The stars who put the celeb into wedding celebrant
What do Mike Larkan, Gina Liano, Tottie Goldsmith and Greg Evans all have in common? They have fallen in love with helping people get hitched.
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What do Greg Evans, Tottie Goldsmith, Mike Larkan, Gina Liano, Shura Taft and Brodie Young all have in common?
They have fallen in love with helping people get hitched.
Before Valentine’s Day on Thursday, we caught up with some showbiz stars turned wedding celebrants.
GREG EVANS
Greg Evans jokes that he’s spent half his career working alongside Cupid.
After becoming a household name in the ’80s hosting prime-time dating show Perfect Match, he’s still bringing couples together as a wedding celebrant, a gig kicked off more than a decade ago by ocker comedian Kevin Bloody Wilson.
With Wilson’s wife and daughter avid Perfect Match fans, he surprised them both by asking Evans to oversee his daughter’s wedding in Perth. Because the couple had already officially wed in the US, Evans didn’t need to be a registered celebrant.
“They played the theme to Perfect Match and I came running in,” Evans says. “The look on the bride’s face was priceless.
“Kevin had written the wedding, so it was hilarious, and to hear people laugh at a wedding was fantastic. As I stood there looking at the bride’s happy face, and soaking in all the joy and happiness, it occurred to me, ‘What a lovely place to stand’.
“Afterwards, Kev came up and said, ‘That was good, you should do that (for a living). People would love to get married by the guy off Perfect Match’.”
About a year later, Evans was seated at a function in Sydney next to Dally Messenger III, who founded the civil celebrant movement in the ’70s.
He urged Evans to do his celebrants’ course, given his years presenting TV and radio.
Evans has since married hundreds of couples, some for their third and fourth time, as well as a new wave of same-sex couples.
He views each ceremony as a mini TV show.
“I see myself as the compere, the couple are the stars, and the guest are the audience.
“I’ve been blessed that Perfect Match is remembered with such fondness.
“A lot of the people I marry grew up watching me on television so they have good memories. They remember the fun of the show and want to bring some of that to their ceremony.
“My promise is: no boring.”
Evans, who has been married to wife Sue for 42 years, loves civil ceremonies because they can be tailored to the personality of the couple, like the 70-something duo that danced down the aisle to the Western Bulldogs’ footy club theme song.
A career highlight for the Doncaster grandfather was officiating his son Jason’s wedding to Jaysha.
“It was a real thrill, he said. “New Idea had a ball with the headline ‘Greg Evans Marries His Son’. We all had a good laugh.”
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TOTTIE GOLDSMITH
Searching for a new creative fix, showbiz favourite Tottie Goldsmith became a wedding celebrant five years ago.
“I’m a total romantic, so it suits me down to the ground,” Goldsmith says. “It’s all been word of mouth and the right people come.
“I don’t get wacky weddings; more the creative and interesting ones. Ceremonies can be quite solemn, so I encourage people to really inject their personality and humour and show who they are as people.”
Elwood-based Goldsmith averages 10 weddings a year around her singing and acting commitments — she’s shooting two films in the first half of 2019 — but says conducting weddings is a job she can grow old with.
“It’s another string to my bow,” the Chantoozies songstress says.
Word of mouth is strong. After Goldsmith officiated at singer James Reyne’s 2017 nuptials to Leanne Woolrich, guest Kylie Minogue — Woolrich is Minogue’s friend and former assistant — recommended Goldsmith as the celebrant for a same-sex wedding her sister Dannii attended last year. Goldsmith has also overseen the wedding of Pseudo Echo’s Brian Canham.
But she equally loves helping couples who aren’t used to the limelight.
“Some people get really nervous because it means so much to them or they’re not used to getting up in front of people, so that’s where I come in and create an environment of ‘we’re a little team here’,” she says.
“I do get teary sometimes. I have to look away. It’s so beautiful and such a profound moment where a couple want to stand up in front of people who mean a lot to them and really express how they feel and create a platform for the next part of the relationship. It’s big.”
MIKE LARKAN
Weddings and weather are a perfect union for Mike Larkan.
When he’s not presenting the weather on Channel 10, as he’s done for more than two decades, Larkan is marrying happy couples.
“My business card reads, ‘Forecasting a beautiful life together’. People get a kick out of that,” he says. “If it’s a sunny day, I take full responsibility for the weather, but if it’s a grey day, I’ll say it’s great for photos so no one squints.
“I’ve only officiated two weddings in the rain and apparently rain on your wedding day is good luck. It’s almost a must for me to mention the weather somehow.”
Larkan has been a celebrant for five years but has long been around weddings. Married to Kathy for 26 years, he played guitar in a wedding band in his teens, was a wedding DJ in his 20s and began MCing weddings in his 30s.
The father of two averages about a ceremony a week and is booked into 2021.
Being a journalist and presenter, Larkan writes every ceremony from scratch, incorporating how the couple met and what they love about each other. He caters to all — from couples who want a religious feel to the duo who requested AC/DC’s Highway to Hell be played after exchanging vows.
“I think initially people booked me because I’m on the TV, but now I’m recommended by venues and by people who’ve seen me at weddings they’ve attended and they’ve enjoyed it,” he says. “I enjoy making a couple’s day even more special, and make sure it’s not boring.”
