The Country Celebrant and The Country Carer

Winter is, hopefully, over and the wedding season is fast approaching. At the moment, those of us involved in weddings are invited to attend showcase events - glitzy affairs where outfitters, cake makers, planners and venues vie for business. The brides to be are schmoozed with bags of goodies, samples of this and that to whet their appetite and empty their pockets. Celebrants too are invited to attend these fairs and I wonder why?  You seldom meet a vicar or a registrar at a wedding fair. The vicar is safe in the knowledge that should a couple wish to be married in a specific church then he will get the gig. The registrar hides behind the legalities of a civil wedding - rolling out humdrum ceremonies in ghastly offices or worse still, fleecing couples for the same prosaic ceremony in a fancy location for an extortionate fee. Hand-fasting Ceremony The Celebrant has to work very hard at getting to know the couple they are working for, researching music and poetry tha...

The Country Celebrant: Funerals :  It seems to me that striking the right note is the key to a good funeral.  It does not matter whether that is achieved by a piece of poetry, some music, the images that are displayed or the eulogy.  Whatever way you look at it, you have one chance to distil the essence of the person and if that key note is spot on, everything else falls into place. This year I have had the chance to work with a number of families - each one different, all united in their desire to provide a meaningful send off to someone that meant something to them.  Some have been poignant, like the brother who read the diary entry from his brother's last day at school.  Some have been tragic and the best, for me, was the one for the sister who genuinely believed that no one would attend her brother's funeral; we had standing room only and luckily it was quite chilly, or we would have had it rather warm! I always take a posy of flowers from my garden ...