About Jenny, The Inclusive Celebrant

 
6 Quick Facts about
                          Jennifer Cram Brisbane Marriage CelebrantI love coffee and cats, Danish pastries and dogs, bubbles and beautiful things, tea and sympathy moments, well used old furniture, and my smart-phone. A good book and a wee dram of single-malt will keep me happy for hours. Offer me a nicely iced G & T (Bombay Sapphire or Ink Gin!) and I'll say I Do!  I'm mad for Moreton Bay Bugs, but wouldn't eat an oyster if you paid me.

But that is all about my taste. Which doesn't really matter when it comes to the important things - your ceremony and shared values.

What do I do and how do I do it?
What role do I play in your ceremony?
What are my values?
Where am I located and do I travel? 

What do I do? And how do I do it?

 
I'll marry you.  -  I'll conduct a naming ceremony for your precious child.  -  I'll do the celebrant biz part of celebrating significant milestones: anniversaries, renewal of vows, naming ceremonies, renaming ceremonies, housewarming, divorce ceremonies.

I'll encourage you to be unashamedly, authentically you. To ditch outmoded traditions. To skip the sexist bits. And to give heteronormative assumptions the big heave-ho.

I'm the bees knees when it comes to personal vows, handfasting, and other rituals, Scottish and Irish weddings, and generally thinking way outside the box. And I do a pretty good pregnant pause!

I write everything myself - ceremonies, information booklets, published books, blog posts. Everything. So no-one is going to get a deja vu or Groundhog Day feeling at your ceremony!

I respect your privacy! Do you know which celeb couples or people working in sensitive occupations I've married? Of course not. My lips are sealed.

I encourage you to write your own vows, but I'll never force you to do that. I'll coach you, work with you, and give you as much or as little hands-on help as you want. My never-fail five minute method of kicking off your vow creation is easy and effective, but if you would rather not start with a blank page, I'll give you my vow builder. I'll even write your vows for you. With your input, of course.

I never do lectures about how to run your marriage or sanctimonious monologues about what marriage is or should be. No Dad jokes. No "look at me" moments. I'm all about Hey, aren't these two just the best!

And I absolutely, definitely, will get all the legal stuff done perfectly.

I welcome all couples, Diversity matters. Inclusion matters. Equality matters.

I provide ceremonies for everyone regardless of culture, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or the time of day or type of setting in which the ceremony is being held (with a few exceptions relating to legality or safety). 

That's why I'm More than "Just a Celebrant"

What role do I play in your ceremony?

 
As your celebrant, I can play one of three roles in your ceremony!
  • I can officiate it, and, of course, take care of all the legals
  • I can play a cameo role in the ceremony, while still taking care of all the legals
  • I can be Your UnderCover Celebrant, completely behind the scenes. For a non-legal ceremony I can create the ceremony script for you and hand it over. Ditto for personal vows.

What are my values?

 
Jennifer Cram,
                        Brisbane Marriage Celebrant officiating a
                        ceremony in the Woodlands Marburg ChapelMy thinking and my values are informed by science, inspired by art, and motivated by compassion and fairness and inclusion.

While most of my couples want a meaningful non-religious ceremony,  I will respect your belief system, whatever it is, and if you wish, include expressions of your spirituality in your ceremony. That's why I class myself as  a Humanist Celebrant

My business philosophy is simple: I focus on you. My ceremonies are neither standard nor predictable!

I'm relaxed about spontaneity, about not being the person who stands centre-stage and does all the talking (though I'm happy to be that person if you wish), and have offered unstructured*, free-flowing ceremonies for many years, along with more formal ceremonies where you get to see the script well before the ceremony.

*Unstructured does not mean unprepared!

Where am I located?

 
I live in the lovely leafy western suburbs of Brisbane (Meanjin), Queensland, Australia, which means all parts of Brisbane, Ipswich, Redlands, Redcliffe, Logan, Pine Rivers are right on my doorstep. I also travel to surrounding areas, but an extra travel fee is involved (50 km from my office is free).