But, what am I paying for?

Good evening Celebrators, happy Easter Weekend and Happy Saturday. I've been playing around with ideas for this weeks blog and as usual, I've been reviewing my website analytics to see what you think is relevant to your needs, wants and desires. I'd be a pretty shocking business owner and celebrant if I didn't at least pay some heed, wouldn't I?

So, I have learnt that approximately a quarter of my celebrators go straight to the pricing page and of course, I reckon that's what I'd do if I were you. But putting myself in your shoes, you might be wondering what on earth I think I am doing for the prices I charge: and while I don't feel the need to break down every little thing, it might help you to gain a reasonable understanding before making a commitment to me as your celebrant -or to any celebrant for that matter!

Let's talk about funerals and why I set my stall at £220. Firstly, I am trained in celebrancy by the Academy of Professional Celebrants and as a result, you can rest assured that I know exactly what I am doing, am working to a Code of Professional Conduct and carry insurance. My membership to the APC enables me to access a range of CPD courses that I can opt into in order to give my clients the best possible services and these courses support a wide range of services I offer as well as business development.

The average funeral in England occurs within two and half weeks of the Death Certificate being released and as a result, my services will often require a quick turnaround and most often the process starts in the evenings when clients are

home from work/family commitments. At our meeting, we chat about the loss your family is experiencing in order to get a really strong picture of them and your relationships. While this can take perhaps 1.5hrs, it may well take longer but I want to get the best possible picture so unless we are on a tight time constraint, I have no problems staying longer if needed.

Sometimes, I'll need to contact people who were not at our meeting, I certainly need to carry out a range of research strategies in order to enhance our eulogy: I mean, no-one simply wants a version of a Wikipedia life story -we want to do more than hear- we want to remember.

Some Funeral Directors arrange the music for ceremonies for you, but I organise it if need be, editing verses, styles and lengths as needed.

Once a meeting has been held, I go away and craft a very personal ceremony for you and send that off to you so that you can review it and make adjustments where needed. I pride myself on creating each ceremony on their own merits and do not use a cookie cutter approach. You and your families deserve more than that. You will typically receive a first draft within 48hrs, often sooner.

Drafts might need to be edited a few times and that's absolutely cool with me: I don't want you to remember how I got names and dates incorrect. I want you to have the best possible ceremony that you can recall fondly for time to come. I don't expect my eulogies to be perfect straight off the bat but I do try hard to get as close as possible! Of course, the back and forth between you and I, needs to be very quick and I make myself available to you through Email, Phone and WhatsApp to ensure we have a clear and fluid line of communication.

In the background, I am talking to the crematorium/funeral director and confirming plans for the actual day as well as rehearsing the ceremony: checking pronunciation, timings and content in order to give you the best opportunity to reminisce while paying little real attention to me on the day.

On the day, I am there, early, waiting in the wings for you and your loved ones to arrive: I'm your support and reassurance, always ready with a smile and tissues. I'll have planned into our ceremony any tributes you wanted to hold, including memories delivered by families, poetry, songs -if requested- and a moment of reflection.

So -you see- there is rather a lot that goes into crafting a memorial celebration/ceremony that can be remembered for the right reasons and on average, it takes approximately 10hrs to prepare and deliver a well-structured service. I would be doing you a disservice if I tried to take short cuts and I take a huge amount of pride in ensuring that you get what you want.

I hope that you've found this week's chat interesting and informative but by all means, if you have questions, feel free to post a comment, send me an email or even drop a like!

Love you Lots.

K