Mulberrydays celebrants was started by Tina Bowden in 2007,
14/01/2025
Yesterday, I was privileged to work with Jane of Peter Taylor Funeral Services and the lovely team at Earlham Crematorium. Our service was for a lady whose life had a thread of kindness throughout. A loving wife, mum and grandma, and a Primary School teacher for many years, she always put the happiness and comfort of others before her own. Charitable, caring, creative, and a lifelong learner, remembered with such deep affection and admiration by all who attended. We left the chapel to one of her favourite children's hymns, the words of which seemed such an appropriate and uplifting end to our service as the sun gave us rainbows in the chapel - 'And it's from the old I travel to the new, Keep me travelling along with you.' Pam.
Becs was caring and professional from the first introduction right through to the reading of th ...
14/01/2025
Yesterday I was at St Faiths Crematorium supporting Leanne and team, from J Gedge & Sons. We were honouring, and celebrating, the life to a true Norfolk country boy. Born in Cantley, he lived his whole 92 years of life in Norfolk and was a valued member of the farming community – working for many of the farmers he’d known, as children. Having been ‘written off’ at school, he became a skilled mechanic and engineer - there was nothing he couldn’t repair, and if there was a piece missing, or he was unable to source one – he would make it. He certainly shew his teachers!
Once he’d retired, he would spend hours, in his boiler suit, in his ‘Aladdin's Cave’ of a shed. It was stuffed to the gunnels with bits and pieces – neatly stored in boxes and tins – all clearly labelled - ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’.
His reputation as a ‘fixer’ continued into his 80s and he had many ‘can you justs?’, as he called them. People who would come round, with a broken lawnmower etc., saying ‘Can you just…’ or ‘I don’t suppose you have…?’ and he always could, would and did.
A loving father and husband, the last thing he said to his wife, just hours before he died, was “Take care of yourself, my old booty”. Becs
09/01/2025
Four very different services conducted this week for Jane and team from Gordon Rooney's, Roger and the ladies from Peter Taylors, Broni and her team from John Brown and daughter plus Adam and his crew from Jerry March's.
One service was at Earlham with Maxine, two at St Faiths with Dominic and one at Colney Woods with Lynne.
We are so lucky to have some superb venues, for funerals in Norfolk plus I'm lucky to work with some very professional and compassionate Funeral Directors, their teams and the staff at all locations.
All the services this week had input from the families or in one case simply the friends of the deceased, as there were no family.
One service was for a lovely lady, who I'd met back in January 2021, when I helped her and the family put together a celebration of life service for her late husband.
So, I was able to use information and memories the lady her self had told me back in January 2021, in her own service, which made her service even more special and indeed very personal to her and and her lovely family.
What really made me smile and was so lovely, was meeting some of the congregation before they entered the chapel, one group of ladies, who were life long friends of the deceased, showed me a superb black and white photo of all of them, in their teens, in a brilliant snap that capture them all playing for Norfolk in a Netball match...chatting further to the ladies, they all remembered the positions that they played in the team and just beamed at me whilst they all told me about their friend of over 70 years.
This is why I love what I do...............special moments and very special memories from very special friends and family, for a much loved lady.
Geoff was compassionate, professional and real He made the day flow smoothly and we would like ...
05/01/2025
Two very different services conducted recently....
One just before Christmas with Leanne from J Gedge & Son for a gentleman who had overcome his blindness, to live a very full and active life.
He met his wife whilst they were both training to be a physiotherapists and they went on to marry and have a family with two children.
The family moved to Norfolk and he took up sailing at Rollesby Broad sailing club, with various club members accompanying him on the helm sailing Wayfarers.
He sailed for 50 plus years and loved every moment on the water. He competed at International level sailing in Blind sailing events, in which, he won many trophies and medals.
He also loved cars and whilst he could not drive himself, he loved to chat to people about their own cars and their engines.
Some of the physical activitys he undertook caused others much concern and probably would not have passed a risk assessment!
A life well lived, with passion for activities he loved plus the love and support of his wife, children and grandchildren.
The other service was with Gordon Rooney's and for a family I had worked with before, its always nice when a family request to use you again, as they trusted and knew how I would conduct the service for their loved one.
I had met the lady whose service I was conducting, as I had helped her put together the celebration of life service for her late husband back in February 2023.
