When the Australian government FINALLY voted to remove discriminatory phrasing from the Marriage Act, I happy-danced until I was dizzy… Perhaps that’s how I came up with the idea of creating a Same Sex Wedding Festival to celebrate?!!

The idea was to conduct a wedding on the hour, every hour, in a pop-up wedding format, at this farm wedding venue in Margaret River. But, as I began promoting this event, huge energy began building around it — wedding suppliers were contacting me every day to find out how they could help make this day amazing.

I began to worry — perhaps this day is bigger than one Celebrant can handle?!

So I reached out to my Celebrant colleagues in the south west to see who might be interested in joining in… Half an hour went by and I heard nothing. (This is unusual for our group — normally we respond to each other, no matter what the question, within minutes.)

“Oh no,” I thought. “I’ve offended them. Celebrants usually work solo — this is a radical idea to work collaboratively. I’ve scared them!”

But then the first “Yes!” came back. And then another. And another, and another and another until I had nine other Celebrants saying “Yes!” to a same sex wedding celebration.

And so, together with nine other Celebrants of Margaret River, we created a day of celebration for the legalisation of same sex marriage. It soon became an epic proposal — with 10 Celebrants conducting ceremonies upon the hour, and up to six possible wedding locations, we had the capacity to host more than 100 weddings on that day! Crikey Moses!

Anyway, news got out and the media picked the story up too…. This is a photo of some of our happy faces, which appeared on the covers of both the Busselton Dunsborough Times and the Augusta Margaret River Times. I was blown away with this achievement — I can’t recall another time or occasion or event or news-item that hit both covers the same week.

A second motivating factor for me to create this same sex wedding festival, was to promote the area as a wedding destination.

With our abundance of world-class venues, wedding suppliers, natural wonders, food-and-wine options and other indulgences, I believe the Margaret River region is a top shelf option for couples looking for a wedding destination where they can holiday with family and friends for the week of their wedding.

Anyhow, that aside… back to the same sex wedding festival…

After all the hype and all the buzz, in the end we only had one couple get married on the day. They were totally beautiful, inside and out, and despite only being five of us present in total, there were tears galore.

I could not have felt more honoured or privileged to pronounce Mrs and Mrs Terry, officially married.

So that was our Pop Up Same Sex Wedding Festival, in a nutshell. If you’d like to marry in a pop-up wedding style ceremony (like a Registry-Office style ceremony but with more bells and whistles, and way more personalised and tailored), keep an eye on my pop-up wedding page.

In the meantime, shine on you beautiful people, and thanks for reading!

With love and gratitude,
Anita Revel
Celebrant Margaret River