Latansani

01/09/2024

07/08/2024

Celebrants can make such a difference, not just to how a service unfolds, but also to how you feel about saying goodbye! We don’t appear in the Co-op data and yet we can make such a big contribution - our conpassion, dedication and support is invaluable to giving a bespoke and meaningful service!

one of the biggest chains of nationwide funeral directors (Kate T was recently on Radio 4's The Bottom Line with their CEO) has produced a comprehensive report into funeral trends... But they seem to have forgotten something...
😮There is no mention of funeral celebrants!!
😮The report lists florists, vehicles, dress codes and music choices... But who is creating and delivering the service? Not a word on them!
😮They list alternative locations for funerals and celebrations of life and living celebrations....
😮Whilst you won't need a funeral director for a celebration of life or living funeral (there's no body) - you would be wise to have someone to structure, write, deliver and stage-managed the event, be that family member, faith leader or, of course, professional celebrant. ♥️
😮And remember you can book a celebrant directly (no need to go through a funeral director)
♥️Also, there are as many different types of celebrant as there are dead people...
♥️Coffin Club's amazing Celebrant-plus celebrants range from committed atheists, to interfaith, pagan, unspecified spiritual and beyond. We have celebrants with additional skills and qualifications such as end of life doulas or grief counsellors or who specialise in living funerals ♥️
♥️We actually feel really sad that celebrants, who are the heart of a funeral service and an important source of support for bereaved people, were, once again, entirely overlooked.😕
Come on, Co-op, could do better.

Shout out to amazing Lincolnshire celebrant for alerting us to this injustice!!

training

31/07/2024

23/06/2024

Today’s fabulous wedding couple - they came to hear the script for their wedding in six weeks’ time. They cheers’d with two chocolate eclairs because that’s what they shared when their love story started…in lockdown! No Barnard Castle for them but a co-op car park and a two meter gap! Love knows no bounds! ❤️‍🔥

04/06/2024

I have some wonderful events coming up!

15/04/2024

This article is wonderfully provoking; it suggests a reframing to accept that it is a ‘privilege’ to be present at a death.
We so need to re-think end of life in every respect:
from the care we give to assist with it; to the way we talk about it, to prepare for it; to the rituals we can reinvent in order to celebrate it!

I have received many lovely messages in the weeks since my dad died – including one that will always stay with me, writes Adrian Chiles

02/03/2024

I had to have a calming conversation with a family member just yesterday; he is in a partnership – a civil partnership actually – but he has become more dependent on his partner recentl…

01/03/2024

In my daily ‘goings about’ yesterday, I passed one of our local bridal shops…it has a double window, beautifully lit, displaying an array of sparkling, elegant dresses in all colo…

27/02/2024

Changes to the three hundred year old laws mean that independent celebrants will become recognised as ‘Officiants’ just as we are in many other countries around the world! Spread the word, to make marriage equitable, inclusive and non-discriminatory for all in the UK!

14/02/2024

Don't just plan the ring and the proposal - book your celebrant!🥰

01/02/2024

01/01/2024

There is no difference between today, and tomorrow; if you have dwelled with fear, and grief, and pain, and loss, and uncertainty this year, they will probably still be there tomorrow. One hundred resolutions cannot undo this.
Put your hand on the small temple, that holy place in the middle of your chest.
Now, close your eyes; listen to the determined rhythm of your heart quietly pumping blood to every hidden corner of the landscape of your body.
You are still here - others have already left, gone on without you and it may hurt that they have, but you are still here. Bless them, so you might set each other free.
You are still alive - others are not, and it may hurt for a long, long time, even forever whilst you are still inhabiting your earth-skin, but it will not last forever. They are still there, just on the other side of everything-you-cannot-see-yet.
They are waiting for you…there is no need to rush. You still have so much work to do, and so many doors to walk through, and oh! we need you to leave your scent behind; your story has to seed itself fully before you leave, so the others might find traces of you; might eat from the lessons you leave behind.
Call your thoughts from the small box called 365 days, call them with your own voice, remind them that life—your life, is too big to be held by three numbers, by linear time.
You have not failed; you were allowed a lesson…learn from it.
You have not succeeded; you were allowed a lesson…learn from it.
It is all ‘your life’.
It is all ‘your days’.
Here we are again and still, you have not left.
There is still hope.
You have not met all the people who will still fall in love with the way that you laugh. There will be summer days where the breeze will find the naked skin on the back of your neck, and you will shiver with delight—the sheer pleasure of being right here, right now.
You might face difficult things in the days to come, but here is your breath holding you up. The sheer wonder of it; the audacious faithfulness!
Look for all the shapes in which grace finds its way to you; all the plump messengers that search for you! A robin sat outside my window this morning; looked me straight in the eye for the longest time.
Let me tell you this: if you look for them, you will be found by them. This goes for lots of things, both good and bad, of course, so search carefully, heart opened wide to the light.
May your days be honest and filled with grace, and joy,
and all around you will be kindness, even you will be this to someone else, and pockets of beauty—all the waypoints, shaped from the light.
Look for them, as you shape your life with your own brave mouth.

© Liezel Graham 2022

13/12/2023

I inspired Aled Jones! 😂😂 He trained with the Academy of Modern Celebrancy - a little later than me though…Just so you know, I can sing ‘Walking in the Air’ as you float down the aisle too ☺️

27/11/2023

I conducted a funeral service last week; the wife of the gentleman who had died wished to make her own tribute and she spoke so beautifully about their lives together. I only just managed to keep emotions under control when she read out this quote at the end…oh to have loved like this!

