'I believe in love more than ever, but I couldn't reconcile those values with being a celebrant'

My favourite part was sitting with couples, talking about their lives and why they wanted to marry. But I’m equally happy to have left it behind

Jasper Peach: "Wedding days were extraordinarily intimate. I absorbed the couple’s hope and intention, then rode that emotional high for hours".

I was in my mid-20s in the mid-2000s when I became a professional yapper. I’d had to bow out of a career in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) interpreting due to injury, but could still talk under wet concrete. Studying to become a civil marriage celebrant felt logical — I wanted to know what love was, and I knew it could show me.

Being appointed by the Attorney-General’s Department involved a Certificate III and a rigorous application process. I had to prove I was “of good standing” and “believed in the definition of marriage”.