There was much laughter and smiling when I met the family for the second time, as that is exactly the memory the dear lady wanted to leave her family.
We started the service with a marvellous video of the lady and her husband dancing at their 50th wedding anniversary to Elvis Presley singing Always On My Mind...there was not one dry eye in the congregation.
Later in the service we had other tracks that the couple used to sing to each other....including You are my Sunshine sung by Bing Crosby and It's You sung by Freddie Starr
A very happy marriage of nearly sixty years and I'm sure the lovely couple are now reunited and dancing together once more.
Geoff x
03/01/2025
Yesterday I led a ‘small but perfectly formed’ graveside service, for a wonderfully eccentric 85-year-old lady, attended by two of her children, and her three grandchildren. I started the service by apologising to her, because she had said she didn’t want someone who’d never met her, talking about her. We did comply with her wishes about dress code though – colourful and comfy – as did the lady herself, as she was dressed in her favourite sweatshirt, joggies and bright blue fluffy slippers.
She had a colourful life - breeding Great Danes for a while (no mean feat for someone who was 5ft nothing - at her tallest), dabbling in paganism (considering herself a ‘hedge witch’) and being, what her daughter described as, a ‘potty mouth’. I wish I’d known her.
She loved animals (particularly horses and dogs) and nature (preserving wildflowers and woodland), which made. Which made the beautiful Norfolk Bluebell Wood Burial Park, so perfect, for her final resting place. The service ended with each of the family sprinkling coffee grounds into her grave, as she was known to like a triple-shot americano. It was lovely, to work with Jane and the team from Earlham Funeralcare (inc. Gordon Rooney Funeral Service) again, too. Becs
24/12/2024
21/12/2024
Conducting a service for a child is always difficult for a celebrant. The grief is so palpable, and it is always such an emotional day. It was a privilege to be entrusted with this service last week. Thanks to all at Earlham Crematorium and Peter Taylor Funeral care for their help and support.
16/12/2024
I had the pleasure to conduct a very, very unique service for Gordon Rooney's last week, it was for a real character, a gentleman who had really lived to the full his 90 years of life.
When I visited the family, to help them arrange the service, I was greeted in their front room with over 100 clocks, of all shapes and sizes, as the gentleman loved to collect clocks , plus he loved a Scotch or a Guinness, so he also had a bar in his front room as well! There was much laughter and many smiles as they all told me lovingly all about him.
The chapel at Earlham Crematorium was full to capacity, with all his family and many many friends.
We had music that the gentleman had selected for himself for the service plus some very appropriate poems.......oh and we had to have a clock placed on his coffin as well.
I read a lovely eulogy, which was full of his life stories and anecdotes.....when I had asked the family how many children, the gentleman had had in his life , they all smiled at me and laughed, and said that they really were not sure, but at least 12, they actually said that his children were and I quote 'Like the league of nations, spread all around the globe', perhaps this was partly down to the fact, that they also told me, his car a Volvo estate with Leopard print seat covers, was lovingly known as 'his passion wagon'!
A very full life, lived with both love and passion!
Geoff x
10/12/2024
Hi Tina,
I like to pass on my thanks to Becs for helping us with the eulogy yesterday at mum’s funeral (Hazel Clarke)
She was extremely helpful and considerate in dealing with such a sensitive subject.
Thank you again.
Kind regards,
Martyn and family.
08/12/2024
Friday we said goodbye to a true seaman! A radio officer in the Merchant Navy. 🛳️
The service sheet included Morse code and family and friends all contributed in their own individual ways.
Belvoir House- Brundall Norfolk - a worthy cause indeed. 🪴
Colney Woodland Burial - beautiful as always, even on the darkest days!
Leanne x 🕊️
The Ocean has its silent caves,
Deep, quiet, and alone;
Though there be fury on the waves,
Beneath them there is none.
The awful spirits of the deep
Hold their communion there;
And there are those for whom we weep,
The young, the bright, the fair.
Calmly the wearied seamen rest
Beneath their own blue sea.
The ocean solitudes are blest,
For there is purity.
The earth has guilt, the earth has care,
Unquiet are its graves;
But peaceful sleep is ever there,
Beneath the dark blue waves.
🙏🏼
“Thank you so much Leanne. The support and guidance you provided made a difficult situation much more manageable. Often going above and beyond. We were all so pleased with how dad's day went, and that is massively down to you guys.”
