About Me
I am Diane and as a Celebrant, I am passionate about creating bespoke, heart felt, tailor made ceremonies. I’ve always been drawn to talking about the big questions of life and where we find meaning and purpose, through the light and shade of life’s experiences and how we mark our loves and losses and rites of passage, through rituals and ceremony.
I feel I can draw on all the different professional strands and skills I’ve collected working in different industries, combined with empathy from life experiences and a curiosity about people from all walks of life and cultures, from living in different countries growing up and working with all different nationalities in my work.
During covid times, my life took many different turns, one most significantly, was the loss of my Dad, after a long illness with dementia and Alzheimer’s. As part of organising his funeral, I was put in touch with a lovely celebrant, who encouraged and supported me to create a fitting ceremony and deliver the eulogy at my Dad’s funeral.
On a more celebratory side, a couple of friends were celebrating significant birthdays and asked me to do a speech at them. I noted that I really loved researching, writing and delivering speeches about peoples’ lives, in a way that was sometimes funny, compassionate, poignant and touching and really gave a full picture of them as a human being. I started to explore whether I could draw on these skills for a career strand, which was when I discovered I could train to be a Civil Celebrant.
Why would you choose to use a civil celebrant for your ceremonies?
More and more individuals, couples and families are looking for ceremonies that feel personal to them and reflect their own values and personalities, and feel tailor made, rather than a more formal prescriptive style of service. With a civil celebrant you are able to tailor the ceremony, incorporating materials that resonate with you. It is not a religious ceremony, in the formal sense, but can incorporate some religious elements in terms of readings or music. Civil celebrants can bridge the gap between formal religious ceremonies and Humanist ceremonies, where there is no religious content at all.
Why would you work with me?
I have worked in the corporate, wellness and charity sectors and I have lived in three different countries. I am really curious about what makes us human and how we choose to mark through rituals and ceremony important milestones in our lives.
I love to co-create ceremonies with my clients, working in a collaborative way from start to finish. From the start I look to create an open communicative space, where clients feel listened to and can share their hopes and visions for their ceremonies. I can provide you with a structure and I can write as much of the ceremony as you wish, or I can support you to write sections yourself. You may have lots of questions and not know where to start and I really enjoy supporting you and sign posting you to make choices that you can make from a calm space, knowing they feel right for you.
I live in South West London with two teenagers and a cheeky Burmese cat. I am willing to travel across London and further afield. I speak French fluently and I’m learning Italian. Alongside my celebrant work, I have been a yoga teacher for 15 years and work weekly with a charity supporting refugees.
