Margi's Bio

Margi MacGregor

Civil Celebrant

Returning for Melbourne ceremonies as requested

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Tel: 0403 82 83 83

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Margi MacGregor - Civil Celebrant

Darwin – Northern Territory

© Margi MacGregor 2003-2009

The early years

The eldest of four, I was lucky enough to grow up in a close and loving family. My parents adore each other and we all pitched in to look after my youngest brother who was born when I was in Year 11. I had a great childhood. Summers were spent at my grandmother’s house at Lorne, whilst the winter holidays were spent in the then tiny alpine village of Falls Creek, where we learnt to cross country ski.

I worked casually at the local Target store from the age of 14 and my leisure time was principally spent with friends from Guides and, later, from the Venturers I’d met through Showtime. I was also involved with my local church youth group and choir.

After Year 12, I started an Arts degree at Monash University and began tutoring in a variety of different areas, including English as a Second Language. I was invested into Rover Scouts and became a Scout leader with a couple of the local troops, eventually being awarded one of Scouting’s highest achievements, the Wood Badge.

My time with the 1^st Balwyn Rovers was very important to me. I met some fantastic people, learnt a variety of outdoor adventure skills, learned the ins and outs of community radio and hit the stage in Camberwell Showtime. I also took on the role of Assistant Scout Leader with the 1^st City of Camberwell Scouts, and later with the 19^th Camberwell troop, where I was delighted to play a role in introducing girls to the Scout movement.

In 1987 I purchased my first car – a Hillman Hunter – which was promptly written off by a homicidal mother in a stationwagon. Undaunted, I found a new (well, relatively speaking) Hillman Hunter and this one proudly bore the sticker “Your Passport to Adventure!” “Your passport to a Hillman engine education” would have been more accurate! My adventures in Hilda led me to studies in basic and advanced car maintenance courses through Holmesglen TAFE, where I was amused to find some of my classmates had some difficulty coming to terms with my status as the lone female in the course.

My twenties

In 1990 I finished my Arts degree and was offered work in the Human Resources department at Monash University. From there I became an Admin Officer with the Faculty of Arts, saving my money for my first overseas trip, starting off at the World Rover Moot in Switzerland.

From ski-ing the Matterhorn and camping out in Kandersteg, I made my way to the UK and thence to Scotland, which became my home for the next two years. I absolutely adored Glasgow and was heartbroken when I eventually had to leave. Whilst there I travelled Europe and parts of the USA, worked at the University of Strathclyde, met some beautiful friends, undertook studies in Management, Advanced Professional Studies and Teaching English as a Second Language, and discovered a passion for electronic music.

My return to Australia involved a degree of culture shock, but fortunately I was offered work with the University of Melbourne and soon after found my feet. I recommenced my tutoring work and the 4^th Williamstown Sea Scouts took me on as their new Scout Leader.

Encouragement from Professor Geoff Opat, one of my colleagues at Melbourne University, led to me commencing singing lessons and I discovered that I have a fine operatic soprano voice. I was lucky enough to be taught by the wonderful and supremely talented Doina Bruno for five years, before I moved to Darwin and she left for South Africa. Doina inspires me, she makes me laugh, she is a wonderful teacher and I have finally hit that high E! Her methods appear to be unorthodox (“Put your tongue down, like you are vomiting, sweetie!”) but hey, they work! Under her tuition I completed my Grade 5 Music Theory Exams and started studying towards my Grade 8 Singing Exams. She’s a marvel and I miss her dearly.

I also started working voluntarily for a test community radio station, Kiss 90 FM, which remained a constant in my life for the next 8 years. Online, I became a member of ausrave, an Australia-wide dance music email discussion list which not only generated much food for thought, but which also brought some more fantastic people into my life.

Around this time I became concerned about the number of teenagers involved in the dance music scene, their exposure to recreational drugs and the corresponding lack of objective information. I joined up with RaveSafe as a Peer Educator and researched and wrote one of Australia’s first in-depth and informative guides to recreational drugs, taking a harm minimisation approach.

