Hold Fast Ceremonies

12/01/2023

01/08/2022

🎉 OUT OF OFFICE AND OFF TO MY HONEYMOON BABES 🎉

Yes chums. This Saturday I got married. After three pandemic postponements we finally did it and it was GLORIOUS 🎉❤️‍🔥

Superstar created ceremony magic, so much more on that later 🧡 💫

I’m off for six weeks of honeymoon, sailing my boat somewhere. Hopefully to Spain. With our luck we’ll be stormbound in Portsmouth for six weeks and you know what? WE WILL HAVE A BLOODY EXCELLENT TIME TOO.

Rather be in Spain though… ☀️

Photos of our amazing day by image-making genius to come, so prepare yerselves 🙌🏽

So if you need me before September 12th…just don’t.

Smell ya later, beauties 🧡

✨💃🏽🕺🏻✨

ID: Me, still in my pink celebrant dress, at the helm of our inflatable dinghy. One hand on the tiller, other elbow on knee and chin in hand, that arm covered in wildflower tattoos. I’m wearing sunglasses and my hair’s blowing back. The sky is blue and the water is glistening.

07/07/2022

07/07/2022

🌟 🌈 QUEERLY BELOVED 🌈 🌟⁠
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You better believe that when I turned up conduct A & H's lovely, windy Brighton beach wedding on Monday I was a) so utterly delighted by their amazing banner that I squealed loudly and jumped up and down, and b) mortified that I, a literal writer and lover of puns, had not come up with this slice of genius. ⁠
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I MEAN LOOK AT IT 💖⁠
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Stay tuned for more photos of complete geniosity from these two gorgeous humans.⁠
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ID: A pink, quilted banner upon which are stitched the words "QUEERLY BELOVED" in tall white letters. The banner is fringed at the bottom with wine red fringe. It hands against a rock gabian wall, sunny skies just visible behind and pink and white tassel decorations hanging above.⁠
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07/04/2022

✨ Super fun rehearsal for tomorrow’s super lovely wedding, my first of the season 🎉 in this absolutely glorious old Victorian boozer, Ridiculously exciting! Gird yer loins, J and L, I am coming for you 💫

ID: a reflection of me in a grey jumper taking a selfie in a huge, ornate golden mirror with aisles of chairs stretching out behind me. Fairy lights adorn the mirror and it’s framed with purple curtains.

25/01/2022

We celebrate the human lives that have ended ✨

Today I conduct a funeral for a man whose wife died in October and whose funeral I conducted in November. I married their daughter in an emergency wedding in September and despite the fact that both parents were so ill, they were there to witness the joy of their girl marrying her favourite human in the family garden on a sunny day. I’ve been with this family through truly intense times and it’s real privilege to be an integral part of such important moments. I’m so grateful they found me 🌿

A quote I’m using in the funeral script today is from dear Carl Sagan: “The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.” 💫

Take care of each other.

10/12/2021

Stunning the site of tomorrow’s wedding shenanigans and my last ceremony of 2021 ✨

We are going out with a bang 💥

And a cocktail unity ritual 🍹👌🏽

and Rich we are doing it - FINALLY 🙌🏽🍾🎉

26/11/2021

Sunset over today’s wedding rehearsal at the frankly stunning ✨ Like, that view? I’ll be standing in front of that glorious view blocking it for the guests tomorrow with my lovelies A and N. Let it snow ❄️

23/10/2021

Outside in! The ancient apple trees at the family home have had the wedding marquee built around them and this is honestly just stunning 🌿🧡

23/10/2021

Wedding ready. We’re bringing out the big guns today: The Orange Dress of Dreams 🧡💥 A & R I’m coming for you. Fingers crossed you’re not lost on a mountaintop somewhere…

21/10/2021

We have fantastic book The Good Ally front and centre at 👌🏽✊🏽 Yep, I also work at the library so basically I have the two most fantastic jobs ever 💥

