Ever wondered about the behind the scenes of another celebrant? How they started, what makes them tick, how they manage career / family etc.? Well today we are shining the spotlight on NSW celebrant Nicci Mackey.
Nicci met the love of her life, Warren, when she was young. They married at 20 and had their first baby at 25. First Tom, then Jack 3 years later and then Ben 5 years after him. Her life was set, her career was her marriage and her babies.
2020 was an empowering year for Nicci, she found herself in an empty nest with the world at her feet, and her first son about to be married. She often found herself asking ‘what am I doing with my life?’. One night around the family fire pit, they were all chatting about her son’s upcoming wedding and the conversation moved to who would be their marriage celebrant and what type of celebrant they’d choose. Warren turned to Nicci out of the blue and said, ‘you would make the best celebrant.’
It wasn’t something Nicci had thought of before. Sure, she’d always fanaticised about owning her own business, something that she could have just for herself but celebrancy, really? Was this something she could actually do as a business?
Her son and his fiancé chose the magnificent Adam Straney as their celebrant, so Nicci started stalking him on Instagram. This really is one of the best things you can do when beginning your celebrant career – find all the best celebrants, particularly the ones you have a vibe with, and follow them on Instagram or Facebook.
Since then, Adam and Nicci have become mates and Nicci’s connected with some other great approachable celebrants through The Celebrant Society, celebrants such as, Kelly Hayes, Kelly even stayed with Nicci when she had a wedding in Bathurst, Kirralee Burke, and me (Victoria Armstrong)- just to name a few.
I remember when Nicci started liking and commenting on my stories and posts, many people think we don’t notice but we do. Then one day I posted a photo of me standing in front of a lighthouse about to do a wedding and she commented saying she couldn’t wait to be doing what I do. I always get excited connecting with other celebrants especially when they’re new, so I immediately replied. From then on, we spoke quite a bit over Instagram, as she completed her course, built her website and then finally became a celebrant in September 2021.
Nicci has really embraced this celebrant gig, she took the advice of many and joined TCS, where she’s connected with so many other great celebrants, she’s learned heaps of tips and tricks by searching the Facebook pages, and she’s even suggested some great ideas as well. She’s booked 29 couples to date and married 8 of them – that’s quite the effort in 6 short months!
She tells me the reason why her husband encouraged her to become a celebrant is because she’s an absolute hopeless romantic, many people tell her she’s the most romantic person they’ve ever met. If you’ve met Nicci you know this to be true, she loves everything about love – which really is the first prerequisite of becoming a celebrant.
Her vibe is more romantic and mushy. She’s definitely not a relebrant (what I call a rebel celebrant), she’s all about the sentimentality of love. Meeting the loved-up couples and seeing them excited about their wedding, is the first thing Nicci loves about being a celebrant. She loves to help them with ideas and watch them closely as they gain trust in her leading their day. The second thing she loves is frocking up and attending all of those happy occasions.
Nicci is fully aware of her strengths, she has an easy-going personality, and she’s genuinely interested and excited in the finest details of her couple’s weddings, down to the colour of the shoes, and the type of earrings. At the end of the day, she knows it’s 100% about them. Her current goals for her business are to give her couples a beautiful and memorable wedding ceremony they will speak of forever and ever, well that is until they have babies, if they so choose.
As for her weaknesses, she finds it really hard to say no, and she’s a little nervous before every wedding. But as we all know if you’re nervous before a wedding it’s a good thing, you don’t want to get complacent. The trick is turning those nerves into excitement. Her hubby Warren helps her to say no and she’s recently put up her prices which is a really good sign. When I attended the TCS 2019 Conference in Coogee, I learned if you’re winning every wedding then you’re not charging enough, Nicci is starting to experience that now, which shows great growth in her business.
And people are loving her, here’s a text she received the day after one of her first ever weddings… “OMG we are so happy! You were the most perfect fit and the way you told our story was so sweet! You were a breeze to work with and made our ceremony exactly what we were after. The amount of people that have said they sobbed the whole time and we had no idea!”
We’re all really excited to watch Nicci’s business grow, and if you’re a couple looking to get married in the Bathurst region be sure to have a chat with Nicci Mackey from Say I Do With Nicci.
