Peter Willington Weddings

30/06/2022

With whom it all began, is with whom it ends; for weddings, for now.

See, the very first time somebody gave me a microphone was when I was 14 years old. I was asked to MC my high school’s Christmas in July concert for local senior citizens with my mate Danny and over the intervening years, Danny has been one of my best friends and we've done countless events as musicians, DJs, speakers, MCs, etc. together.

A little while ago I married my friend Danny and Keah. Towards the end of the night, I was talking with my childhood mate about my career and how exhausted I was after the last few years; it was during that conversation that I realised that, as much as I had loved being part of their wedding because I loved them, I was no longer in love with weddings and no longer in love with my job.

As he had done many times over a long friendship, Danny had made me realise what I already knew, but hadn't figured out.

It was the perfect wedding, and for me, the perfect way to hang up my microphone as a celebrant.

I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me over the last 5 and a half years on this crazy ride; the hundreds of people who have trusted me to be part of their wedding, the new friends I have made throughout this wonderful industry, so many wonderful friends & family who have supported me over the years and above all else my fantastic wife and kids who have been on every step of this ride with me.

I'd also like to thank .co for giving me permission to use this wonderful photo.

01/03/2022

Time and time again I’m blown away by this city and the people that live in it. We’ve all faced an awful lot of adversity over the last couple of years; but community spirit shines through.

I took this photo on the way back from a feed and beer at who threw open their doors, kitchen and beer taps to the community to help in this trying time. Thanks Ryan and team; it made a huge difference to some exhausted, hungry and thirsty locals.

My family and I are ok, and relatively unscathed given what happened around us; however I will be busy helping anyone I can over the coming days and may be a little slow replying to enquiries.

Stay safe, stay strong Brisbane and everyone that is facing adversity around the world.

10/02/2022

I’ve been gone. Now I’m back.

After a much needed break; I’m excited to be coming back. This time reminds me of when this photo was taken, on my honeymoon, when I was just starting my business - because it feels like I’m starting again and I’m both energised and terrified at the same time.

I’m going to ease my way back in; so I'm only going to take a very limited number of bookings for the second half of 2022; however, I’m opening my 2023 calendar in full.

Get in touch if you’d like to talk about your wedding.

10/11/2021

I’ve heard a lot of great proposal stories but few top how James Johnston (formerly of Redtie Entertainment) proposed. If you have been shopping in Woolies recently you may have caught his new single Raised Like That; if you haven’t, do yourself a favour and check it out.

24/10/2021

Shell and I are excited to announce the arrival of Amelia June Willington on 22 October 2021 at 8:37am. Little sister to Addy and Hugh. Our hearts are bursting with love ❤️ 🌈

19/08/2021

What the hell does a video of me struggling to open my centre console have to do with weddings??? Well a lot actually.

You see this afternoon I’m off to play golf. The designers of my car didn’t leave enough room for a set of golf clubs in the boot. Fine I’ll fold down the back seat; not a problem.

Earlier this week I swapped which side of the car my kids child seat was on; so I had to fold down the ‘big’ side of the back seat (including the middle seat). Again fine.

The USB port that I plug my phone into for Apple play is in the centre console and to open the centre console the lid has to slide back then lift up.

So when all of these niche factors line up; the result is that I can’t use one of the key features of this car. I doubt anyone could have seen this coming and you’d never discover this on a test drive.

Admittedly this is just a minor inconvenience; but at the end of the day; something that was foreseeable in the design phase had the designers thought about how people might use their cars in the real world. While it’s obscure; the point (and how this relates to weddings) is that a great and experienced wedding vendor will scenario plan thousands of possible (singular and concurrent) little circumstances and make a plan for how to deal with them during a wedding.

It’s a weird one, but just another example of the intangible value great vendors bring to weddings.

08/08/2021

Both my father and father in law ran successful small business for decades and when I started my business I asked them for advice. In short they said two things which I’ve lived by for the last five years.

1. Be fair and equal to all of your clients; don’t make exceptions. Rather if something is fair enough for one couple; it should be fair for all couples - so change the thing that wasn’t fair.

2. Make fair decisions and be consistent with them; no matter how angry people are at the time; they will eventually understand (and you will be able to defend it) if it is fair and consistent; they won’t understand (and you won’t be able to defend it) if you do one thing for them and the opposite thing for others (without a damn good reason).

When asked by a constituent if a karate class could be run in-doors at 50% capacity, this was the answer that my local member Jimmy Sullivan gave: (to paraphrase) ‘No, because we don’t want people travelling from different parts of Brisbane to gather.’ (The exact quote is in the image). Yet in the same directive issued by Qld Health today that prevents this person’s Karate class going ahead (and therefore his source of income), stadiums can operate at 50% capacity.