05/10/2021

✨ When a couple you married in August emails a photo of their hand fasting knot beautifully framed and says “This is something we will treasure forever” 😭🥰

Swipe to see the beauties and the moment their knot came together ☀️

Thanks so much for sharing 🧡

25/09/2021

🌼 Flowers picked from my garden and three homemade hand-fasting cords for an incredibly special wedding today, that I was asked to create only four days ago. An urgent wedding. The process has been so extraordinary, so beautiful, so full of laughter and love, tears and courage and gorgeous words, and I honestly feel like the luckiest creature alive today. So privileged to be able to participate in such moments with other human beings. So honoured to be able to hold space for people at such times. A & S I will be with you soon 🌿

🧡 Love is everything

18/09/2021

🧡 Lovely A and N came for their ceremony planning meeting in my garden today and have been well and truly indoctrinated about the many virtues of the Mexican sunflower, tithonia torch, which is the #1 best colour that exists in this dimension or any other.

Come for the planning, stay for the gardening tips 🌿

14/09/2021

It’s always nerve-wracking waiting for feedback on the first draft of a script 😳

Like, will they just like it? 🙂 Will they be OK with it? 🧐 Will they HATE it? 🤬 Will they hate ME? 💀

The anxious inner dialogue never stops. But then I get feedback like this and I’m like 💃🏽🙌🏽🥰💥🍹 and everything’s OK 👌🏽

Thanks A & R, can’t wait to marry the stuffing out of you 🧡

14/09/2021

🌿 Biodegradable confetti, vintage rugs, scarlet toenails, gold sandals, grassy woodland glades, lazy hot days. Take me back to July ☀️

07/09/2021

🌟 Newlyweds Alice and Jamie, whose smiles lit up the beautiful Devon landscape through the rain ☔️

The brilliant Laura Crouchley Photo] captured this moment, as they created their nautical-themed double love know during the hand-fasting.

And your favourite little love troll grinning from ear to ear in the background, soggy but delighted 😄

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📸 Laura Crouchley Photo]

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25/08/2021

💃🏽 Everybody dance! 🕺🏼

🧡 Mylinh and Will, dancing behind brilliant Dixieland jazz band The 12th Street Swingers 🎺 after their beautiful ceremony 🌿 The band led them and a joyful procession of family and friends to the rest of their fantastic celebration at 💫

It was quite the exit 💥

14.08.2021

Thanks to for the video 😘

[ ID: A three-piece brass band playing ‘When the saints come marching in’, lead a happy, dancing procession of bride, groom and guests through a sunny field. ]

24/08/2021

🧡 NEWLY-WEDDED BEAUTIES ALICE & JAMIE🧡⁠⁠
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🌿 Perched on a cliff top with views from Dartmoor to the sea at the breathtakingly stunning
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💫 Look at that view. Are you looking at it? LOOK AT IT.⁠⁠
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☀️ We had ALL OF THE WEATHER 🌤☔️🌪 and it was all GORGEOUS.⁠⁠
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🙏🏻 We had a hand fasting using traditional boating ropes as a nod to the sea and the couple’s love of it (the finished double eternity knot is sitting happily on a hay bale in the 5th photo.)⁠⁠
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💖 Thank you and Jamie for allowing me to celebrate you ✨⁠⁠
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I’m not jealous you’ve escaped to Greece. Na ah. Nope.⁠⁠
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💥 Legendary supplier situation 💥⁠⁠
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Stunning photography: ⁠⁠
Amazing florals:
Moar amazing florals: ⁠⁠
Beautiful locks:
Fantastic tunes:
Gorgeous cake:
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[ Image descriptions: 1. Newly-weds Alice and Jamie walk hand-in-hand in the field along the cliff top after their wedding ceremony. 2. A field on a cliff top with a flower arch in the centre and hay bales to the sides, the sea in the background. 3. A flower arch on a cliff top with the sea behind. 4. A pair of coiled ropes, ready to use in a hand fasting ceremony, with a pair of booklets containing the couple’s vows. The booklets’ covers are illustrations of a sandy beach. 5. The newly-wedded couple kissing in field, with their photographer creating photos of them. 6. A three-tier wedding cake on a round table with a large sign behind that says ‘LOVE’. ]⁠⁠
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20/08/2021

