Northampton celebrant shares lowdown on hit series Married at First Sight after appearing in recent episode
A Northampton celebrant has shared the lowdown on hit E4 series Married at First Sight, after appearing in Tuesday night’s episode to marry the final couple.
Esther Underwood is an independent celebrant who crafts personalised ceremonies for funerals, weddings and other life events, under her business Esther Diane Celebrant.
She left her role as a performing arts teacher to become a celebrant after a friend asked her to officiate her wedding and put together the service.
Having felt like a career change after a positive 27 years as a teacher, Esther took the leap to train in weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies and has been full-time for the past year and four months.
She is passionate about putting together something unique for the people she marries, and spends a lot of time learning and getting to know them.
Esther takes pride in sharing people’s love stories, quirks and wishes for the future, and aims for people to praise the ceremony for being truly reflective of the couple.
However, this was far from the case for her appearance on Married at First Sight, as the couples are complete strangers when they choose to commit to one another.
Having taken up this new career path, it was Esther who reached out to the producers about appearing on the show – as she is a big fan of Married at First Sight.
There were only six weeks to go until the big day when she was confirmed to be the celebrant, and then went on to marry Sionainn and Ryan at the Luton Hoo in January this year.
When asked how she found the experience, Esther told the Chronicle & Echo: “Everybody looked after me and my glamorous room was bigger than anything I’ve ever stayed in before.
“The set was beautiful and there was a big team of people buzzing around, making sure everything was in place. It was a real team effort.
“When the families came in there were nerves and excitement, and they verified the couple hadn't met before. It’s exactly as you see on tv and was a really fantastic experience.”
The camera crews record the ceremony from start to finish and Esther said there were no retakes – just different artsy shots to be included in the final edit, such as the couple holding their vow cards. She remained there for the full day of filming from 9am until 6pm.
Esther said it was “crazy” officiating the wedding of two people who had only just met, and it was a new experience to write a ceremony in this way.
She started with the meaning of both of their names, what their commitment entails and their similarities as individuals – especially embarking on this crazy adventure and being mad enough to appear on the show in the first place.
Esther explained that the couples are not legally married, and celebrants in the UK cannot currently legalise weddings.
“The reason to have a celebrant is for a unique and bespoke ceremony, with no time or venue constraints,” said Esther. “They see it as a marriage on the show. The couples hope to find their person and take time off work for it.”
The celebrant said there was a nervous but excited energy in the room throughout the entire day, and described the process as “fairly glamorous”.
None of Esther’s loved ones knew she was going to feature on the show, until she appeared at the end of Monday night’s episode in the preview for the following day. She was sworn to secrecy after signing an NDA and it came as a complete surprise to family and friends.
She described the strange experience of seeing herself on the big screen, and that she is in complete support of the show as “life is for living”.