Funerals
Our conversation starts with …
Meeting with you and or your family: Spend time listening and learning about your loved one — gathering important information, stories, values, beliefs, and key life events from their life to create a ceremony fitting for them, that is meaningful and memorable.
Craft a personalised service: tailor the ceremony to reflect the personality, beliefs, and wishes of your loved one. This can include readings, music, rituals, and eulogies.
Write and deliver the eulogy: With your input we will sit and discuss your wishes, whether you would like me to write the main tribute speech or eulogy, or whether a family member would like to do this with guidance and discussion – I support you and your family who wish to speak at the funeral or memorial service
Coordinate with others: I liaise with funeral directors, musicians, speakers, and venue staff to ensure the service runs smoothly.
Offer emotional support: While I am not a therapist, as a celebrant I provide a compassionate presence and help families navigate the emotional process of saying goodbye.
Baby and children funerals are free of charge.
Natural, Woodland and Green Burials
You or your loved one may have expressed a wish to have an environmentally friendly natural or woodland burial and celebration in a peaceful setting. This way their legacy is also contributing to the future ecosystem, so their significance lives on.
More people are considering a Woodland burial for their loved one. This is an eco-friendly funeral (green burial or natural burial), that is an alternative to a traditional funeral. Such a ceremony would take place in a natural burial ground, woodland location. Some cemeteries offer a natural woodland area for burial too.
A biodegradable coffin is recommended, usually made from recycled materials like cardboard, wicker, bamboo or willow.
Woodland burial areas are recognised by use of trees, flowers and plants instead of a headstone, with a map indicating the location of a particular burial site.
If this is the type of funeral ceremony you would like for your loved one, then I can help you find a natural woodland burial location in your area and discuss with your funeral director.
Scattering or Burial of Ashes
This ceremony is an emotional and private occasion, so I can guide you through this personal ceremony to send your loved one on their way and say your final farewell.
We meet to discuss the life and legacy of your loved one, a selected location, who will be present and the type of occasion you wish this to be with maybe readings, poems, songs and music you would like for your loved one … or just silence!
As your celebrant will, I help you think about the ceremony you would like, offering reassured and organisation of those practical arrangements.
This takes place after a cremation and the time scale depends on when you would like the ashes scattered. The location will be of special significance for your loved one. It might be a birthday or anniversary important to your family. Typically, ashes are scattered at sea, on a beach, on a hillside or mountain side that will not impact the environment in such a detrimental way.
This can be very comforting to a family as they can return to this area in the future to remember their loved one on anniversaries and birthdays.
Permission needs to be obtained for ashes to be scattered in an area of private property.
If this is something you wish to organise for your loved one then please let’s have a chat.
Memorial Services
A memorial service is a lovely way for lots of people to come and celebrate the life of your loved one after the funeral has taken place. Often this person might have been a very important person in their community or have done something so significant so many people would want to come and express their gratitude and thanks for this person’s life.
Sometimes families only want or can only cope with a small funeral in their time of grief. This is especially true with older people whose friends or family may be deceased so there is a limited number of people to help them celebrate.
If you wish to have a memorial service for your loved one, I would love to help you plan and prepare for this occasion so please get on touch.