The logic here is neither fair, nor consistent. Up to 26,000 odd people can come from all over South East Queensland to go to the footy, but a dozen or so kids can’t do a karate class because the logic somehow is different if the event is televised (i.e. can be safely watched from home with little impact on anybody).

Now, I’ve played the role of the boyscout throughout this pandemic outbreak after outbreak; telling heartbroken couple after heartbroken couple (about 80 so far and counting) time and time again (some up to six times) that their wedding can’t go ahead as planned this weekend.

It has been difficult (this week has been particularly gruelling since my planned hiatus will now be postponed with my August & September couple’s weddings) and it has also been expensive (in terms of lost revenue); but it has been the right thing to do, for the good of the public health.

Now I’m not saying that 26,000 people should be allowed to attend weddings or karate classes; in fact, I’m personally very surprised that we’re even out of lockdown at all. What I am saying is this time, the logic (I.e. travelling from different parts of brisbane to gather) is not being applied fairly and equally and there is no defence for it that I can understand and this is what has really, really upset me.

To be clear; I think being out of lockdown is (at best) a bold decision while there is still community transmission. I think 20 at a wedding is risky.

These two statements are coming from a fully vaccinated dad of a three-nager (who neither understands nor enjoys being in lockdown) that also runs a business that is losing money month after month due to postponements and a complete lack of confidence in booking future events. So I’m saying this to at my own detriment and I’m happy to cop it on the chin due to some crazy notion of civic duty.

But the ongoing success of the fight against the pandemic relies on people doing the right thing; even if it is to their own detriment. We, the business owners (and staff of these business) who have not been able to pivot have been the hardest hit. The owners and staff of bars, tour groups, hotels, event spaces, flight and ground crew and of course the wedding industry.

But this, for me, the Karate studio owner and these thousands of small, medium and large businesses in the above industries and other who have been doing the right thing for 18 months will surely find this a tough pill to swallow because of the naked inconsistency. 26,000 people from all over Brisbane to watch an event that is broadcast on free-to-air television, or via a pay-tv subscription that will cost less each month than the cost of taking an average family to the game.

Not only does the inconsistency hurt, I think 26,000 at the Broncos is tantamount to negligent homicide if it goes wrong. Because even if another outbreak from one infected person going to any of the football matches in the next fortnight doesn’t result in an actual fatality, another lockdown will kill the business’ being hampered by these restrictions who are somehow still standing.

05/08/2021

Today's shout out goes to the legends at ; specifically my two favourite venues & who have always supported and encouraged me since I started out as a celebrant.

They also nail the on-the-day experience not only for the couple and the guests; but also for the vendors. Because they're across every detail I don't need to worry about a thing and can just focus on doing what I do best.

Photos:
James & Shanna at Hidden Vale |
Cassie & Nik at Clovelley Estate |

05/08/2021

Another reason why I refuse to use a script is because I’m an idiot sometimes.

One of the last times I used a script was at Callum & Bek’s wedding in July of 2018 when these photos were taken by . I have used the second photo (taken during my pre-ceremony admin announcement) as my ‘hero’ photo pretty much ever since; not only because it’s a banging photo (possibly my favourite one of me ever) but because it reminds me of the colossal error I made that day, all because I was blindly reading from a script and to never do it again.

You see, I was asked 15 minutes before the ceremony to include a ‘group affirmation’ and I knew I had some wording from a recent wedding so I was easily able to copy and paste this wording from the recent wedding and include it in the script on my iPad.

Five minutes into the ceremony came the biggest error I have ever made. The group affirmation went perfectly until I got to the end and shouted “DO YOU ALL MAKE THESE PROMISES TO CAIT & BRAD!”.

You see, monkey read, monkey say. Bek’s dad looked at me and simply said, “Nope” and knowing I’d screwed up, I sheepishly followed with, “how about Callum & Bek?”.

I realised I never wanted to be in a position where I wasn’t thinking about exactly what I was saying; I threw my iPad away and pivoted. See I knew Callum & Bek relatively well at this point; they lived just around the corner from me at the time and we’d often run into each other. I’d probably spent 10 times the normal amount of time with them than I’d spend with an average couple.

So I started talking about what I liked about them and what made them great, it was clear to everyone there that I’d simply misspoke due to a silly copy & paste error and that the ceremony was much, much better for me throwing the iPad away and speaking from the heart.

Not long after this I started trialling this new approach with couples that were comfortable with me not using a script and when these became my favourite weddings; I decided that I would never use a script again.

03/08/2021

What they said:

We could not recommend Pete highly enough. Our wedding got cancelled due to COVID and Pete made the whole process of rescheduling so easy and he was definitely our vendor with the best communication.