Wedding preparation done right, my friends 🍻

17/08/2021

🧡 MY BEAUTIES WILL AND MYLINH 🧡⁠
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👽 And me!⁠ 👽
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🌿 Married deep in the woodlands and fields of The High Weald on a gorgeous day as a cloud of dragonflies circled the woodland clearing above us. True story.⁠
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🌟 A beautiful, hilarious and super emotional ceremony, so much laughter, so many happy tears. ⁠
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💖 I honestly still get choked up thinking about this day. So much love for these two, thank you and Will for letting me celebrate the stuffing out of you.⁠
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Big up the suppliers:⁠
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☀️ Ridiculously gorgeous day at the ridiculously beautiful ⁠
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💥 Banging photography by the legend that is ⁠
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🌟 Superstar wedding coordination by ⁠
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🌼 Spectacular, dreamy flowers by ⁠
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Image descriptions: ⁠
1 - A sunny day. Justine standing on the grass, grinning and in her green jumpsuit, flanked by the smiling bride in her long white gown and holding a bouquet of pinks and cream flowers on the left, and the smiling groom in his blue suit on the right, a joyous inter-racial couple. In the background guests celebrate in the sunshine with champagne. ⁠
2 - A woodland glade on a sunny day, set with rows of seats, flowers and rugs down the aisle for a wedding. ⁠
3 - A bouquet of cream and pink flowers tied to a folding chair. ⁠
4 - A wooden hexagon wedding backdrop festooned with flowers and dried grasses. In front, vintage rugs. To one side a pair of chairs for bride and groom. ⁠
5 - Sunshine floods a woodland glade and the wedding chairs. ⁠
6 - After the wedding, looking back up the aisle as guests depart into the sunshine. ⁠
7 - A three-tiered wedding cake, lightly-iced, draped in pink and orange roses, against a background of silver birch tree trunks. ⁠
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17/08/2021

🧡 MY BEAUTIES WILL AND MYLINH 🧡⁠
⁠
👽 And me!⁠
⁠
🌿 Married deep in the woodlands and fields of The High Weald on a gorgeous day as a cloud of dragonflies circled the woodland clearing above us. True story.⁠
⁠
🌟 A beautiful, hilarious and super emotional ceremony, so much laughter, so many happy tears. ⁠
⁠
💖 I honestly still get choked up thinking about this day. So much love for these two, thank you and Will for letting me celebrate the stuffing out of you.⁠
⁠
Big up the suppliers:⁠
⁠
☀️ Ridiculously gorgeous day at the ridiculously beautiful ⁠
⁠
💥 Banging photography by the legend that is
⁠
🌟 Superstar wedding coordination by ⁠
⁠
🌼 Spectacular, dreamy flowers by ⁠
⁠
Image descriptions: ⁠
1 - A sunny day. Justine standing on the grass, grinning and in her green jumpsuit, flanked by the smiling bride in her long white gown and holding a bouquet of pinks and cream flowers on the left, and the smiling groom in his blue suit on the right, a joyous inter-racial couple. In the background guests celebrate in the sunshine with champagne. ⁠
2 - A woodland glade on a sunny day, set with rows of seats, flowers and rugs down the aisle for a wedding. ⁠
3 - A bouquet of cream and pink flowers tied to a folding chair. ⁠
4 - A wooden hexagon wedding backdrop festooned with flowers and dried grasses. In front, vintage rugs. To one side a pair of chairs for bride and groom. ⁠
5 - Sunshine floods a woodland glade and the wedding chairs. ⁠
6 - After the wedding, looking back up the aisle as guests depart into the sunshine. ⁠
7 - A three-tiered wedding cake, lightly-iced, draped in pink and orange roses, against a background of silver birch tree trunks. ⁠
⁠

03/03/2021

✍🏽 Writing some banging wedding ceremonies 🌟 with my personal proofreader and stick chewer-in-chief 🐺

02/07/2020

The photography of is deep and warm and strong, like a slow-burning fire in the heart 🔥🧡

I love his work and have no idea how I managed to choose only 10 images. Go see all of them immediately.

