Lessons Learned

I went to a bridal fair the other day – I was curious to see if there was anything new happening in the bridal world. I always thought the more I can get to know about the wedding industry the more I can offer my clients. So I hoped to make a few contacts and maybe even get to know some other celebrants.
I am eager to have my own exhibit in a bridal fair one day soon so I was using this excursion as a learning exercise.

It was a good size fair with all sorts of exhibitors – catering for every aspect of a wedding and more. All the brides and grooms to be certainly had a smorgasbord of choices and most of them were walking round with arms full of information bags.

Once thing I hadn’t bargained on that day was the pleasure of being accompanied by my 3 year old daughter – Tiegan. She was very excited about going to the “fair” – she got dressed up in her sparkly dress, put some makeup on and topped off the whole look with a crown and a handbag.

She certainly knew how to attract attention and she actually made a great ice breaker and conversation starter with most of the exhibitors. It was however a bit unlucky for me that there were a few wedding cake exhibitors at the fair, the lure of sampling wedding cake was just too much for my little girl. I would be half way through a conversation and there would be a familiar tug at my arm – and a rather loud “Come on Mummy there’s more cake over there” and nothing would stand in her way!

We did end up having a good morning and especially loved watching all the beautiful girls parading down the catwalk in their “princess” dresses – but for me the biggest thing I learnt that morning – was not to take my little girl with me to work!

The Love Hand Canvas Ritual

For some reason I've always thought that the word ritual had some kind of sinister connotations but since I have moved into the celebrancy world I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Our lives are full of rituals – some of us have daily rituals – like brushing our teeth after breakfast or weekly ones like always buying the Sunday papers to read leisurely on a Sunday morning. Rituals have been part of people’s lives for thousands of years – they can be routine, exciting or a one off unique experience.

I’ve recently been introduced to one ritual I think is quite beautiful. I’ve nicknamed it the “love hand canvas ritual”! A perfect place to use this ritual is at a naming ceremony where we are welcoming a new person into the family.

To carry out this ritual you will need a canvas (The size of canvas depends on the number of guests at the ceremony) 3 or 4 paint colours poured onto largish plates, a marker and some wipes.

If you can manage it – you put the baby’s hand print in the centre of the canvas, then everyone at the ceremony puts their hand in the paint and adds their own hand print to the canvas and signs it underneath with the marker pen. You can ask the guests to put the handprints in a predefined pattern or let them go crazy. The wipes are there for obvious reasons!

Hang the canvas up in the baby’s room and when they’re old enough to ask what it is – you can tell them that everybody who’s handprint is on that canvas loves them very much and was part of their special day.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.
This blog is being set up to compliment my web site www.ceremoniestosay.com.
I am a professional wedding celebrant and also do commitment ceremonies, naming ceremonies, renewal of vows and funerals.
In this blog I will share stories and insights into different ceremonies.
Happy Reading.........