Pete made a real effort to get to know us and our bridal party before the wedding which we really appreciated.

Everything on the day ran smoothly and we really loved the words Pete had to say about us - we felt it was very personalised and exactly what we were after. Thanks again Pete!

Photo: Andy the legend

30/07/2021

Just under 18 months ago I emailed 80 couples to open a conversation about Covid-19 and how it might impact their wedding. In a few weeks, I am (scheduled) to marry the last couple that received that email. I'm immensely proud that we have all been able to work together in the face of the single biggest health crisis in a century, continue to gather and celebrate when we could, and most importantly get couples married.

However; the last 18 months have felt like 10 years and it has taken a huge personal toll on my family and I - not only emotionally and physically, but most of all financially.

I still love being a celebrant and working with wonderful couples; however, right now not only do I need a break, but frankly, after five years, it is no longer viable for me to continue operating my celebrancy practice as my primary focus. So today, my wife and I have made the difficult decision to put Peter Willington Weddings on hiatus while I focus on a few other opportunities that have presented themselves.

While this thought has been around for a while; today’s announcement of yet another outbreak (that has hit very close to home with a number of friends that are now in self-isolation as close contacts) has made this decision simple as it has reinforced how precarious our safety is until a substantial proportion of our population is vaccinated against Covid-19.

While on hiatus, I will be keeping up with what’s going on in the wedding industry (and I’ve even scheduled a bunch of social media posts) so I won’t be a stranger. However, I won’t be focusing on booking new couples. I will remain available for couples that feel strongly about working with me and I will also make myself available to colleagues that need to be covered in case of emergency.

At this stage I’m not sure when, or if, I’ll return to carrying out my celebrancy practice as my primary focus; it is unlikely that it will be until there is much greater certainty in the events industry.

I’d like to take a moment to thank all of my past couples, my wonderful colleagues and the many friends I’ve made over the last five years and particularly my ever supportive family.

Stay safe,

Pete

30/07/2021

I want to show some love for the legends Kiefa & Jake from .kombi.

I know there are a lot of photo booth companies out there (and a lot of them are also legends); but I've seen first hand (as we booked them for our wedding!) these two show kindness, love and compassion towards everyone they deal with.

They have a fantastic product (who doesn't love a Kombi or a photo-booth individually; let alone when you combine the two) but more importantly, they run their business in a way that I have aspired to emulate since literally day 3* of being a celebrant (our wedding was 3 days after I gained my registration).

They're a business that has a key difference in a crowded market, a business that nails the small details and a business that's based on honesty, integrity, kindness and empathy. There's just so much to love.

29/07/2021

I'm not going to pretend I'm the first celebrant ever that's decided to stand to the side during their ceremonies, but I think few (if any) have thought about the reasons why and what they can do with the ceremony from the side like I have.

I've always been uncomfortable standing between a couple for the duration of the ceremony for a whole range of reasons (some I'll expand on in weeks to come). One of the main reasons is that I don't feel I belong there.

I first had this thought, long before I was a celebrant when I was looking at a photo taken during my sister's wedding. During the ceremony; standing at the arbour was my sister, her husband and their siblings (including me!) standing there. The only other person in this image was the celebrant and she stands out, pretty obviously, as not belonging to this intimate group.

Don't get me wrong, she was lovely and bubbly and did a wonderful job (from what I remember); however, 10+ years later, this photo still sits on the entertainment unit under the TV at my parents house; my sister, her husband, their siblings and 'whatshername' the celebrant.

This photo is the reason I make a conscious effort during your ceremony to make sure whenever possible; I won't be in your ceremony photos; because I don't belong in the intimate group that is your wedding party and in 10+ years time, you'll probably be calling me 'whatshisname the celebrant'.

This beautiful photo was taken by the amazing Kate from at Lou & Laclan's wedding.

27/07/2021

What they said: Peter was the most incredible and accommodating celebrant. He truly went above and beyond from some impromptu couples counselling over a beer before the wedding which saved our wedding to hosting the best ceremony!

Our ceremony was so memorable that wedding guests to this day always remark on him as being such an energetic celebrant and how our ceremony was truly the most fun, honest and beautiful ceremony they had attended.

There was not a dry eye left from laughter and joy that Peter masterfully evoked and I love watching the ceremony part of our wedding video.

He made everyone feel included in the ceremony, put everyone at ease and got the party started! He is thoughtful, has so much attention to detail and his years of experience really show. I couldn't recommend him more, I will always be so grateful to his being our celebrant on our perfect day.

Photo:

25/07/2021

Let me give my definitive response to this old chestnut...

I have heard this a lot over the years; even right back when I was starting out as a celebrant and was charging a substantially lower fee.