Some stunning bonus wedding looks here too 👌🏽 🌿

01/07/2020

💥That’s right lovers, we are taking the UK government TO COURT! 💥

“Why,” you ask, “when there are SO MANY OTHER THINGS TO TAKE THE GOVERNMENT TO COURT ABOUT?” 🤔 Yes, and I hear you, but first we legalise humanist weddings then we storm the barricades. It’s only Wednesday.

Six couples are taking their case to the High Court next week in order to get legal recognition for in England and Wales. Recognition that humanist weddings ALREADY have in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Jersey. It’s past time we joined them.

🧡 Humanist weddings are all-singing all-dancing (unless you don’t want singing or dancing, it’s ENTIRELY up to you) super meaningful, bespoke ceremonies created for and with you, to perfectly reflect you, your relationship and your values. And if they’re legalised you’ll be able to marry legally wherever you like, however you like and to whomever you like 🧡

AND you can include your doggo 🐶

You don’t get that from a registrar.

Want to help? YES MATE:

💥Tweet your MP about your support for our case!
💥Tell everyone! Your friends, your family, your pets, your local builder!
💥If you’re booked in with me for a banging wedding ceremony comment here and tell me why having a humanist ceremony is so important to you!

LET’S DO THIS 💥

23/06/2020

Humanists UK today streamed online a humanist national memorial ceremony for the victims of coronavirus.

As well as being a wedding celebrant, I've just completed my training as a funeral celebrant and will soon be able to conduct humanist funerals.

This ceremony, including Dr Alice Roberts, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, celebrant Audrey Simmons, and many more, is worth half an hour of your time, whatever your background. We all share a common humanity. We have all been affected in one way or another. Maybe this will bring some sort of comfort, whatever your situation 🧡 🌿

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e45KuJKM9o0

This is the humanist National Memorial Ceremony to commemorate the victims of the coronavirus pandemic, and to help those confined in lockdown and separated ...

23/06/2020

Feedback like this gives me life 🙌🏽🌟

18/06/2020

Come to Brighton, I’ll marry you on the beach with the glorious ruin of The West Pier in the background 🧡 Gorgeous shot by , banging local photographer 🌟

18/06/2020

Books for kids: self-love for black kids, anti-racism for white kids💥

I’m mixed-race. White people, all my damn life: “Your hair! Can I touch it?” or “Where are you from, look at your HAIR?!l” or “Your hair’s so EXOTIC, where are you FROM?!” and when I say “Croydon” it’s “No, but where are you REALLY from?” or, actually, most of the time white people just touch my hair without even asking. Ruffle it, like I’m a dog 🤔

Like. I’m. A. Dog.

I was taught to hate my natural hair when I was a child. Black people, people of colour, usually are. “But it’s just HAIR!” No. It really isn’t, for us. Hair is political. Teach your damn kids, white folks, about racism. Bring them up as real humans. So here are some books that I wish I’d had as a kid, and some for white people and the teaching of anti-racism to the next generation of white people. Who will grow up to be the next generation of “Can I touch your hair?” racists if you don’t do something about it. Teach yourself and then teach your damn kids 👍🏽 @ Brighton and Hove

05/05/2020

The Sussex Downs + me = 🙌🏽 Outdoors is my favourite 🌿 You want a kick-ass outdoor wedding ceremony that lets you relax, have fun and REALLY enjoy? 💫LET'S DO IT 💫⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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