Ann Hislop

I am a humanist celebrant and take wedding and naming ceremonies in East Anglia.

I am passionate about the importance of acknowledging and celebrating the important events in life in a way that is personal and meaningful to those involved.

Creating your own wedding or naming ceremony gives you the opportunity to put together a really special occasion and to make a time and space in which to share your thoughts and feelings about this with those you love.

I love working with couples to find the right combination of words, music and ritual for their ceremony and thinking about how to fit this together in a way which reflects their values and personalities. I spent many years as a teacher of literature so I have lots of ideas if you need help in finding material.

I have been a humanist with a small ‘h’ and a celebrant for many years, creating personal ceremonies for the important transitions in my life and that of my family. The first ceremony I wrote, together with my partner, was our marriage ceremony.

I wanted a ceremony which would be delivered in modern English, reflect our humanist values and include music, poetry and ritual that was meaningful and personal to us. Neither a religious wedding nor a purely civil registration of marriage seemed able to offer us this so we decided to write our own.

Though a little daunting, we really enjoyed working together to create a ceremony that was right for us and incorporated key roles for friends and family, reflecting our desire that our marriage be embedded in family and community. This was later followed later by naming ceremonies for our daughters. Each of these ceremonies was unique to our family and was, as I had hoped, an expression of joy and a celebration of life, love and community

Thus, when I came across ‘official’ celebrants from the British Humanist Association ( BHA) it was a bit like finding a home from home, a group of people who shared my understanding of what it means to be human and my approach to  marking important moments in our journey through life with personal and meaningful ceremony.

I thus decided to join the BHA, participate in their celebrant training course and offer my skills and expertise more widely. I love creating ceremony and I try to make each ceremony a warm, happy and memorable occasion for all.

If you are thinking about having a humanist wedding or naming, please feel free to contact me for a chat with no obligation

CONTACT DETAILS: M:07773119050 L: 01223 510995 e-mail ann.hislop@ntlworld.com