The Country Celebrant and The Country Carer

Well, what interesting times we live in.  So many planned for events hanging in the balance, it takes courage to make a decision, so much easier if someone makes it for us.  I think that those of you who have opted to postpone until next year will find it easier than those who are playing the will we/won't we game. This summer would have seen many weddings in outside venues - the weather has been perfect too grr! I have been busy walking my dog and the flowers are stunning which got me to thinking about colour. Often a bride will say to me that she would like red as the principal colour in her design, the colour of love, a hot passionate, statement colour ... these two flowers are in my garden at the moment.  The strong crimson peony and the bright, orangey scarlet of the poppy.   They are so different and yet they are both red. So when you are planning an event are you clear about what you really want?  The choices are as marked as the two flowers ...

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: The Country Celebrant:   Christmas Weddings: I was asked today whether I had ever conducted a wedding at Christmas.  It got me thinking .... I never have and I wondered why that might be. What influences the choice of date?  Is it that we are most likely to have decent weather in the summer, or is that the choice of flowers and the comfort of a beautiful dress without the worry of being cold is uppermost in our minds? Christmas is a time for family and couples often get engaged at Christmas, but actually if your family are all around you anyway - why not get married then. I feel I posing more questions than I am answering; historically the short days of winter are a quiet time and what better way to spend a quiet time than celebrating your love for one another?  A wedding dress in sumptuous velvet, red and gold and green decorations, such a panoply of light and delicious scents everywhere.  The weather is expected to be dreary ...

I like to think that the seeds that we sow will grow and flower and in due course set seed themselves. It was thus last weekend; a young man, the son of one of my oldest and dearest friends, asked me to conduct the Naming Ceremony for his daughter. The family now live in New Zealand and so we seldom see them in England.  It was magical to be in an English country garden on a sunny afternoon in June with four generations of the same family enjoying a glass or two and a slice of delicious homemade cake while the newest member of the family, chewing meditatively on a dibber, was named. We added thumb prints to a fantasy tree to mark the occasion and a wonderful time was had by all.

Beautiful Gift Reasons to be cheerful! It is a great privilege to be involved with people, helping them to steer their way through the joyous and the not so joyous events that pepper life. I am a civil celebrant, I am also a pre school teacher.  In my life I meet all sorts of people and the underlying common denominator is that we all need to be supported through life.  Whether you are confident, happy and full of enthusiasm or not ... a hand on your shoulder, a smile or a comforting voice at the other end of the phone is always welcome. Since becoming a celebrant I have formed friendships with people who I value and whose jobs and expertise are unfamiliar but who have been welcoming and informative.  People who have shared their knowledge and their experience openly and without agenda. One such friend is Julia Hill of Silverlode Celebrants.  We have never met but we do the same job and we share quotes and thoughts and support each other.  This morni...