Creating Ceremony

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Creating Ceremony

Ceremonies with substance, style and soul for all of life’s significant moments. Weddings, vow re There is another way. [email protected]
07929 764162

feels impersonal and soulless. As an independent celebrant, I can create a ceremony with you for any significant life event, reflecting your personality, your beliefs and your lifestyle. Each ceremony is totally unique and as traditional or as creative as you wish. Get in touch today and let's create a ceremony that's perfect for you.

31/12/2024

Well it’s a new moon, it’s the end of the year and it’s the start of a whole new phase…

Our youngest daughter took off to NZ about an hour ago on a one way ticket. Waaaah!!! And also… yay for her!!! (But right now, mostly waaaah!)

Cheers, you lovely lot. Here’s to adventure, going outside your comfort zones, and new beginnings… (as well as being kind to yourself, trusting your gut, and shunning all the ‘new year new you’ bullsh*t)🥂

Lots of fizz, crisps and comfort films ###x

04/12/2024

It was an honour to be back at H D Tribe Ltd Funeral Directors yesterday to lead the Christmas memorial service for the third year running.

The memorial is always held in Grief Awareness Week, and this year’s theme for the week (set by The Good Grief Trust) is ‘Shine a Light’.

Christmastime can be very hard for those who are mourning a loved one when expectations are for fun and festive spirit. We talked about how your light doesn’t need to be like the Coca Cola truck has come into town - it can be a glowing ember kindled by a kind word, some practical support, or some shared favourite memories.

Fittingly, we lit candles of course! And then retired to share mulled wine and mince pies before setting out into the darkness, a little more aglow than before…

22/11/2024

As it’s the inaugural Funeral Celebrants Day, I thought I would share a lovely thing from a funeral I conducted this morning.

Steve had a veritable army of nieces and nephews who he played with, co-starred in TikToks they made with him, and adored.

We had a whole slideshow of the pictures they’d drawn in tribute to their favourite uncle, set to Chiquitita by ABBA, a song he’d chosen himself for his ceremony.

Steve’s family gave me permission to share them on here in the hope it might inspire people who might want to do the same.

What a talented and loving bunch these lot are! I could only share 10 but there were 18 fabulous pics altogether.

So on , let’s share that is to empower people to make their person’s funeral totally their own 🥰

15/11/2024

World Celebrants Week day 5 and it’s about our celebrant inspiration.

Being a celebrant can be a lonely business sometimes. But I’m soooo very grateful for our fabulous community. And what’s even better is when we get together in actual 3D.

At our recent Celebrants Collective annual get together, the love, the support and the friendship was palpable.

Hugs! Laughter! People who get it!!

Plus I got to see my fabulous Natasha - the other half of the and - in person again after a year of Zooming and WhatsApping!

I love, love, LOVE the celebrant community. Folk who’ve trained with different organisations, who’ve been doing it for donkey’s yonks or have just started, but are all - ALL - in it for love (see my previous post for my thoughts on that).

Now, there were obviously people who couldn’t be there and I love you too, with particular honourable mention to (love you, Mrs!)

But to those who were with us last week, thank you for being there. It was sooooo awesome to see you 🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰

14/11/2024

I’ve been musing on the prompt about what I like best about being a celebrant (so much so I’m a day late with it). There’s a lot to choose from and, after all, I often say that being a celebrant is the best job in the world.

But right now it feels so much more than that.

In a world of escalating war, genocide, fear, anger and violence, and with scary changes in the US that are sending shockwaves across the globe, it’s this:

Celebrating love is an act of beautiful resistance.

Politics and culture wars aside, what connects us ALL on this fragile planet is love, whatever side of whatever divide we are on.

Whether I am involved in bringing a couple’s communities together and celebrating their union, or I’m helping people say their goodbyes to someone who has been an important part of their lives in some way, I’m conscious of that thread of love that brings us all together as humans. Every ceremony is a declaration of love. It’s an act of hope.

