Talented Kiwi actress Antonia Prebble has added another string to her bow by becoming a marriage celebrant – and on Sunday she officiated her first marriage.
She mysteriously told her followers on Twitter and Instagram, “Yesterday I officiated my first marriage as a registered celebrant and it went off with only one hitch”
We assume by hitch she only means ‘wedding’ – rather than a faux pas – as one of the popular star’s replies read: “You were fantastic ❤ thank you SO much 🌹🎊 xxxxx”
Another follower quipped, “I’ll keep you in mind! … would you do it as Rita if we paid double….?” with Antonia, who plays Rita West in the popular Kiwi drama Westside, replying, “haha are you sure you want that?”
The process involved in becoming a celebrant was quite a long and complex one, Antonia revealed in a recent interview with the Australian Women’s Weekly. She had to submit character references and letters of support and undergo a criminal record check and an official interview.
But she is now a fully-fledged celebrant with only one reservation about her new role: she’s a real weeper.
“I cry a lot at weddings,” she shared with the Weekly. “However, I have found that when I’ve been a bridesmaid, I’ve cried significantly less. Because I have a role that I’m focused on! So… I’m relying on that.”
Antonia recently finished filming the fourth season of Westside, as well as Sisters, which received strong reviews in Australia and can be seen in New Zealand on TVNZ On Demand.
We can’t imagine the sought-after actress ever running out of work but she maintains that the unstable nature of the acting world has been one of the reasons she has always strived to add more strings to her bow. In addition to her gaining her license as a marriage celebrant Antonia completed a Bachelor of Arts in 2014, is studying Spanish and is an ambassador for Auckland department store Smith and Caughey’s.
She has indicated that as wonderful as the opportunities have been to work abroad as an actress, she’d like to spend more time in New Zealand.
“As I get older, and my parents get older, I want to spend more time with them. I want to see my nephews grow up. So I feel slightly less energised towards fearlessly pursuing a career beyond the Antipodes.”
But officiating marriages is not something she plans to make a full-time career of, clarifying for her followers, “just a bit of diversification x”
