The factual reality for all researching how much a wedding or funeral celebrant earns is if you are willing to put in lots of hard work to gain bookings, this is when you will see a financial return. How much money does a celebrant earn, how long is a piece of string?
Celebrancy isn’t a career to move into if you are expecting to make a huge amount of money instantly. You may read information stating celebrants can earn £20,000, £40,000, and £60,000 upwards which is appealing, but these figures aren’t the average earnings for most new celebrants.
Some celebrant training websites state the average earnings of a celebrant, with all writing differing prices. These earnings are based on the information given by asked celebrants, but it is important to know these earnings are variable depending on experience, circumstance, and other factors.
Do Celebrants Earn a Yearly Salary or a Wage?
Wedding and funeral celebrants are self-employed people meaning we receive a wage not a salary. Unless a celebrant is employed by a venue or a funeral director to produce all the ceremonies they receive bookings for, celebrants are paid directly for every individual ceremony created and officiated or delivered.
The more ceremonies a celebrant creates and narrates, the more money they will earn. There are some websites stating ridiculous fees can be earnt by celebrants and it is important if you are interested in training to become a celebrant to know if you will make money.
Every ceremony we write must be factual, relevant and of professional quality. There are concerns to the quality and personalisation of ceremonies if a celebrant has many every week.
Like all jobs we must fit in personal relationships, family life, socialising, holidays, and home life as well as writing and leading ceremonies. A hefty annual wage comes with hefty personal sacrifices. As the saying goes ‘don’t burn the candle at both ends’.
Can I Make Money as a Celebrant?
To make money from being a celebrant you must be prepared to spend a lot of time marketing yourself to gain bookings. There is both true and false information to be read regarding how much money a celebrant earns. What we earn in comparison to what we could earn is based on how much we charge and how many ceremonies we create. The more we put into our marketing, the more money we will earn through receiving bookings.
How Much Does a Wedding Celebrant Earn?
As stated most wedding celebrants are self-employed people who set their own ceremony fees. Some may follow a price set by others within their local area, many set their prices by the amount of work they spend creating each wedding, vow renewal, or commitment ceremony.
Some wedding celebrants work across the UK which means they add travel and accommodation costs to each fee. Professional wedding celebrants should always create every ceremony uniquely without using templates, scripts or using wording found online or from their previous ceremonies.
Additional fees are charged by celebrants if they are asked to supply items used for unity ceremonies. Ribbons, cords, or charms for making handfasting cords, supplying personalised candles, purchasing, and decorating a broom to jump over, sourcing seeds, or drinking vessels, or providing a lockable wine or wooden box to be used in an anniversary ceremony.
Wedding celebrants earn between £450-£1000 for each wedding (excluding travel and expenses).

How Much Does a Funeral Celebrant Earn?
Most funeral celebrants are also self employed. Unlike wedding celebrants, most funeral celebrants fees or the amount they receive for meeting bereaved people, gathering information on the life of the person who has died, creating a funeral or celebration of life ceremony then leading the ceremony is set by a funeral director. Although funeral celebrants are independent from the funeral directors they work with, fees are too commonly determined by the funeral directors.
Many funeral directors state how much they pay the funeral celebrants on their books rather than pay the good ones more than those who use templated ‘insert name’ funeral ceremonies. Funeral directors do not pay a celebrant, a celebrant’s fee comes out of the overall funeral cost. Funeral directors should not state the fee a celebrant receives.
There are now thankfully many funeral celebrants who set their own ceremony fees, and many funeral directors who value what good celebrants do. The knowledge and understanding from funeral directors of the work a good funeral celebrant puts into creating every ceremony is essential to make sure funeral celebrants receive what they are worth.
The Church of England sets different fees for burials and cremations, yet funeral celebrants mostly receive the same fee regardless of the kind of funeral it is.
Funeral celebrants can earn between £200-£280 for each funeral. (Geographical locations are variable).
While wedding celebrants fees are much higher than a funeral celebrant’s fee, how much they earn annually depends on the number of ceremonies created and led, through being booked.
If a wedding celebrant only has twelve weddings a year, and a funeral celebrant has three funerals a month, the funeral celebrant will make more money. The more ceremonies you do, the more money you will earn.
If a celebrant is both a wedding and a funeral celebrant, they will obviously earn more money from creating both kinds of ceremonies.
How Much Does a Celebrant Cost?
Again, celebrants fees vary. It depends on the kind of ceremony required, if there are travel or additional costs involved, or if seeking a celebrant specialising in certain areas of celebrancy.
Professional celebrants can take between 8 and 15 hours+ to write each ceremony. This is after the following have taken place.
- Meeting their clients in person or by video call
- Conversing with other suppliers (if required) and the venue
- Gathering information from their in relation to the ceremony requirements
- Numerous texts, emails or calls to those the ceremony is for
- Researching information and finding or writing the right poems
- Further meetings with clients for the proposed ceremony to be heard
- Sourcing and creating unity ceremonies or handfasting cords
- Travelling to and from the venue
- Finding accommodation to stay overnight if a ceremony is a distance from where the celebrant is based
Celebrants fees reflect the time every ceremony takes.
How to Become a Celebrant
Now you have a more detailed answer to the question ‘how much money does a celebrant earn?’ If you are considering training to become a celebrant, our wedding and funeral celebrant training courses will give you up to date training and you will gain the knowledge of how to become a celebrant and how to market your business.
Train to Become a Celebrant With Choice Celebrant Training
Our celebrant trainers are current working celebrants; all experienced and established with active social media accounts and websites. Choice Celebrant Training Founder Ellie Farrell has trained over 460 wedding and funeral celebrants and has been training celebrants for over 8 years.
Our courses are regularly changed and updated, and you will have a choice of what you want to learn in either group training in various city locations, or through Zoom from your own home at a time suitable to both you and your chosen trainer.
Our celebrant training courses differ from those offered by other training companies. We give our trainee celebrants the choice of what they want to learn as we do not have a set wedding or funeral course. You can choose what kinds or what styles of ceremonies you want to learn.
Choice Celebrant Trainers and our celebrant community are ceremonialists, and this is what we will train you to become. We make a living from being celebrants, and with the right training, dedication to marketing and hard work, so can you.
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