Sarah Clarke – celebrant
A tour bus shudders to a wheezing halt under drizzling, grey March skies. Two Puerto Rican tourists disembark, and in swoops wedding celebrant Sarah Clarke, with a bouquet of flowers cradled in the crook of an elbow, a photographer hot on her heels.
Clarke had planned the impromptu ceremony in cahoots with the groom as a surprise for his unsuspecting bride. A damp layby in the shadow of Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle perhaps wasn’t the setting Clarke had in mind for her first, official outing as a celebrant, yet it epitomised everything about the job that she loves.
“It’s such a joy for me to give couples the wedding they want, and this was a really special moment,” she says. “Strange and lovely, and odd and memorable. It could have been random and weird, but the groom knew his partner so well. She was delighted – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a happier face.”
