Many people have strong reasons to plan their own funerals in full or, at least leave some guidance notes, for those that are left behind.

Although in life, it can be incredibly hard to talk to your own loved ones about death, and what you would like to happen after you have died, it is not often so hard to talk to a professional person about it.

In my experience, the grief after a loss is a huge load, and families can struggle with so many choices to make, when arranging a funeral at such a difficult time. At other times, perhaps the family live far away, even abroad. There are also people who need help with planning their own funeral because there is no-one close to them who will be able to do so at the time. There could be things you would like to be said to your family after you have died: words of comfort for them in their grief. All these are good reasons to enlist my help and make a plan, which can be stored privately and carefully until the necessary time.

Another consideration is if you have recently received a diagnosis of a terminal illness: working with a celebrant to discuss and record your wishes for your own funeral, is known as a ‘Pre-Needs’ Funeral Service. In this case, expressing some definite wishes or getting together with family members and a celebrant now to discuss and make a plan, can be an enormously positive thing for all of you. It might be that an event while you are still living is the best thing, and there are many good ways to do that, which I can discuss with you. At the hardest and most painful of times, such occasions can also give families a real sense of having something important to do for you. They can express their love and appreciation in a unique way, and a chance to celebrate your life with you can bring joy and relief from current worries, allowing all to step away, even if only briefly, from the sorrow to come.

With advancing age, we lose contact with so many people with whom we shared our life: in the case of those that live to a great age: fewer and fewer people are around to tell the story and help to create a service which reflects all of those decades: as a social circle reduces in size, it is really worth taking a hand in planning for your own funeral service, as you would wish it to be.

As a fully accredited pre-planned funeral celebrant: I can help you with all of these. The costs for Funeral Planning can be found below.

You can contact me on 07957 367774 or email me at, sam.reagan@humanistceremonies.org.uk

If you would like to discuss your options, we can talk on the phone or by video-call. This first informal chat is completely free: if you decide to go ahead after that, my full service charges appear below: no notes are made or kept from the informal chat.

In all cases your information and data will be protected and kept private at all times, in compliance with GDPR, with appropriate forms for you to sign, giving your permission once you are fully confident and comfortable about the process.

Pre-planned Service Charges

Once you have decided to go ahead with making a service plan:

£90 for an initial meeting of up to 3 hours, in person or in a video call, to take notes of your wishes and discuss all your options. 

If you would like to take up the option for a full script to be written for a service, following this meeting:

then the full charge will be £200, including one 3 hour meeting as above for a 30 minute service OR £250 total for a 45 minute service to be written.

Usually, unless you have a very complicated service, a three hour meeting is enough. If you would like or need more than 3 hours, or further consultations, before I start writing a script for you, we can discuss this in person when we see where we are at the end of the initial meeting.

All notes and/or any full script, will be stored for safe keeping by Humanist’s UK and will be easily retrievable by your Funeral Director, your family, or any other person placed in charge of your funeral, when the time comes. If you have already taken out a Pre-paid Funeral Plan with any Funeral Director, the details of how to retrieve your notes, or the full script of the service, can be easily added to your file with them.

I cannot guarantee that I will be available to take the service on the actual day of your funeral but I will do so if I am free, at no further charge beyond my expenses on the actual day. However, any other celebrant can have your notes passed to them,  or the full script, and present the service on the day exactly as planned.

Please note: if I am unavailable, any new celebrant will, naturally, charge their own fee for presenting the service on the day, in consultation with your Funeral Director and/or the person in charge of your funeral, at that time.

I’ll give you a written invoice for my work once you know you want to go ahead, after we have had an initial free chat. Charging starts with the first 3 hour meeting and payment of £90 will need to reach my bank, before we meet to get to work.  After the initial meeting, if you want to go ahead and have a full script prepared, I’ll draw up a 2nd invoice and the balance of £110 or £160,  will need to be paid before I start work on it for you.

© Sam Reagan 2021, updated May 2024