Bayside-based Larkan jokes he encounters two bridezillas and one groomzilla a year — “challenging perfectionists”, he calls them.
He also played counsellor to a bride he married on a Sunday who rang him on the preceding Friday to see if she had time to change her mind. (He understands they are still together.)
Larkan is also doing more surprise weddings where guests believe they’re attending a birthday or engagement.
GINA LIANO
Having an Elvis impersonator preside over your wedding is so last century.
In Melbourne, equally rhinestone-embellished Gina Liano is the in-demand fairytale facilitator.
“I suppose I do bring a bit of glamour,” laughs Liano, a barrister, businesswoman and star of The Real Housewives of Melbourne.
Liano says officiating at friend and fellow housewife Gamble Breaux’s wedding alongside a celebrant in 2016 inspired her to pursue the part-time gig.
“My son explains it really well,” she says. “He tells people, ‘Mum is in court every day, dealing with hostility and tension, and on the weekends she does completely the opposite’. And it really is so much fun.
“Practising family law, I’ve seen when families have to go through counselling after the breakdown of a relationship, and quite often they have an hour session to get everything out, and so I see them encapsulate their feelings into these damaging, hurtful words.
“What I see at these weddings is the opposite. When I meet with the couple and I ask them why they love each other, they are saying these beautiful words that sometimes they have never expressed before — even to their partner.
“I remember one partner said he was smiling from ear to ear so much that his cheeks were hurting after he met his now-husband — but he had never told him that before.”
Of the 12 weddings Liano performed last year and two already in 2019, only three have included a bride.
“I think the men are pretty quick off the mark with the planning,” she jokes. “A lot of the couples keep me as a surprise for their guests.”
Liano is humbled and privileged to be part of a couple’s special day, but also seems honoured to be witnessing history.
“These men are the pioneers; they have laid the foundation and paved the way for change,” she says. “One couple I married had been together for 30 years.
“Before now, if one of them passed away, they would have to go to the County Court to be recognised as the next of kin.”
Liano says her ceremonies are as flexible as her wardrobe. And while she admits one paddock wedding got her hot under the collar — literally — her enthusiasm and positivity remain infectious.
“It was 44C and my hairline was crying. It was so dusty, my feet and shoes were black; then the power went out,” she laughs.
“I just told them they have a great story to tell.”
BRODIE YOUNG
When enough people tell you to become a wedding celebrant, you start to take notice.
After years MCing school chums’ weddings, Brodie Young became a celebrant about seven years ago, when friends Nick and Rozalia Russian ask him to marry them.
He didn’t get his licence in time for their nuptials but has gone on to do many more, averaging a wedding a fortnight in the peak November-to-March season.
The Mt Martha father of two was a Big Brother intruder in 2002, which led to hosting Channel 9’s late-night game show Quizmania, where he “learnt to talk under water”.
He currently hosts the Catch Live shopping program and does advertorials for The Morning Show on Channel 7, as well as MC duties for events held by Collingwood’s AFL, AFLW and netball clubs, the Melbourne Storm rugby league club, the Melbourne Renegades BBL cricket franchise and Melbourne City FC soccer club.
Young is proud of smashing the “daggy” celebrant stereotype.
“My sales pitch is that your usual celebrant is your ex-teacher, ex-cop, ex-librarian, kinda conservative type, with the matching maroon outfit or the beige suit,” he says. “I’m very much not that.
“My most common comment after a wedding is guests coming up saying, ‘That was so funny. Was that the wedding? Are they actually married now? It didn’t feel like a wedding’. I love that.
“My approach is casual and laid-back. I essentially tell the couple’s story from a lighthearted point of view. I send them questions before the wedding but have them answer independently, and add some mayo of course, but it just instantly creates a fun vibe.”
Couples he’s joined in matrimony include Dan Reilly and Dani Wales from The Block and Channel 9 star Rebecca Maddern and cameraman Trent Miller.
SHURA TAFT
TV and radio personality Shura Taft knew becoming a celebrant would be a marriage of his skills.
Since becoming a celebrant in January last year, the popular presenter has performed 12 ceremonies, including the nuptials of former The Bachelor stars Sam Wood and Snezana Markoski, and former Australian tennis player Sam Groth and wife Britt Boys.
“There are not many jobs you can go to where everyone is happy,” Taft says. “I hold it really dear that I am able to be a part of that.”
While Taft is used to being on television, he’s aware his role is not as star of the show.
“I’m not there to put on a performance,” he says. “It’s all about making sure I’m simply there to facilitate their story.
“I meet with the couples and get to know their love stories, and then write each one bespoke to read at their wedding ceremonies.
“In the last year I have married a same-sex couple in their 60s who had been together for more than 40 years.
“Another bride and groom were recovered heroin addicts — that was a very emotional wedding.”
Taft says more couples than ever are seeking out an untraditional approach to their wedding ceremonies to create a unique celebration.
“Legally, there are only a couple of things you have to do to get married,” he says. “Everything else is up for grabs.
“You can redefine, modernise and tailor the ceremony to reflect your own personality.
“My wife and I did a pinky swear at our wedding.
“I’ve had couples include their dogs, unusual music performances, and one man who threw a French-themed 60th birthday party only to surprise his guests by getting married.”
Originally published as The stars who put the celeb into wedding celebrant
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