. He was patient with me while I fumbled my way through setting up the interview once I sat down.
I noticed that Jeremy has an incredibly calming nature to him whilst remaining very charismatic. We chatted small talk while I got out my notebook and got my questions together. There was no awkwardness, no silent moments to fill with meaningless words.
As we dived into the interview, I noticed more and more that Jeremy had a huge amount of information to give. That is when I also noticed his love for what he was talking about. The professionalism he exuded while remaining intensely passionate about what he was talking about was incredibly noticeable and once I found out that he provides courses for people wanting to become a celebrant, it all made so much sense.
Jeremy Hodson allowed me to understand the type of celebrant he is. Ethical, caring and professional. It was a privilege to meet him and interview him about something that he works so hard at, so much so that he feels like he just wants to pay it forward by teaching the next generation of celebrants.
A class act.
The Interview
How long have you been a celebrant for?
‘29 years. My first wedding was in March in 1995.’
So you’ve probably seen a lot of changes in the industry?
‘Yeah, absolutely. Same gender marriage is probably the biggest in my time, easily.’
When COVID hit, did a lot of your business go online? Were you conducting work over Zoom?
‘Yeah, so the Attorney-General’s department allowed us to sight evidences and sight documents, on whatever platform, like Office or Zoom. They’ve gone back now, so we are no longer allowed to do that. That was a significant sort of temporary measure to help celebrants and couples connect. The biggest change for me was when couples realised they can have a smaller setting but it still can be beautiful and can be memorable. Rather than the thought of, We have got to have 500 people there! It’s got to be big, it’s got to be lavish, it’s got to be loud, we’ve got to have everything.
I think that was the biggest realisation everyone had when coming out of COVID.
Also, there was so much of a demand building for people who were wanting their weddings on a weekday rather than the weekend. It came down to being more affordable. People don’t really remember what day of the week you get married, whether it was a Saturday or a Tuesday. They don’t ask that question, they don’t remember that specific day of the week, they just remember the day.’
How do you go about creating a personalised ceremony for each couple?
‘So using a civil celebrant, it allows for the couple to craft their own script. So if that bride wants to come in on a horse, she can. So the civil celebrant offers any time, any day, anywhere. As a civil celebrant, I’m passing on my experience and professional advice with what works best and what flows best for the ceremony.
When a couple contact me, they pay a deposit and I give them six ceremony scripts and they can look over those and they can choose. Then at some point, you meet up with them and you say, “What do you like? What do you think? What do you want? I’m here to facilitate what you want, from start to finish. Sure, there are four legal components, they’re non-negotiable but everything else is negotiable. It all depends on what you dream of. What you envisage.”
What made you want to start in this industry?
Yeah so, may dad was a celebrant. A religious celebrant. I used to watch him. So I started in that space and I thought, that could be me.’
You said earlier when we were crossing the road, before the interview, that you educate people to become celebrants. Is that correct?
‘If you want to be a celebrant in Australia, there is a course you have to do. A Certificate IV and I contract to an RTO and I teach that course. So I really do feel blessed, Caitlin, that I’m either marrying people or teaching people how to marry people. It doesn’t mean I’m brilliant, it just means I’ve got two loves, two passions that are complimentary and I feel very fortunate, to be honest, to be able to do that.’
What do you think sets one celebrant apart from another?
‘Personality, 100 percent! People choose their celebrant based on three things. Number one is personality. Number two is professionalism. Number three is price.
The statistics actually showed that last year, 57% of couples chose their celebrant based on personality.
“Is the celebrant a good fit for us?” And I ask myself, “Is the couple a good fit for me?” So it’s a two-way street, it’s reciprocal.
I often find that if you don’t make that connection initially, it’s not going to be there on the day. It doesn’t happen magically.
The best celebrants operate out of who they are, not what they do. So what matters is who you are.’
What is the most mind-blowing or stand-out venue you have worked at?
‘I guess the best thing about Sydney is that it’s full of them, isn’t it. I married a couple in a hair dressing salon once. I married the daughter at Pier 1, down at the harbour. Then at the reception, 9 times out of ten, I’m the MC at the reception, its part of the package I offer. So then the parents of the bride come up to me at the reception and thank me and exclaim about how it has been an amazing wedding and then ask me if I will marry them. They only wanted a ceremony and so they just asked if I would just come to their hair salon and marry them. So there we were, in a hair salon! And I got a free hair cut!’
You can contact Jeremy via