In 1995 I enrolled part-time in the Honours year of my Anthropology and Sociology degree, receiving excellent results for my thesis examining the commodification of electronic music subcultures. Having moved from the Williamstown area, I said au revoir to my Scouts, intending to recommence my Scouting activities at a later date, and focused on my studies. I started sponsoring a child in Rwanda through World Vision and received regular letters from Aaron until 2003, when his family moved out of the World Vision sponsorship region.

The breakdown of a significant relationship in 1997, prompted me to undertake a reassessment of my life and of my goals, hopes and dreams. I think of it as my ‘career crisis’ and it was one of the best things which could have ever happened to me. I took a year off and spent the time focusing on improving my health and evaluating my plans for my future. Gaining some objectivity, I was able to recognise a path which combined my long standing community work with my fascination for the modes of thought which underpin the foundations of our society. Celebrancy!

My thirties

Contacting the International College of Celebrancy, I enrolled in my first module and had the joyous discovery that I had finally found my life’s work. To support myself whilst I studied, I worked for GE Capital Finance in a call centre and took patrons’ entry money as a ‘door bitch’ in a local nightclub on weekends. At this point I started branching out and performing ceremonies, finding that I had a knack for it and that it was truly the right path for me. Aware that I still had much to learn, celebrancy remained a part-time focus for me, as I continued my studies.

Once again, saving my pennies took me overseas on another adventure, this time with my wonderful friend Kriz. We had happy times in San Francisco and thoroughly enjoyed our amazing experiences at the Burning Man festival in Nevada, before attempting to return home via New York.

On September 10 2001, Kriz and I were looking out over New York from the top of the World Trade Centre. On September 11, the hijacked planes hit the Trade Centre towers and thousands died. Once again, a life-changing experience for me and one which led to a real need to help others in some significant way. When a friend suggested I work with him as a Youth Worker in a residential care setting, I jumped at the chance. I have always enjoyed working with children and young people, and saw this as a great opportunity. I had the honour and privilege of working with some amazing young people, and a year later I was offered a case management role in foster care and discovered a terrific team of dedicated and supportive colleagues. I slowly recovered from my post New York trauma, thanks to the love and support of my close friends, my wonderful family and certain special workmates. I will always be grateful to Mish, Kriz, Sandie, Nikki, Inger, Anna, Dean, Genevieve and Grant M for checking in on me and letting me know that I was not alone. Words cannot express my love for them.

World Vision contacted me when Aaron’s family moved out of their region and I transferred my sponsorship to Liseth, a Peruvian toddler. Her photo sits above my desk and her painted handprint has pride of place on my wall. I look forward to many years of contact with Liseth and her family.

In December 2003, the Attorney-General saw fit to appoint me as an authorized marriage celebrant, a title I hold with a great deal of joy and pride. I was amazed at how quickly my reputation spread, and the majority of my work is now word of mouth. My focus is on creating ceremonies with my clients, refusing to adopt an ‘insert-name-here’ approach, but rather creating meaningful ceremonies which arise from the sharing of their histories, preferences, interests and beliefs. It’s wonderful work and I love it.

Recreationally I’m a keen snow skier and a second-generation member of Cosela Alpine Club at Falls Creek, where I have held a number of roles on the Committee. I enjoy yoga and bushwalks and spent some time training with the Footscray Women’s Circus, before my celebrancy work demanded that I forego training times. Philosophy, ideology and popular culture fascinate me and my own world view takes a little from each of the major belief systems and is focused towards always enhancing the lives of those around me. On the home front, there are many changes afoot and I’ve learnt a wide variety of new skills as I renovated my home. Good food and wine are definite passions and a number of my friends have had the good sense to relocate to wine growing regions around Victoria, so there’s always excellent company when doing our research!

Travel has always been a strong motif in my life. I have traveled throughout the world and relish the opportunity to completely immerse myself in the local culture, sometimes for months at a time. In 2005 I travelled to Morocco, where I spent a month of exploration, meeting wonderful people and learning about the incredible richness and diversity of their multicultural society.