Since last week’s election news, The Onion Song by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell has been going round my head, and it seems pertinent now: ‘The world is just a great big onion – we’ve gotta plant love seeds until it dies’

So if you are organising a wedding, a funeral, a naming, or even a birthday party or a leaving do – know that you are planting love seeds and being another light in the darkness.

PS

I couldn’t find a good pic I could use to illustrate these thoughts, as my first idea was the excellent ‘Flower Power’ by Bernie Boston, where a Vietnam War protester is seen putting flowers into the guns that are pointing at him. It’s copyrighted so instead, I asked AI to help and it came up with a pretty good ‘plant love seeds’ pic except there were too many fingers (why are there always too many fingers???), so I went with this ‘love bomb’ one it came up with instead. It’s not perfect, but you get the idea! Thanks AI.

12/11/2024

Blimey. I don’t know how you lot do this stuff. This has taken me about 48 times longer than I thought it would, so please enjoy 😂

(Luckily I’m much much better at ceremonies than I am at social media wrangling!)

11/11/2024

Well hello there 😃 It’s been a hot minute since I last turned up in these squares!

As today marks the beginning of this year’s I thought it would be a good time to reengage with social media and say hi.

I’m Claire and I’ve been doing the best job in the world for over nine years now.

Here’s a snap of me, taken at the gorgeous Islay and Scott’s wedding a few days ago. After all this time, I still can’t believe that I get to hang out with awesome people like these two on the biggest of days for them - and it’s my actual job!

Working with these two gorgeous souls was a just fabulous. And what was even more special about it was that I conducted Islay’s sister Alex’s wedding to Sam back in 2017, as well as the funeral of their beloved dad Alan a couple of years ago. What a huge honour it was to be asked to do this wedding.

Not only that, but also I got to work at the magnificent , filled with brilliant music courtesy of Scarlett, the , and for all of what unfolded to be captured by the very lovely .photo and Helen at Break Every Chain Productions. What a bloody excellent team!

I cannot WAIT to share more of the pics on here when I have them!

When I’m not celebranting myself, I’m training other people to be celebrants at the - or hanging out with my husband and our daughters (and probably doing all this whilst drinking copious amounts of tea and eating chocolate!)

101

12/07/2024

I always ask about dress code when I meet a family for a funeral arrangement. Today's was a first though!

It was a heart-wrenching celebration of a very much loved 17 year old boy, who often wore odd socks (the brighter the better) with sliders, and was very fond of dinosaurs - so that was the theme. And his family made this gorgeous dinosaur brooch for me too 🦕🧡

Although his circumstances were beyond tragic, W signed up to be an organ donor when he got his driving license a few months before he died. Because of this, he saved at least 4 lives when he lost his own.

I'll be raising a glass to this outstanding young man tonight, and treasuring my little dinosaur.

20/06/2024

As the sun is setting on another summer solstice, I’m feeling soooo flipping lucky 🤩

🍀 to have had my annual birthday walk with my gorgeous husband and daughter
🍀 that they had made a special picnic for us
🍀 for the glorious sunlight and that the weather finally remembered it was summer!
🍀 that we live near the beautiful South Downs so can just pop out and see views like this
🍀 that I have completed 51 trips around the sun and I’m happy, healthy and doing the work I love

🥰 feeling abundant and bloody grateful for my lot tonight 🥰

06/06/2024

My first post-Camino funeral today, and the roses outside H D Tribe Ltd Funeral Directors in Shoreham were in full glorious bloom. If only this were scratch n sniff, because they smelled gorgeous too!

04/06/2024

My 'job' is a treat and a privilege at the best of times, but this weekend it outdid itself, as I got to marry my gorgeous besties in a ceremony in their beautiful garden

Darren and I have been close friends since we were at school together and he met Matt in the same week I met my husband Richard, 25 years ago. We've all been good friends for all those years, and my girls have known and loved them all their lives.

Darren has been dead set against marriage for as long as I've known him (not least because it wasn't even possible for gay couples for most of that time...), but it was whilst they were looking at pension forecasts (rock and roll) a while ago that they realised they never wanted to leave the other one without, and so it was the best way to secure both of their futures.

