Weddings in Ireland, it's probably fair to say, aren’t what they used to be.
Over the past two decades, non-religious ceremonies have become more common than religious ceremonies. And if you’re planning on getting married anywhere that isn’t a church, you probably want the Wedding Celebrant of the Year to officiate at it.
Step forward, Jo McAteer, WeddingsOnline’s 2026 award winner.
"I would describe myself as an interfaith minister – so, celebrating all religions and none. And so I would say probably ninety-five, ninety-six per cent of what I do would have no element of religion contained in it whatsoever because that’s the couple’s personal choice."
Jo told Oliver Callan that she is also HSE-registered, which means she can legally marry the couple on the day and avoid the traditional two-step process where couples would have to go to the registry office to get the paperwork done.
A HSE-registered celebrant like Jo means that couples can now get married and have their reception all in the same venue.
"Once you’re open to the public, there’s really no issue with having your venue registered to hold a legal wedding. And we are so lucky in this country. I mean, my gosh, we have the most amazing and diverse venues."
Yes, we do, anywhere from clubs, bars and restaurants to castles. If it’s registered, you can get married in it. You could also have a memorial service in that sort of venue, as Jo well knows, because she started her career as a funeral celebrant and she still sometimes does funerals, although she prefers weddings.
And sometimes – unlikely as it might seem – there’ll even be a link between the two:
"I had one funeral for a lady, and her daughter contacted me a month later, and I was thinking, 'Oh God no, what now?’ And she was like, ‘No, actually it’s for a wedding. We want to book you to do our wedding.’ So that was lovely."
Jo finds that couples who get married outside of a church or a registry office tend to want things to be as specific to them as possible and to be as easy to organise as possible:
"The civil wedding, it’s very much tailored then to the couple, the decor that they want, the vibe that they want, having everybody under one roof. I think for a lot of couples, they don’t like the idea of having to travel an hour between the ceremony and the reception."
The convenience of everything happening at one location is something that couples find reduces stress on the big day as well:
"Being able to get ready on site is a massive thing for some couples as well. So, quite often, I’ll go into a venue, and the bride is actually having her hair and makeup done there that day or they’ve been there since the night before."
Jo’s brother is an undertaker, and he was the one who suggested she should look at becoming a celebrant. She dismissed the notion at the time, but it stayed with her:
"I didn’t think I could do it. I genuinely never thought that I could stand up in front of people in that emotional setting and conduct myself professionally, which I’ve actually discovered I can. I’m actually not too bad at it."
Once the ceremony starts, wherever it’s happening, and regardless of the size of the guest list, the buck stops with Jo for the duration of the ceremony:
"For that half hour, hour – could be an hour – everything rests on me. So, all direction, music starting, music stopping, people moving around the ceremony space – that's all based, that all reflects back on me. Most venues at this stage who know me will just leave me to it."
Naturally the celebrant of the year has a lot of experience with wedding ceremonies, so the wise choice for couples is probably to listen to her opinion:
"I will know in certain venues what’s going to work and what’s not going to work, or timing-wise, whether it’s okay to include that or not. What, you want five readings? Okay. And you want them all to be three minutes long? You know that’s fifteen minutes of your ceremony?"
Every couple has their own ideas of how to make their big day special and personal to them, but some people go that extra mile to make their ceremony really stand out:
"I recently had a guy – he was a gravedigger – and they brought him to the ceremony on a low loader, with a digger, in a coffin. It was hilarious."
It’s not a competition, of course, but, well, if any couple out there is thinking that they can beat that for originality, maybe run it by Jo first?
You can hear Oliver’s full chat with Jo by tapping above. And Jo’s website is lovejoweddings.ie.
