Jessica + Oliver at Hidden River Barn | July 2025
“Thank you for stepping in! You were fantastic! We had the most perfect day”
This was a hugely unusual wedding for me, the first of its kind, in that Jessica and Oliver didn’t actually book me. I was standing in for my celebrant friend India Bel Ceremonies, as India had an operation in hospital, so she contacted me to ask if I would marry her couple. It was my absolute honour (as the Eldest Daughter I love to be helpful) and there’s something about this job where it doesn’t matter what the scenario, we celebrants just want the couple in question to have the most joyful, least stressful day humanly possible.
So I was very happy to step in, and reassure both India and her couple Jessica and Oliver, that I would do my very, very (two hundred verys) best.
Photos by the wonderful Amy Lou Photography
India is a far more organised woman than me, so she was able to pass on details on every important factor: all the key figures on the day and their relationships to the bride and groom, stage directions for the ceremony, timings, you name it India didn’t just know it, she had a document for it.
I want to really impress upon you here, whoever is reading this, that India was brokenhearted not to be able to be there herself, and she far from took the decision lightly. Celebrancy is a job where you truly befriend the people you marry. Being called upon as her Plan B was a genuine honour, and it was helpful for me to note how I might handle myself if I ever have an emergency situation keep me from a ceremony.
So my heart was in my mouth a little, with so much riding on my delivery of another celebrant’s written love story for their booked couple. But it helped that Jess and Oliver were immediately warm and understanding on our call, and offered me a (lovely) room onsite at their venue so I could bed-in the night before. And, as it turned out, even meet some of the wedding party in my pyjamas in the shared kitchen. Which helped settle my nerves muchly as everyone I met was a bloody delight.
And, oh boy oh boy, the venue. The absolute STUNNING Hidden River Barn. Just the most beautiful place, especially the ceremony space with the enormous crittall windows.
Guests had been kindly requested to come in black and pink and the effect was spectacular, all the pink tones popping against the monochrome.
India had written a surprise ring bearer into the ceremony, and the best part was I got to prank poor Dan the best man, asking if he had the rings (knowing he, of course, did not) and letting a full beat and a fallen face pass before I let him out of his momentary misery. He took it like a champ.
There were suppliers there I knew and loved (Amy Lou and Carla), as well videographer duo Soph and Matt I’d not yet met, and a couple of multi-talented men too…who did almost every other job between them. Simon was the MC-n-DJ for the entire day and Jessica’s friend Richard absolutely blew me away with his talent, having done all the styling and floristry and graphic design. Get yourself a man who’s a multi-hyphen, eh.
As well as being aesthetically another level, one of the most memorable, most wonderful, parts of this wedding was when Oliver and Jessica read their personal vows to each other. There are photos of them both hand-scribbling these out, old-fashioned pen-to-paper, an hour before the ceremony. So I wasn’t sure what to expect. But they had everyone crying with the most heartfelt promises you can possibly imagine.
What a treat it was for me to stand there and be part of a love story I knew nothing about a week or so before. I will never, ever forget this wedding, or the trust that was put in me.