2006 led me to combine two of my favourite pastimes – celebrancy and travel and saw me undertake a roadtrip from Adelaide to our own Northern Territory, where I attended the 2006 Australian Federation of Civil Celebrants Conference. One unexpected and blissful off shoot of this journey was that I met my wonderful partner, a fellow celebrant, at the conference and moved to join him in Darwin nine months later.

Employment history

Whilst I had worked in a huge variety of jobs (cleaner, tutor, waitress, babysitter, sales assistant, usher, bar attendant, market researcher etc) as a student, my first full time job came at the end of the ‘recession we had to have’, when I was employed with Monash University as a Personnel Graduate Trainee in their Human Resources section. From there I graduated to working in the University’s Faculty of Arts, where I had responsibility for looking after the Faculty’s Honours and International students.

Arriving in Scotland, the University of Strathclyde in Scotland was my much loved employer from 1993-1994, where I worked in course validation, making sure the vocational courses offered in the School of Education were appropriate to the needs of the wider UK community. I’ll never forget watching the snow fall outside my office windows, or the fun of presenting at career fairs all over Scotland. I was devastated to have to leave, but the University’s application for me to receive a work visa was rejected. No appeals.

Fortunately I landed on my feet when I returned home. Working with the University of Melbourne’s School of Physics from 1994-1996 was great fun. I was lucky enough to be working with a brilliant man, Dr Roger Rassool, who amazed and inspired me. His encouragement, and that of the Head of School, Professor Tony Klein, was greatly appreciated throughout. Whilst a pretty sexist place, the School of Physics had its gems and I am glad I had the opportunity to work with some extraordinary individuals whilst I was there.

I spent some time from 1996-1999 working with the Australian Council for Educational Research, running the Special Tertiary Admissions Test and the Australian Law Schools Entrance Test, but a particularly traumatic ending to a long term relationship led to me leaving ACER and taking a year out to heal my life. This was my epiphany year and it was at this point that I realised that I wanted to be a celebrant.

From 2000-2001 my part-time work was with GE Capital Finance, where I acted as a call centre representative and also spent some time in seconded position to the Fraud department, where I thoroughly enjoyed the detective aspect of the role. In the evenings I was finding a great deal of personal satisfaction in tutoring honours level Sociology twice a week. I was studying celebrancy and spent my weekends working nights at the now infamous Salt nightclub, where I was the cashier and ‘door bitch’. Salt was a pretty peaceable club at the time and I rarely saw any trouble.

During 2002 I was employed as a Youth Worker in Anglicare’s residential care programme for teenagers. It was a valuable role and I learnt a lot from the young people with whom I worked. After a year of that, I was offered a role as a case manager in foster care, which I found to be incredibly valuable work. Anglicare is a good employer. They look after their staff and the staff are totally dedicated to their clients.

As my celebrancy business expanded, there came a need to cut back on my Anglicare hours, and in 2004 I went part-time, focusing on the recruitment, education and training of foster carers. I discovered a talent and a real enjoyment for training work and it inspired me to complete my Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training with the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.

Moving to Darwin in May 2007 led to work with the lovely Shirli of the Dovaston Training and Assessment Centre, and then full-time employment as a Trainer in Alcohol and Other Drugs Work, with Centacare NT. The role requires extensive travel throughout the Northern Territory, and I’m learning a great deal about our First Peoples in the process. I have just completed my Graduate Diploma in Counselling and I look forward to combining all these interests in the years to come.

My celebrancy work is wonderful and I find it a great privilege to create special and memorable ceremonies for all types of transitions. I am currently working on writing a number of books, to offer as resources for my colleagues, and believe strongly in refining and developing my own personal ad professional practice, so each ceremony continues to surpass anything I have ever done before. I love the challenges inherent in the creation of unique ceremonies and look forward to continuing the creative process in the years to come.

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