Marriages, Memorials, and Meaningful Transition Ceremonies
Ceremonies of Commitment
As a Certified Professional Celebrant, I work with people to create and enact original ceremonies to honour the important turning points in their lives. These ceremonies are as unique as the people who come to me and the reason for their occasion.
What is a Celebrant?
Quite new to North America (2004), Celebrants have been working in Australia for over forty years offering meaningful non-religious ceremonies across the life cycle from birth to death. The degree of spirituality expressed in the ceremonies depends completely on the people involved and what they believe.
Certified Professional Celebrants have taken a fairly intensive 8 month program from the Celebrant Foundation & Institute http://www.celebrantinstitute.org/ focusing on the art of creating and enacting meaningful and memorable ceremonies. I completed the coursework in 2009.
What is the difference between a Funeral Celebrant and a Certified Professional Celebrant?
While Funeral Celebrants and Certified Professional Celebrants both offer Funerals, Memorials, and Celebrations of Life, at this time, the course-work to be a Certified Professional Celebrant is much more extensive. This prepares Certified Professional Celebrants to engage with friends and families in a deep way to ensure that the person they love is remembered especially well.
Certified Professional Celebrants are not attached to particular Funeral Homes or churches and can offer Funerals, Memorials, and Celebrations of Life anywhere. They can also offer living Memorials and Celebrations of Life while people are still alive and able to share their day.
Candles in the Wind
Certified Professional Celebrants also offer other kinds of ceremonies and, ideally, will work with families through many other important times in their lives not just death & loss.
Are Celebrants Like Marriage Commissioners or Justices of the Peace?
While Marriage Commissioners and Justices of the Peace offer legal marriage ceremonies, they usually work with pre-written scripts that they personalize by inserting the couple’s names. They often have several ceremonies scheduled on a day and are on a fairly tight time-line to get from one ceremony to the next.
Celebrants work with couples to create original wedding ceremonies. On the day of your wedding, yours will be the only one they will do. When couples consider the ceremony to be the most important part of their wedding day, they can now choose to work with a Celebrant to ensure that their ceremony will be both deeply meaningful and unique.
In BC, not all Celebrants are able to offer legal weddings. I am recognized by the province of BC to legally perform marriages as a religious representative of the Canadian International Metaphysical Ministry. http://www.canadianmetaphysicalministry.com/B-C–Weddings–Memorials-etc-.html
Are Celebrants Wedding Planners?
Celebrants are completely focused on your wedding ceremony itself. They don’t look after the MANY other wedding details you need to think about but they do enjoy weddings and, if you ask, they can often make recommendations.
Examples of Ceremonies & Rituals
- Weddings
- Commitment Ceremonies
- Renewal of Vows
- Memorials, Funerals, and Celebrations of Life
- Living Celebrations of Life
- Loss of an Animal Companion
- Celebrating Pregnancy
- Baby Welcoming
- Rites of Passage
- Coming of Age for Young Women
- Coming of Age for Young Men
- Child Leaving Home
- Coming Out
- Celebrations of Accomplishment
- Graduation
- New Job
- New Business
- House Warming and Blessing
- Arriving Safely
- Letting Go Ceremonies/ Making Meaning of Loss
- Loss of Job
- Divorce
- Retirement
- Moving Away
- Seasonal Observances – Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall
- Wise Aging Ceremonies for Women (Croning Rituals)
- Wise Aging Ceremonies Men
- Rituals of Healing
What can you expect when you get in touch with me?
If I am available for the day of your ceremony, we will set a time to meet and see if we want to work together. There is no obligation for you to engage my services. Since this is an important turning point in your life, I understand that you need to be very comfortable with me. If I feel that someone else would be better to work with you, I will make a recommendation for another Celebrant if possible.
If we decide at that point that we want to work together, we’ll begin talking about your ceremony.
Your Story
Your story is at the centre of my work. When you commission me to create a ceremony, I spend time with you to listen for the heart of your story and to hear how you have come to this important point of transition in your life. When it is helpful and, with your permission, I will also meet with your friends and family.
Your Celebration
Based on the intentions you hold for your ceremony and the heart of your story, I will help you find and choose the elements to be included: music, symbols, readings, movement, art . . . If you have already made these choices, I will ensure that they fit well with the flow of your ceremony.
I will create a first draft of your ceremony. Based on your feedback, I will make any changes you request. At every stage you will have full approval for everything that is said and done during your ceremony. When you are completely happy, I will create a final script of your ceremony.
I will be available for rehearsals and will provide leadership during the ceremony.
Finally, I will create a keepsake copy of your ceremony for you.
My Commitment to You
I will maintain your confidentiality.
I will set timelines with you and will honor them.
There will be no surprises during your ceremony – you have complete control.
I will be aware of and will plan for the well-being of all involved in your ceremony.
On the day of your ceremony, yours will be the only one in which I am involved.
I will be there one hour before your rehearsal (if you have one) and your ceremony.