While it's a widely held opinion, and my fee is a lot of money; to describe it as 'a lot of money for half an hour of ceremony time' is plain wrong.

Because that half an hour of ceremony time requires dozens and dozens of hours in the background spent being prepared for that half an hour of ceremony time (and that’s before we take into account the thousands of hours worth of experience I have invested to become this good a celebrant).

So my fee obviously isn't the half hourly rate that people think it is, but to give a pop-culture example to flesh this out…

The movie ‘The Avenger’s Infinity Wars’ cost a total of $380 million to make. The total run time was 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Using the same logic as 'Everyone, Always' that's a half hourly cost of roughly $63.7 million.

Yes, this is a stupid example because thinking of the spend of a movie budget as a cost per half hour is nonsense. But I use it because most people have a rough concept of the volume of and variance in people, talents, energies, skills, training, costs and equipment, etc. that go into writing, filming, editing, marketing and releasing a movie.

Most people understand that there's hundreds of staff members doing hundreds of jobs as well as millions of dollars worth of systems, equipment, software, spares, etc. all of which don't appear on screen, but facilitate what happens on screen. All of this time, energy and money is spent in an effort to maximise the quality of the 2 hours and 40 minutes of run time.

Because most people understand this, they don’t think about the cost of movies as 'expensive per half hour of screen time' because it just doesn’t make sense.

Your fee pays for so much more than just the half an hour of time that the ceremony takes place so instead of remarking at what my half-hourly rate is, instead ask me what I'm doing in the background to maximise the quality of your half hour ceremony.

22/07/2021

Here's a shout out to not only one of my favourite photographers; but the photographer & I chose to capture our day.

Not only did Alice nail our photos (in the middle of a bunch of cyclone chaos) but being lucky enough to work fairly often with them in the year or so after; they were one of the first photographers that gave me permission to use their work on my website and socials - something that I know for a fact greatly contributed to the early success and rapid growth of my celebrant practice.

These days I'm very fortunate to have a great number of photos from some of Australia's best photographers and I'm humbled and grateful for all of them for letting me use their work - there's a lot more fan boy friday posts to come featuring photographers.

If you're in the market for a photographer, a lot of my favourite photographers have featured photos on my website with links to their details.

22/07/2021

This is how I conduct a wedding ceremony. With my first interaction with your guests as a whole group, I ask them to put their devices away so they can be present for your ceremony. I believe as a celebrant I should lead by example; which is why I don't read from an iPad or a script; rather, I present your ceremony from a few talking points and from the memories I've built with you. I do this so that I'm present for your ceremony.

Ask any presenter or performer and they'll tell you that a great atmosphere is built from tone, body language, eye contact and connection - otherwise known as presence; not from the specific wording used. This is why I focus on the vibe of my ceremonies, not the vocabulary.

Photo:

20/07/2021

20/07/2021

What they said:

We had a very clear vision of how we wanted our wedding day to look. It was to be just my husband and I, with our parents and two closest friends beside us, married at home.

Pete fit cohesively into this group and we couldn't imagine sharing our big day with anyone else. Pete represents everything that my husband and I value in our friends, which is why we now consider him to be one of our nearest and dearest.

He walked us through the tricky parts of wedding planning, completed every piece of admin work under the sun and then stood back on our wedding day, so it truly felt like our moment, not his.

Pete's the perfect balance of friendly and professional and I have no hesitation in recommending him to anyone seeking a celebrant.

Photo:

18/07/2021

18/07/2021

It's not easy for me to ask for help; particularly as I've built a business on being the one that helps others.

Last week I shared my story of how much Covid-19 has been a nightmare for our little industry. I didn't want sympathy or hand-outs; but what I did ask for was for past couples to review me so that other couples would know that I'm damn good at what I do and worth considering when couples are looking for a celebrant.

The response was overwhelming. I was amazed that every single review came in with five stars; however, what blew me away was what you had to say about me. Giving five stars is relatively easy (the process takes about 30 seconds) and that's all I asked for. But so many couples took the time to articulate the impact I made on their day and in some cases their lives (I'm not a marriage councillor, but I am a good listener).

I've been doubting myself a bit over the last few months as revenue has dried up and the millionth round of postponements started as three major cities went into lockdown again.

Your words have reinvigorated me and made me want to redouble my efforts to delver world-class wedding ceremonies that are meaningful and enjoyable for my clients and their guests.

I couldn't be more thankful to each and every one of you that took a moment to share your experience with me.

If you're a past client and you'd like to add your review to this avalanche of stars, you can do so by heading to Easy Weddings and using my unique review link below.
https://easyweddings.com.au/reviews/supplier/PeterWillingtonWeddings

13/06/2021

Shayleigh & Jason | 12 June 2021.

26 months after our first meeting they’re finally married.

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