Welcoming Ceremony Celebrant in Carlisle, Cumbria

Welcoming Ceremony

A welcoming ceremony is a reflection of your family’s wishes. It will reflect you as a parent/parents; your hopes, dreams and wishes for your child. I will be there to support you through every step in creating a unique and bespoke ceremony that truly welcomes the new addition to your family.

A welcoming ceremony can have all the elements of a naming ceremony though may be used for welcoming an adopted child, a foster child or perhaps two families have been blended and you are welcoming step children in to the family. Whatever the reason parents want to make the outward gesture of letting family and friends know of their unconditional love and desire to protect their child. As families change and grow, a Welcome Ceremony blesses the new family unit, which helps make the child feel special, valued and of course loved. Every child is a blessing regardless of how they came into your family and as such should be celebrated!

The ceremony will be written to signify your union as a family. You will want to acknowledge that you will provide them with a safe, wonderfully happy and forever loving environment in which they can flourish.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

You get in contact with me via email, message, phone call, Facebook, Instagram, or in person and we have initial chat about your requirements and wishes. You can give me a date and I will see if it is available. If it is then let's meet up! We get to know each other and you can decide if you would like me to be your celebrant.

Once you have decided I am the one for you I ask that you pay me a deposit. All the fees and deposits can be found below. This deposit secures your date.

We then meet up in person or over Zoom, Skype, FaceTime and we get to know each other even more. This can take between 1-2 hours it totally depends what we get chatting about and if we get distracted! This helps me make your ceremony totally unique and personal. We also talk about what ideas you have for your ceremony – where will it be, is there a theme, how many guests will there be, do you want any symbolic actions and so on. If you don’t know the answers to any of these questions – it’s totally fine – don’t worry! I have a wealth of ideas and I will talk you through them all if needs be! The time will ﬂy by and it might be we need another meeting!

I will send you a whole host of readings and poems to see if you would like to include any. No pressure to do so at all.

I go away and compose a draft script for your ceremony using all the information I have gained from us meeting.

It is important for me to say there are no restrictions on how many times we re-write the draft ceremony. It has to be absolutely perfect. If there is anything you don’t like, just let me know I really don’t mind.

If you are having the ceremony at a venue I will contact them near the date of the ceremony to check timings and the running of the day etc. if I haven’t been there before I will do my best to visit so I am familiar with my surroundings.

I will go through with you all the suppliers you are using so photographer, videographer, musicians and so on so I can introduce them to your guests.

At this point we should be nearing the stage where we can say we have our final draft. I like to do this (by the latest) a week or 2 before your ceremony. That gives me time to add in any readings, poems or music and importantly promises you have chosen.

When the big day arrives, I will be at the venue an hour or so before the ceremony. I will let you know the exact time before hand. I will find you and go through the running order just to put your mind at rest. I will also try and find the other people that may be involved with your ceremony such as those doing a reading and poem just so they know when they will be introduced. Everything will be set up and ready to go in good time.

After the ceremony when there’s a chance to have 2 minutes with you I will present you with a beautiful presentation box with a copy of your ceremony script and certificate in (should you have chosen to sign one).

FEES: £350

DEPOSIT: £150 taken at time of booking

For ceremonies within a 25-mile radius of CA2.

Additional mileage of 45p a mile is charged for ceremonies further afield.