Stephanie Kendrick

Weddings

Photo from Mark Chivers Photography

A Humanist wedding ceremonies offers a unique opportunity to you and your partner to create a ceremony that reflects you, your partnership and what marriage and the wedding ceremony mean to you. While not yet legal in England and Wales, couples think of their humanist ceremony as their “real” wedding. It is the time and place to express how you feel about each other and your shared future in the way that you want. Unlike a ceremony officiated by a registrar, a humanist ceremony can be held wherever you wish, on a beach, in your back garden, or any other location you choose!

Photo by Phil Whitby

My role

I will be with you every step of the ceremony-writing process and can suggest readings, songs and how you can structure your ceremony. I’m here to take the stress out the ceremony; I’m delighted to report that couples have told me that writing the wedding was the easiest part of the day to organise. I welcome all ideas, please suggest anything and everything – let’s make it happen! I’ve involved dogs (I LOVE dogs!), singing, handfastings and many many adorable children over the years.

It is of the utmost importance to me that you feel comfortable during the writing of your ceremony so I recommend that we meet before you make a decision about whether you want me as your celebrant. This is free and you are under no obligation to commit.

After deciding, we meet to go into your ceremony in more depth (normally 2-3 hours), discussing the structure and content of the ceremony, as well as practicalities. The content is mostly based around a series of questions I will send to you beforehand and cover how you met, what you love about each other… what you don’t love about each other! Discussing your answers usually sparks lots of other stories; it’s usually a really fun few hours! After this I deliver a first draft for your review which we then refine together. I encourage you to write your own vows however I am happy to suggest inspiration!

I’m in the middle – celebrant sandwich!

A wedding rehearsal gathers the principal actors of the ceremony together to read through the ceremony out loud. This checks pronunciation and flow and makes sure everyone knows where they are standing! This can be at the venue or at a more convenient location and would usually take place the week or the weekend before the ceremony. If distance means this isn’t possible, I am more than happy to conduct a read through via Skype.

On the day itself I would arrive in plenty of time to meet everyone involved and check that people are comfortable, prepared and ready to enjoy the day!