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ROUNDWOOD resident Barbara Connolly has turned her attention to becoming a celebrant, following a long career linked to the wedding industry.
She has made wedding dresses, had a manufacturing business, and designed weddings as part of her work, which has also included working with John Rocha, Quinn and Donnolly, working with textiles for Guinness and on a fashion line for Waterford Crystal.
‘With changes in legislation meaning people can get married anywhere, the door was opened to lots of different ideas about getting married,’ said Barbara, who has trained as a family celebrant. ‘People want something unique and personal,’ she said.
As well as weddings in her line of work she can do anything from naming ceremonies and engagement ceremonies to house blessings.
‘Some of my colleagues have been asked to stand up and make a speech at a funeral or wedding, or they have been hired for storytelling or hosting abilities.
‘You can have a wedding pretty much any time, any place, anywhere – the back garden, Powerscourt Waterffall or the top of a mountain.’
The legal side of the marriage still has to be taken care of by a registrar, but a celebrant can make a ceremony unusual and personal.
Barbara is no stranger to entrepreneurship. She started designing wedding dresses in the 1980s.
‘I had a lucky break when someone mistook a dress of mine for Emanuel. Of course I had to get a retraction from the newspaper, but I was busy for years after that,’ she said.
A native of Dublin, Barbara and her family moved to Wicklow in the early noughties. She sold a large manufacturing business and started getting involved in the wedding industry itself. Barbara said that she left the business behind because she wanted to concentrate more on her creative side, and work-life balance.
‘You have to work your life around your job,’ she said. ‘In business it’s important as women that we try to do that, rather than squash a square peg into a round hole.’
Working with couples, she would style the wedding and dress the reception. She has been working with couples since then and is also a qualified florist.
‘I know every angle of this business,’ said Barbara.
She was inspired to become a celebrant after helping to plan her daughter’s wedding. She got married in Hunters Hotel in Wicklow and lives in Canada and her day included a celebrant. ‘It was truly memorable,’ said Barbara.
‘It’s a beautiful job working with couples and creating poignant moments,’ she said. ‘ I love family occasions and this really closes off the circle of creativity for me.’ She said that she is using all of the experience she has gained in different ways over the past 35 years. ‘
She said that the focus for the celebrant is to make the day very memorable and bring a little bit of theatre to the day. She would interview the couple beforehand, and give them a copy of the ceremony which they get to edit.
Traditions such as hand-fasting (binding the hands together), or a sand ceremony including children, can be included, or indeed anything the couple would like to include. ‘It’s a wonderful job,’ said Barbara, who qualified last year.
Barbara is a natural people person, as well as being focussed and professional, so this new endeavour is a natural fit for her. Her patience has also stood to her. When making the aforementioned ‘Emanuel-like’ dress, Barbara painstakingly sewed on 20,000 beads.
She will be participating in wedding fairs next month, at the Glenview on February 4, and Druid’s Glen on February 10.