--- title: "Naming ceremonies | Best Ceremonies" description: "Naming ceremonies $595 any day: a family meeting, a script written around your child, guide parent promises, certificates for everyone." url: "https://bestceremonies.com.au/naming-ceremonies/" --- Naming ceremonies · Tweed, Byron & Gold Coast # Naming ceremonies A naming ceremony with Felicity Best, a celebrant based in Murwillumbah, is $595 on any day. It includes a family meeting, a script written around your child, a PA, and certificates for the child and for each guide parent. There is no paperwork and no notice period, and six weeks is comfortable. Children of any age can be named, and families often name two or three siblings at once. What's included ## It is all in the one price. - A meeting to hear your story - A ceremony that reflects your family - A PA - Certificates for your child and guide parents One price on any day. ## What it costs | What you get | Mon–Thu | Fri–Sun | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------- | ------- | | **Naming ceremony**: A meeting to hear your story, a ceremony that reflects your family, a PA, certificates for your child and guide parents. One price on any day. | $595 | same | Australian dollars, no GST. Travel within 80 km or an hour and a half of Murwillumbah is included, whichever gets you there; beyond both it is $1 per kilometre, round trip. Booking fee $250, which comes off the total. Council permits for beach and park ceremonies are booked and paid for directly with the council, and are not included. [Work out your total](https://bestceremonies.com.au/prices/#estimate): the day and the place, itemised. How it works ## Four steps, start to finish. Allow about six weeks for a weekend date in season. Midweek and winter dates are often free at much shorter notice. 1. ### Check the date Send the date, or just the season, and where. I will tell you whether it is free and exactly what it costs, because every price is already on this site. 2. ### Meet, and talk it through A first conversation, in person or on a call, about what you want the ceremony to be. There is no notice period and nothing to lodge, because nothing about this changes anyone's legal status, so about six weeks is comfortable rather than required. 3. ### The words I write the script from that conversation and send it to you in draft, to change as much as you like. 4. ### The day I'll arrive well before your guests and have a word beforehand with your photographer, your venue and anyone else working to the same run sheet. Nothing is lodged afterwards, and your certificate is yours to keep. ## How a naming day comes together It starts with a meeting, usually at home and usually with the child present and unimpressed. The script comes out of that hour: where the name came from, who chose it, what the pregnancy or the adoption was like, what you hope for. You name the guide parents and I ask each of them for a promise in their own words, which is worth warning them about a fortnight ahead rather than on the day. The ceremony itself runs twenty to thirty minutes. A ritual gives it a shape: a candle lit from a family candle, sand poured from separate jars into one, a seedling that goes in the ground afterwards, or a box of letters written by the guests for the child to open at eighteen. At the end the guide parents sign the certificates, and so does the child, in whatever handwriting is available. ## Where they are held, and when Almost always somewhere with a kitchen: a backyard, a hall, a grandparent's house, a park shelter booked for the afternoon. Beaches and council reserves work and need the same permit a wedding would. The real constraint is not the venue, it is the nap. A mid morning ceremony followed by lunch works better than anything scheduled at four o'clock. Naming two or three siblings at once is common and costs the same, because the meeting and the script are one job whether there is one name in them or three. Older children can and should have a say in their own ceremony. A seven year old with a line to read is a seven year old who is not asking to go home. ## Where [Every area covered from Murwillumbah](https://bestceremonies.com.au/areas/). Questions ## Questions people ask What is a naming ceremony? A non religious way of welcoming a child into a family and a community, and of naming the adults who will stand behind them. It has no legal effect, because the birth is registered separately, and it borrows whatever a family wants from older traditions without asking anyone to believe anything. What are guide parents? The secular equivalent of godparents. They are adults you name publicly, and who make a promise to your child in front of everyone there. There is no legal weight to it, so you can have one or six, and they can be grandparents, friends or older siblings. How old can a child be for a naming ceremony? Any age. Babies are the most common, but there is nothing unusual about naming a five year old, naming siblings together, or holding a ceremony for an older child joining a family through adoption or a blended household. The script changes; the price does not. How long does a naming ceremony take? Twenty to thirty minutes, which is about as long as a small child will tolerate standing still. That leaves room for readings, a candle or sand ritual, promises from the guide parents, and the certificates, without the day turning into an endurance event for anyone. Get in touch ## Check my date Send the date, or the season, and where for naming ceremonies. I will tell you whether it is free and exactly what it costs. No obligation. [0400 110 959](tel:+61400110959) [felicity@bestceremonies.com.au](mailto:felicity@bestceremonies.com.au) Most days, 9am to 7pm. --- This is the Markdown copy of https://bestceremonies.com.au/naming-ceremonies/. Every page on this site has one at its path with .md in place of the closing slash; the index is https://bestceremonies.com.au/llms.txt and the guide for agents is https://bestceremonies.com.au/agents/.