Maria McCarthy Celebrant

My career has spanned the design, film, television and education industries. I was managing director of my own architectural commercial and domestic lighting company for many years. A career change saw me move into film and television production, working for high-profile Australian production outfits.

After a serious car accident in 1997, I used my recovery experiences to help others to deal with the effects of trauma, illness and injury by creating a rehabilitation program in conjunction with a Melbourne psychologist and physician. This program required me to make numerous appearances on national radio and television; and work on the public speaking circuit both locally and internationally.

After twelve years together, my partner and I decided to marry. The experience inspired me to train as a marriage celebrant and gave me an insight into what creates a personalised and happy ceremony.

Testimonials

I have had the pleasure in being part of some amazing ceremonies and take great pleasure in helping make every occasion special.

Below are some testimonials from people I have had the pleasure working with.

Maria is a lovely, very intelligent person and a wonderful celebrant. She listened carefully to our ideas, asked perceptive questions and made numerous helpful suggestions. On the big day, Maria made sure everyone knew what they were doing and was a reassuring, unobtrusive presence throughout the ceremony. Maria helped us create joyful memories that my husband and I will cherish forever.

Mileta & Dougal

Mira and I would really like to thank you for conducting our marriage ceremony. Everything was wonderful! To be honest we were a bit nervous on the day, as probably many people are, but you managed to generate such a great atmosphere that we felt very comfortable and couldn’t be happier! We also really appreciate your professional approach, the organisation was great, you took care of all the ‘technicalities’ and we could simply be happy on this special day and not worry about anything.

Konstantin & Miroslava

Maria has been one of the most amazing people that we’ve had the pleasure of working with in preparation for our wedding. Her professional and personal approach to our special day, meant that everything was well organised and thought out. Her experience with wedding ceremonies meant that she was full of suggestions and insights to all the small details we would have otherwise missed on our special day. I cannot express how grateful we are to have had Maria as our celebrant.

W & J

Thank you so much for being the celebrant of our kooky, crafty wedding! You were fantastic to deal with in the coming weeks, helping us out with reading suggestions and getting on board all our out-there requests from spice ceremonies to crazy nerdy vows. We felt really comfortable with you and on the day you took charge of everything with ease and it all turned out perfect. We loved your warm, approachable style and your professionalism throughout and we couldn’t recommend you more whole-heartedly.

Maria & Steve

Dear Maria, we would like to thank you for being our wonderful celebrant and making us feel special on our wedding day. We were made very clear by you in terms of what we had to do on the day. You helped us remain calm and look good throughout the ceremony. You demonstrated a high level of professionalism and flexibility. We are sure that these memories will be with us forever.

Annabelle & Mike

Thank you so much for acting as celebrant for our recent wedding. You were so helpful in guiding us through the intricacies of wedding ceremonies, providing us with multiple options to tailor the ceremony to reflect our love, personalities and relationship.

Your professionalism on the day was wonderful (especially given you had travelled all the way from Melbourne), you put Shane (a particularly nervous groom) and me completely at ease.

It goes without saying that I would recommend you as a celebrant to anyone, we just cannot thank you enough for all the support in the lead up and on the big day. Everyone remarked what a lovely service it was and for this we are so grateful.

Mary & Shane

Our July 2012 wedding was so much fun … an awesome night … you were such a great support. As Jagmeet and I are from an entirely different background, we didn’t didn’t know what to do – we had no idea about anything, but you made things so simple and easier for us. We felt so comfortable with you – you were like a family member to us. We both loved you from the moment we met and all our friends loved you too. It was a memorable night and you made it more special. We are glad we chose you for the most important day of our life. We hoped you enjoyed it too. With lots of love.

Rishu & Jagmeet

We would recommend Maria to anyone who wants their celebrant to be professional, calm, adaptable, responsive and classy. The traits mentioned are difficult to find but were further amplified by Maria’s energ y and passion for her vocation, her willingness to take the time to get to know us and what we wanted (giving honest feedback) and her ability to be a pro-active guiding hand on the day (from instructing the musicians, meeting parents and co-ordinating other components you don’t even know exist!). The biggest compliment is in the end we felt like we were married by a familiar friend.

Natalie & Kallan

As soon as we met Maria, we knew we had found the right person. Instantly we felt we had known her for years and that made everything easy. The first meeting consisted of lots of silly questions from us, discussions on her experience and a few laughs. We left feeling comfortable, knowing exactly what we wanted and with just the right amount of material that made pulling together a personalised Ceremony easy and fun. We would like to thank Maria for being there on our special day and for making a potentially stressful part of the planning a breeze.

Jacki & Sam

Maria brought professionalism, humour and warmth to our wedding ceremony. She guided us through preparing for the ceremony with great attention to detail and respect for our ideas. Our ceremony was a highlight of our special day and everything we could have hoped for.

Paul & Sam

Hi Maria – having recently attended a really awful funeral service I wanted to thank you again for the wonderful job you did as celebrant for my late mother – the whole event was perfect – thanks again for your excellent job – it couldn’t have been better. Many thanks to you.

PS

Maria thank you so much for letting us have the ceremony we dreamed about! It was so happy and relaxed and the guests loved getting involved. Our ceremony was short and sweet but you still managed to bring out the tears and lots of laughter! Thank you so much for guiding us through the whole process. We both could not have done it without you!

Emma & Aren

We are just so thankful for the work you did in preparing and then delivering Doug’s eulog y. It was just the right blend of professionalism and empathy in guiding us through a difficult time. The result was a service that we thought Doug would have been thrilled with.

We were so impressed with the day. Many gave their compliments on the service including some friends who said they felt like they knew Lisa’s father although they had not met him. Thanks again for your help and kindness.

Karl & Lisa

Maria is a lovely, very intelligent person and a wonderful celebrant. She listened carefully to our ideas, asked perceptive questions and made numerous helpful suggestions. On the big day, Maria made sure everyone knew what they were doing and was a reassuring, unobtrusive presence throughout the ceremony. Maria helped us create joyful memories that my husband and I will cherish forever.

Mileta & Dougal