About Me
"Time spent with Leni is like time spent in a wine shop where the wine is free and you can drink it all day and not get bad drunk"
Lucy with a Why
About Me
What I do when I'm not Celebranting!
I'm much better at writing about other people than I am writing about myself! I trained in Jazz and Musical Theatre which basically meant I'm qualified in jazz hands (nice), but after a few years running indie venues and theatres, with a brief trip into the fashion world, I ended up working for that great institution, the NHS.
I was rolling through life, but something was missing. I was in a great relationship, I'd recently discovered the delights of rhubarb gin, I was rocking best aunt status, but I wasn't fulfilled in my work.
And then I saw a celebrant at work. And as she spoke it was like a lightbulb in my head. I could do that!
So I trained, I worked hard and here I am! A fully qualified, all singing, all dancing (OK that may be pushing it) life celebrant.
I am passionate about finding out about you, and making sure what I'm saying reflects your story.
I am also a fully qualified Advance Grief Recovery Specialist, and work with grievers to help them move forward after loss. You can find out more about that work here
When I'm not celebranting (not a word), I can be mainly found prancing around on stage, telling people how to prance around on stage, or watching others prancing around on stage. I also enjoy tasting new flavours of gin, feeding my friends, and indulging in my addiction to irregular choice shoes and cooking magazines. I regularly appear on BBC Radio Derby, normally with Ian Skye on Your Say.
How I work
Chat. Create. Celebrate
The first thing to do is to have a chat to make sure we click. No matter the type of ceremony you need to have complete faith in me, so before I take a booking you always have an opportunity to have a 'zoom' or a telephone call to make sure. You can even come over to my gorgeous garden office for tea and cake before you make a decision. You can ask me anything!
Once you've booked then we meet up again for the 'Discovery' meeting. This is the face to face where I discover your story. This can again take place over zoom if you are a long way away, you can come over to my office, or we can meet at your house or venue. Where ever suits you. We can talk about symbolic elements and you can bounce any ideas you have around. They don't even have to be ceremony related!
After this I get writing and crafting the perfect ceremony for your occasion. I choose poems, and words and then I send it through for you to check, change, until you know it's right. It doesn't matter how many times you want to change it, or if you have a new idea, you just need to drop me an e-mail, or give me a call. We can zoom, skype or chat on the phone as many times as you want.
QUALIFICATIONS
NOCN Level III Funeral Celebrancy
NOCN Level III Wedding and Naming Celebrancy
Certified Grief Recovery Specialist
Training
First Aid trained
DBS CHECKED
Religion
Are you a humanist?
I'm an independent Civil Celebrant. This means that the only thing that matters to me is your beliefs, and I am able to include anything you want to, including religion. So no I'm not a Humanist, but we work in the same way as we all want the very best for our couples. If you are a practicing Humanist and it is important to your belief system that you have a practicing Humanist, I know some fabulous ones!
As a vicar's daughter I have my own beliefs that I have been brought up with, but it's not about me, it's about you. So if you want to include religion in your ceremony, then I can do that, but likewise if you don't then that's no problem at all - It's your ceremony!