23/10/2023

Two news items today endorse the need for Celebrants to be made official!
1. Government officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) and complex algorithms to help decide who should have their marriage licence approved.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/23/uk-officials-use-ai-to-decide-on-issues-from-benefits-to-marriage-licences?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

2. Bots are being used to write funeral services!

14/10/2023

This was a delightful way to finish a busy working week; sharing the ceremony script for a wedding which takes place in a few weeks! I think, by their delighted smiles, (along with a few tears) they were happy! Can’t wait for this marriage where science and spirituality go hand in hand!

13/10/2023

Back to back funeral services today…so very different in style and form; from traditional and formally respectful, to gentle and spiritual, to a life celebration with so much humour it could be a stand-up routine. This is such a wonderfully rewarding job!

04/09/2023

Currently on BBC Radio Devon talking about the need for change in marriage laws and traditions re funerals! Will post a link if you can't catch it live!
UPDATE
If you weren’t able to catch this live today, I would welcome you giving this your ear; I explain why everyone needs to get behind the changes to outdated rites of passage from 10:15 to 11am

Link available for 29 days from 04/09

All the music you love, competitions and your views on today's news.

31/08/2023

Celebrancy - we’re changing the ways we access information…let's change the ways we talk about the cycle of life and death! Use your camera to focus on the QR code; it will take you to a thought provoking article…

28/08/2023

A little day trip jolly to Bournemouth for the wedding of Anna and Ian today - in a rather glamorous setting, a couple of hundred metres from the beach! Fabulous sunshine…along with incredible, dramatic clouds for awesome photos! 🥰

13/08/2023

I’ve been writing resources for the RSHE units in schools - teachers need guidance too, to know when to support a child in school with grief…but this is awesome from a kind and wise child!

"I am seven years old and when I was six, I went to my brother’s funeral. I had never been to a funeral before. I thought I knew what to expect but there were lots of things I did not know about funerals. I want to help other kids prepare for a funeral" - Aria
And so she has, with a wonderful list of tips for kids and their grownups, read it here:
https://www.vsk.org.au/funeral-tips-for-kids/

Thanks so much, Aria and Very Special Kids for sharing this - we think your kindness will help many people.

11/08/2023

How’s this for the loveliest of reviews? The first from the groom…the second from the bride. I had such fun getting to know this couple and will miss their zoom sessions…but they’ve promised to update me on their future acquisition of children, goats and axolotls!

Hello from the honeymoon!

I just wanted to say a huge thank you! It wasn’t just that the ceremony was perfect - it was so much better than I thought it could be.

For me personally it truly was the best moment of my life. Thank you for making it such a magical, wonderful and personal experience.

If there’s anything we can do in terms of reviews and/or if you’d like any photos or vids for social media please do let us know.

Thank you again - now just want to do it all again!

Hello Julie, how are you? We wanted to drop a message to say thank you so so so much for Monday. We had the most gorgeous day and the ceremony was amazing. Everyone commented on how gorgeous and personal it was. We really cannot thank you enough. It’s been a mad 48 hours and we are about to board the cruise! All the best, ###

05/08/2023

Appointment Three! An assessment of a 'Live' Ceremony preparing a student celebrant for graduation from the AMC...I am so happy with this role (if a little exhausted, today!) What a privilege to be involved in the rites of passage of so many deserving, loving, kind people all of whom are helping to walk each other home!

05/08/2023

Second appointment on a busy Saturday in my work as a Celebrant. The first reading of a wedding script! Can you read their emotions? I love to see their faces as we talk through the vows, and these are happy tears - honest! This wedding is in eight weeks and today we shared philosophies about marriage, and life and love. I hope they loved what we created together - I cannot wait to marry them!

05/08/2023

First appointment of a busy Saturday!
Summer Fayre and Open Day at Dartmouth Road Funeralcare from 10am-2pm. Please come along if you are in the area.

I conducted the most gentle and unique service there last week…full of love, kindness and none of the harsh imagery associated with funerals of past traditions. It was just as the lady requested in her wishes, which she had organised well before her death.
We plan so carefully for a birth and a wedding, yet often leave this most important rite to chance, as if it will never happen or doesn’t matter. It can be so different; we can leave our families with a lasting memory of a thoughtful goodbye.

Today, as well as having a Cake Stall, Tombola, refreshments the FDs want to use this as a way of showing the community what they have there and what they can offer families.

They will have the chapel set up as if for a service and have a hearse and limo to showcase the fleet.

https://www.coop.co.uk/funeralcare/funeral-directors/paignton/TQ4-5AQ/22-dartmouth-road?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gmb-maps-Paignton&y_source=1_MTU5ODE4OTMtNzE1LWxvY2F0aW9uLndlYnNpdGU%3D

07/07/2023

Wedding ready! Script? ✔️ Printed Vows? ✔️ Making sure I’ve got the right day? And couple? ✔️ Celebrant certificate ✔️ GLASSES!? ✔️ Now to get glammed up 💖

14/05/2023

A lovely review from this couple, celebrating two weeks wed!

“The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. We still feel like we’re on cloud 9, we had the most amazing day. It really was the happiest day of our lives. We also loved having you as our celebrant. There was definitely a reason why we were drawn to your profile online, you understood us perfectly and could not have produced a better ceremony. We have received so many comments about how brilliant you were, we honestly cannot thank you enough for everything. And we will also remember the part you played so fondly. It really did feel like we’d known you for a lot longer and vice versa. Thank you so much. We will definitely leave a review. We hope you have been keeping well. I will send you some photos when we receive them from Alex xx”