My Services
Whether you’re looking for a traditional service, a natural burial, or a celebration of life, I’m here to guide you with compassion and care.
Bespoke ‘At Need’ Funeral Services
If someone you love has passed away and you are looking for a celebrant to take the service, I hope you find what you are looking for here and among my other pages.
I extend my sincere condolences at this time, it would be an honour to serve you and your loved one. Often families will approach a funeral director straight away and a celebrant is often booked through them. Yet, increasingly, families are taking control and searching for the right person themselves. If you wish to use my services and are in the process of arrangements with the funeral director, let them know and pass on my details.
To help bring you clarity, and I often find comfort comes from clarity, read on for a brief overview of the process so you know what to expect.
- You decide you would like to work with me, wonderful, now you just need to get in touch. You can email me, fill in my contact form, text me, WhatsApp me or call me. I even have a Facebook page now so you can send me a query on Messenger.
- Once initial contact is made I will arrange a convenient time to call and take some brief details over the phone. Then I will arrange to meet you and any other family members who may wish to be involved. This might be at your home, at the Funeral Directors offices or at the office of Tresise & Baldwin Monumental Masons, we can even conduct our appointment virtually if you are not local, whatever works best for you.
- Once I have the preliminary details I will contact your chosen funeral director (if you haven’t chosen one yet then that is no problem, we can chat about that too!) and inform them that you are working with me and when I will be seeing you.
- I will email you some information ahead of our appointment which can provide valuable information and ideas, along with a copy of the Celebrant Accord and any other relevant paperwork.
- During our time together we will chat about your loved one and your ideas for the service. Most appointments last 1.5 hours, we might be quicker, or we might take a little longer and that is ok. You might need a follow up appointment and that is ok too. Often follow up sessions can be by phone or online.
- I will keep in touch in your preferred way throughout our time together, as will I keep in touch with the funeral director so they are always aware of our discussions and ideas.
- I will then prepare the first draft of the service and send it to you via email; the document is usually in Word but this can be adapted for your needs. Once you have read through it you can get back to me with any changes or ideas and we will play email ping-pong until it is right for you.
- On the day of the service I will be there in good time to greet you when you arrive. I will conduct the service as agreed, either in full or in part depending on the needs of the family.
Funerals, Interments & Celebrations of Life Fee – £240
I knew that I wanted a celebrant for my mother’s funeral but didn’t know where to begin; then I came across Kym’s profile – I felt immediately that she would be the right person. I texted her; she responded and arranged an initial phone conversation before arranging to meet me and my partner at our home to begin the process. Kym talked us through the practicalities, and we talked at length about Mum, it all felt very natural. The first draft was with us in a few days, and we worked together to tweak it until it was ready.
Kym kept in touch throughout and really took time to get to know Mum and us as a family. She liaised with the Funeral Director and Burial Ground, so everything was seamless. She conducted Mum’s celebration beautifully, creating many beautiful touches to make it unique – Mum would have been so proud!
Every last detail is considered and provides a quality service from start to finish. I cannot thank you enough Kym, for the service you provided mum and for helping me with my grief and healing journey.
Funeral Consultant & Advance Planning
I hope you have had a chance to look around my site and can see that I offer a valuable service to help those who wish to make advance preparations.
- Funeral Plans via funeral directors and online providers/insurance companies have become very popular over the last 10 years. Yet mostly they are to provide financial assistance with only the barest of details about the service.
- Most people just don’t know what to put in them, or they have an idea of what they want but actually the reality is quite different and if they talked it through with a consultant they would make alternative arrangements.
- An Advance Planning Directive is also known as a living will, and this refers mainly to instructions given out in a medical scenario relating to medical treatment.
- When we talk about advance planning from a funerary perspective, we are talking about how to plan in advance for your funeral service and what you want/don’t want, so that your family, at the time of need, are comforted to know they don’t have to make decisions without knowing your wishes.
- If you are nearing end of life, or on palliative care, advance planning your funeral can bring a deep sense of comfort. You know that your family can proceed with the arrangements in a secure way, without having to make decisions in uncertainty and while grieving your loss.
- You don’t have to know everything you want, but even the skeleton of a service can bring relief to your family. It also empowers you to make choices which are right for you, taking your values and beliefs into consideration.
- By consulting me I can also draft a basic service outline which you can keep, ready for the moment your family needs it. Contact me for a no obligation call to see if my funeral consultancy is the right choice for you.
Funeral Consultancy & Planning Fee – £180
Educational Workshops & Talks
With knowledge comes empowerment, confidence and comfort.
In a recent survey by SunLife, 47% of those surveyed didn’t know if a loved one wanted burial or cremation, 33% didn’t know if the service should be religious or non religious and 18% had no idea what their loved one wanted.
Why do we not talk about our wishes? Some people fear dying and cannot face talking about it. Maybe some people want to talk about it but their loved ones don’t. It is also because, for many people, they don’t know where to start, or perhaps it just doesn’t occur to them while they are busy living.
Yet knowing our options and choices is empowering; being informed means we can make choices that reflect our wishes, our values and our ethics.
I love to give talks about the key areas in death, dying and funerals. I love to give talks because I can support people in making the right choices for them by providing information in a non-judgemental and independent way.
Ideas for talks and workshops can include;
- Do I go for burial or cremation?
- What is a direct cremation and what are the impacts of having one?
- What role does ritual have in our modern times?
- How can I include my beliefs and values in my funeral?
- How can we have a green funeral?
- What type of memorials are there?
- What should I include in my funeral plan?
- How do different faiths approach death?
- How can I support my loved ones to have the funeral conversation?
And there are many more…
Talks are usually 1 hour and I do not charge for these*.
*if the location is outside of 20 miles from TR15 there will be a fee of 56p per mile.
Workshop costs vary depending on location/content/timescale. Please contact me for further details.
