Celebrant Conference 2023 Workshops

Working outside and in large, open spaces, can be a challenge for the voice.

In this practical workshop, you will participate in a series of vocal exercises to help you to prepare to work in these demanding environments and to learn how to root the voice within the body, to support vocal projection.

(Please wear loose clothing and comfortable shoes.)

Anne Molloy, is a new celebrant, having recently trained in Wedding Ceremonies. She is a classically trained theatre practitioner, who has previously worked as an Acting & Voice coach, teaching drama to young people for over 25 years.

Drawing on her interviews with more than 70 non-religious people, Valerie Jack’s narrative non-fiction book, Living with Death without God tells the stories of those who’ve lost loved ones or are confronting their own mortality, and explores how we can find comfort, hope, and meaning in the face of death.

In this workshop Valerie will tell the story behind the stories, sharing her process of researching, gathering material, and writing her book. Participating celebrants will have the opportunity to share how they approach gathering material when preparing a tribute, so as to be able to capture the essence of each unique individual.

Valerie is a former English teacher and award-winning writer of poetry, plays, fiction, and non-fiction.

This session will look at some key principles that support creativity. We’ll explore how you can weave creativity into your practice and ceremonies, by ‘dancing’ with control, going deep,and thinking small.

Please note this is a repeat of the 2022 conference session.

Martin Alexander-Drake is a multidisciplinary creative with a passion for storytelling, art, design, and psychology. He was a Humanists UK wedding celebrant from 2018 to 2022 under his celebrant nickname MAD Ceremonies. He is the creative director of a small studio specialising in CGI and communications. With MAD there is always a project on the go because he believes that creativity and craft are fundamental parts of being human. His core values are BE, LOVE, AND GROW: be present with the world and those around you, nurture your relationships, and embrace a life of growth. He lives with his wife, Caroline, and spaniel, Yosemite, in Bristol, UK.

Human beings are visual, social creatures, and when potential clients first visit your website, your picture – or lack of one – will be one of the first things they are drawn to.

Come along to this session and you’ll leave Celebrant Conference with a free-license, high-resolution, flattering, and well-lit photograph, fit for use on your website, online, or in print media – anywhere you want to put your best foot forward.

25 years ago, a scan revealed the devastating news that my unborn child had conditions meaning she was extremely unlikely to survive, leaving me to make the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy.

In this session, I will talk about this experience, one that led to my introduction to humanist funerals, and further understanding of what families in this position may go through.

I am a university lecturer, occasional stand up comedian, and funeral celebrant – so, basically, anything that involves standing at the front talking is for me.

This session will look at some of the science of sustaining healthy relationships. We’ll explore how a celebrant could integrate some of these concepts into their practice to help couples keep their relationships and love strong and lasting.

Martin Alexander-Drake is a multidisciplinary creative with a passion for storytelling, art, design and psychology. He was a Humanists UK wedding celebrant from 2018 to 2022 under his celebrant nickname MAD Ceremonies. He is the creative director of a small studio specialising in CGI and communications. With MAD there is always a project on the go because he believes that creativity and craft are fundamental parts of being human. His core values are BE, LOVE, AND GROW: be present with the world and those around you, nurture your relationships, and embrace a life of growth. He lives with his wife, Caroline, and spaniel, Yosemite, in Bristol, UK.

Human beings are visual, social creatures, and when potential clients first visit your website, your picture – or lack of one – will be one of the first things they are drawn to.

Come along to this session and you’ll leave Celebrant Conference with a free-license, high-resolution, flattering and well-lit photograph, fit for use on your website, online, or in print media – anywhere you want to put your best foot forward.’

There are many things that can make Naming ceremonies hazardous, some we get better at preparing for or avoiding, others take us by surprise, however experienced we are.

What if they want to include something overtly (or even covertly) religious or superstitious? Or they hack our carefully-worded script to pieces? Or they keep adding things until it gets ridiculously long?

What tricks can we use to make sure we know who is who, get the correct pronunciation of everyone’s names, and don’t inadvertently skip a page?

We know babies and children can be noisy. Do we plough on regardless and shout louder and louder? What if it’s the adults who are disruptive?

Julia doesn’t claim to have all the answers but will reveal how she dealt with some issues she has encountered (or how she wishes she’d dealt with them!). Please come ready to share your own triumphs and disasters. We will laugh together at our spectacular failures, learn from each other’s experiences, and pool tips on being prepared wherever possible, while priming ourselves to think on our feet when caught unawares.

As well as being a Namings celebrant and mentor, Julia works as a medical role player and market researcher, writes drama, acts, directs and produces, has dabbled in performance improvisation and stand-up comedy, and has led many theatre skills workshops.

Memorial ceremonies increasingly account for a significant number of the funerals we take, but they often require us to think outside the box. This session will suggest ways of approaching this type of ceremony, and maximise on the opportunities for creativity.

Felicity Harvest is a long-standing celebrant and a trainer, who is always ready to take on the more unusual ceremonies.

This session will try to demystify technology a little, and show how useful and time efficient it can be using iPads/tablets in all stages of ceremony planning, including family meetings and delivery. It will be hands-on, so bring along something that can be tinkered with. Laptops are welcome too, but are less useful, as they are more cumbersome for ceremony delivery.

Dave has been taking ceremonies with Humanists UK since 2017, and moved over to the iPad during Covid. He combines his work as a celebrant with performing, teaching, and conducting classical music.

This session will explore what challenges a celebrant might encounter when conducting a ceremony for someone they know well and care deeply about, such as a family member or close friend. For weddings and namings, the dual role is that of celebrant and guest, whilst for funerals they are celebrant and mourner. There will be a chance to share your own experiences with others, and/or gain insight into how celebrant colleagues have planned and carried out ceremonies for their kith and kin.

For example, perhaps you have declined a request to officiate at a family member’s ceremony, then regretted not having said ‘Yes’. Or possibly you have accepted a request, then wished you had not once it was ‘too late to stop now’.

I am a Naming and Funeral accredited celebrant from Saffron Walden in the Eastern Region. During the ten years since my training, I have conducted ceremonies for very close friends and very dear relatives, as well as for people whose family I am well acquainted with, though not with the person themselves. It is very interesting to me how the dynamic of such ceremonies differs from those that are the majority of my work, and I guess yours too, where there is no prior knowledge of, or relationship with, the family.

Just starting out in weddings and don’t know how to get going? Not booking as many weddings as you’d like? Not attracting the ‘right’ kind of couples for you?

In this session I will share my tips for booking more weddings and attracting your ideal couples, and help you avoid the pitfalls I fell into when I started out… which include booking a couple who asked me at the planning meeting, ‘Why are you asking us questions about how we met? Nobody will want to listen to you wanging on, they’ll just want to get to the bar!’

Louise is a former English teacher who trained with Humanists UK in 2020 (online, during the pandemic, using pot plants to represent the couple for the ceremony assessment!) Wedding celebrancy has been her full-time pursuit since summer 2021, with the odd bit of supply teaching on the side just to keep things interesting. She lives in Derby with her husband and Jarvis the cocker spaniel, and has a quite concerning obsession with mushrooms and the colour orange.

As celebrants we weave stories using the stuff of memories. We tell stories of longing, of discovery, of relationships, of things seen and experienced, of defining moments… all the stories of life. But what of our own life? How do we tell that story, if indeed we choose to tell it?

This workshop uses the voices and memories of writers, artists, poets and ordinary mortals to guide us through the remembering of our own lives. And in remembering, to leave behind for those we love a part of ourselves that might otherwise remain unknown to them. We will work in small groups and share with others in the workshop.