Ray Young never imagined he would become a celebrant, but now wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“I kind of joked about it with my friends and said ‘wouldn’t it be great if I could be like Joey on Friends and be my friend’s celebrant’,” Mr Young said.

“They took it literally and did the research. I just did the process.”

Mr Young said business just “took off from there”. 

“Now every time I leave a wedding I just have the biggest smile. Love is love, Australia has spoken and love has won,” he said. 

“The fact that you can see two people who are happy and in love and be a part of the them wanting to spend the rest of their lives together is awesome. I love love.”

When Mr Young heard the government were going to do a postal vote survey, he quickly jumped on to the yes campaign. 

First he changed his business logo to include a rainbow heart, then he changed the way he conducted the ceremonies. 

“It’s all about law in Australia. It’s all about union between a man and a woman and the ‘exclusion of all others’,” he said. 

“I give the couples that I marry an opportunity to add a section – which you’re allowed to do – but you’re not allowed to change the words. 

“I say ‘although this is the law that Australia follows, such and such couple like to believe love can be between any two couples’.”

Mr Young said his ceremonies would stay that way, with the couple’s permission, until the legislation changes.

After discussing the vote throughout the last 50 days with his friend in based Sydney, he said he was really happy when he heard the results on Wednesday.

“When you’ve got people in your life in same-sex relationships you just want to see them happy and you want them to have the same opportunities as everyone else,” he said.  

Mr Young was at work when he heard the result and checked the voting percentages on his lunch break. 

“What shocked me was the ACT, being a government hot spot, had 74 per cent. That is a big statistic for that section of Australia,” he said.