ANNOUNCEMENT! I'm launching a brand new service and am filled with a healthy mixture of excitement and (eek) nerves!
And if you're the type of people who like taking creative risks, then you might be able to grab yourselves a bargain for your 2022 wedding ceremony....
First, let me share with you that long before becoming a celebrant I loved telling stories in class as the RE teacher: how Guru Gobind Singh began the Khalsa; the Diwali tale; the nativity; the Buddha's enlightenment. I noticed that when I went unscripted (having told a tale a few times before), it was as if the students were totally INSIDE the story landscape. I came fully alive too - no book in hand, all focus on communication, full eyes on my familiar audience.
I'd *love* now to bring this unscripted skill to my celebrant work too, to see how we can turn the ceremony into even more of an immersive part of the day. (My long-term dream is to work with around two couples each year who want to move away from their wedding ceremony relying on a script.)
Emboldened by learning new storytelling techniques at a workshop led by the gorgeous human Lonan Jenkins (of Embers Collective and now Rooted Revelry), what I envisage this type of ceremony to be is a creative combination of my rehearsed but unscripted retelling of the couple's story, interactive ceremony elements on the nature of the relationship and how it works, all woven around readings or other contributions from friends or family members... to build towards the couple making their personal promises to each other.
I'm not looking for couples who perform in their everyday lives: in fact, you may even be introverts who just happen to like taking creative risks, wanting celebrant, friends and family to take the physical centre-stage around your own story... or it could be that the power of chance and of moving away from perfectionism might resonate hard with you both.
If you've read this far and think you'd like to give it a go, here's what we'll need to do:
If you already have a ceremony date fixed in the 2022 calendar, check with me first to see if I'm available. (I've got 2 slots available next year for this style of ceremony).
Fill in this website form with some basic details.
Then email me at sophie.colligan@humanistceremonies.org.uk with more information on: why you'd love to work with me this way; why you want to be married; what makes your relationship work; what your perfect day off together is; maybe just how you're doing generally in the midst of a global pandemic! It would also be great if you could attach a favourite photo of you two together.
I'll get in touch and if we agreed to work together, the only fee to be paid would be a non-refundable deposit of £250... all free apart from that, as part of my celebrating the launch of this new service!
First steps would then be to agree a timeline of working together to give me enough time to practice telling your unscripted story so that it feels natural on the big day.
I can't wait to get started! How exciting!
ps. If you want to hear more about this way of working, the fab Natasha Johnson - founder of Celebrants Collective - discusses in a podcast episode what the differences might be between creating scripts and creating ceremony.
(c) Cassandra Lane 2019