It might not be the stuff of romantic legend, but this kind of practical, forward-thinking and deeply supportive love is actually much more of a strong foundation for a long and happy marriage than flowers, chocolates and all that stuff (however lovely) can ever be.

And so we came to last weekend when, in the Welsh sunshine, surrounded by their friends and family (and framed by the most exquisite flowers on their summerhouse, thanks to .and.fabulous.flowers) these two finally tied the knot after all those years together. 'At Last', as Etta James sang when they walked down the aisle...

Congratulations, Mr and Mr W-H! Love you buckets ###

30/05/2024

Ever wondered about becoming a wedding celebrant yourself?

Ten years or so ago, I couldn't get the idea out of my head and I said to my husband 'I just need a sign!!'

Well look at me now 🥰

If you've been thinking the same thing, maybe this is YOUR sign!

My other hat is as head of training at Celebrants Collective and we've got just two places left on our first in-person, 4 day wedding course taking place at Roffey Park Institute 11-14th June.

Could one of those places have your name on it???

Check it out here and let me know if you're feeling called!

https://www.celebrantcourses.com/wedding-celebrant-training-uk-face-to-face-course/

(pic of the gorgeous Patrick and Nirvana with Claire the celebrant standing between them, conducting their ceremony, courtesy of Dominic Smith Photography )

28/05/2024

Just in case you wondered, I haven't fallen off the planet... 😂

Apart from my love/hate relationship with social media having veered very much towards the 'hate' in recent months(!) I've also been busy walking 500 miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago.

Words cannot describe these last six weeks or so - and certainly not in a post like this. But I'm going to be sharing some longer form thoughts soon and I'll keep you posted.

Anyway... the point is I'M BACK, BABY!

A June full of gorgeous weddings beckons and I cannot wait!

So fill me in - what have I missed?? Tell me everything! 🥰

14/02/2024

What’s your definition of love this Valentines Day??

25/01/2024

What an awesome night it was last night at the The Wedding Industry Awards 2024 finals at 🥰

✨A true sparkle of celebrants indeed ✨ and what a night it was for celebrancy!

Huge congratulations to the national winner, and who was Highly Commended - and also to who won the Newcomer category 🌟

But also a huge congratulations and so much love to all the other celebrants who entered - it is a privilege and a joy to judge all the entries every year, to go through all the painstakingly put together thoughts, photos, videos and testimonials and to see how rich, how varied and how downright awesome the celebrant community is.

Special shout outs to

Also to my fellow judges and Amanda from - it was so good to see you all!

And last but not least, a huge thank you and well done to the seemingly tireless Damian and Anna of TWIA. You guys rock!

06/01/2024

Before… and after!

Baptism of fire for my new boots at the gorgeous (but very muddy) today!

04/01/2024

Really looking forward to the open day coming up soon!

What's better to do on a chilly January Sunday than coming to a gorgeous warm wedding venue, being plied with yummy nibbles, chatting to friendly local suppliers (like me!!) and planning your big day?

Who's in??

03/01/2024

Has a question recently been popped in your life?

Want to do things a little differently?

Shall we have a chat about how you can make your wedding ceremony exactly the way YOU want it (no 'ho hum' or 'shoulds' allowed!)?

Message me! I'm here for it all - especially if you've got a cute/hilarious engagement story because I'm a sucker for those!

Let's do this!

Claire x

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Beautiful, bespoke ceremonies for love, life and loss.

Since our arrival on the planet, we humans have instinctively marked important life events with ceremony and ritual. Over time, churches, synagogues, temples and mosques became the natural stewards of these life ceremonies. We live in an increasingly secular world and you may feel that the traditional places of worship don’t feel as though they fit any more. The alternative option of the registrar feels impersonal and soulless. There is another way. As an independent celebrant, I can create a ceremony with you for any significant life event, reflecting your personality, your beliefs and your lifestyle. Each ceremony is totally unique and as traditional or as creative as you wish. Get in touch today and let's create a ceremony that's perfect for you. [email protected] 07929 764162