Many thanks
James
Becs is a very caring, kind person who helped me and my family through a very difficult time. S ...
05/12/2024
Earlier this week, I worked with the Howard and the team from RJ Bartram & Son Co-op Funeralcare at the beautiful GreenAcres Living Memorial Parks Colney, to celebrate the life of a lovely lady, who almost made it to her 96th birthday.
Having overcome her tough, Victorian-style upbringing, she became a loving grandmother, who knew what she liked (and what she didn’t) and who moved house more times than many of us could count.
Like the Aran jumpers she loved to knit, her family and friends were all strands of wool in the knitting of her life, and her death is like a dropped stitch, creating a space filled, at least for now, with sadness.
She was married for 68 years. The couple were the love of one another’s lives and used to say, “the longer we’re together, the less time we’ll be apart”. Now they are reunited.
Lovely feedback from the family too “Thank you for all your help and support. You made mum's day so special” Becs
03/12/2024
A lovely email received today...
Dear Pam,
I wanted to send a proper old fashioned physical thank you card to you as an email seems so cold after all you hard work and support. However in the absence of an address this will have to do.
I just wanted you to know that I really appreciated the time you spent with us discovering info about Mum and also the way you crafted her life into such a lovely piece for the service. I apologise for all the tweaks....please forgive.
It must be terribly difficult to condense anyone's life into a short, formal reading but you really did her and us proud and so many people have told us what a lovely and unusual service it was which really helps me as it has meant that she was laid to rest with a smile as well as tears of sadness.
Thank you for everything. Your words of support and encouragement meant a lot.
I wish you and your family every happiness for Christmas and the New Year.
03/12/2024
Its so lovely, when families take the time to say thank you. It
re-enforces the importance and impact, of what we do. 😊
03/12/2024
Short and sweet, another happy family. Feeling proud ☺️
Great communication. Took important points an delivered them in a very personal way.
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Our Story
Mulberrydays celebrants was started by Tina Bowden in 2007, Tina was a registrar working for Norwich county council and saw that there was a gap in the market for someone to actually give families the funeral service and the wedding ceremony they really wanted. at the time the choices were a humanist funeral with no reference to any type of belief or here after, or a full blown religious service. Tina talked over her idea with a local funeral director (thank you Ivan) who agreed that her ideas were sound and families would be receptive, he also agreed to give her her first funeral service to conduct. The rest as they say, is history. The business took off and soon Tina found herself in such demand that she could not cope with the work load and began looking for that special person to help her, Julie Bates appeared at just the right time and has been working alongside Tina since 2008. the next few years have seen work and reputation increase even more, and so Julie Greenslade, Trish Moss, Liz Radley, Mirian Cooper, all joined her, then the team decided that maybe it was time to let the boys in and the first man or Knight as they like to call him ( mulberry Days, mulberry Knights) Bob Hannam joined the team in 2017 and in Feb 18 another Mulberry Knight joined them, Geoff Patching. Since then we have trained many celebrants who have gone on to work alone and this year, 2019, see’s Pam Wilks joining our team as well. The team continues to grow, but our ethos remains the same.
The team have all been trained by Tina, and the rest of the team also help with the training, so there is continuity right across the team, but each of the celebrants obviously brings with them, their own style, personality and individuality, but each one of them also has the reassurance of a friendly team behind them.
The wedding side of the business has also grown and grown, when Tina first started it was not possible to get married in the open air, now of course most registrar offices have cottoned on to Tina’s way of doing things and they now offer dual ceremonies, where you do the legalities inside and then again outside, but they still do not have the freedom to include many things that couples want to make their ceremony unique and personal to them. Mulberrydays has always maintained the motto and standard that it truly is the couples day, and they have just given hundreds of couples their day in exactly their way.
Tina has conducted some beautiful grand ceremonies in woodlands, on beaches, famous places, and some equally beautiful small intimate ceremonies in peoples homes and gardens in both this country and many countries abroad. Her team are also trained in weddings and they too have conducted many wonderful ones. You only have to read the testimonials on their facebbok or website pages to know how happy their customers are with the way they have helped them.
MulberryDays continues to grow, year by year, hopefully for many more years yet to come.
Mulberrydays celebrants was started by Tina Bowden in 2007,
