Funerals and life celebrations
A painful day can also be a precious one, part of the healing, seeding hope for the future.
Sophie specialises in funerals and life celebrations that deeply honour the personality, the life, the values and the legacies of the person who has died.
If you have a particularly difficult loss, of whatever kind, Sophie will be especially glad to work with you.
Please get in touch here if you would like to explore having Sophie as your independent celebrant for your loved one’s funeral or life celebration. Sophie can also help you plan a funeral or celebrate a life, as death comes nearer.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
—Kahil Gibran
A funeral or life celebration can take place anywhere. It can be solemn or full of joy — perhaps, best of all, a bit of both.
An independent celebrant takes some of the weight from you, listens deeply, creates something heart-lifting.
Poems, art, quietness, music, contributions of many kinds — all is possible.
Sophie is particularly skilled in working with funeral directors and crematoria and will smooth the arrangements, as needed.
Whether or not you choose me as your funeral celebrant, I extend
my warm wishes to you, at this sad and difficult time.
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For 2024 - 2025 the standard fee for a funeral or life celebration is £250. This includes time with you, your family and others important to you, creation of the ceremony, (including a unique script with as many versions as we need), liaison with the crematorium or cemetery if needed and supporting you throughout the ceremony.
You will also receive a full script with all the readings, both electronically and in a ‘to keep’ hard copy version.
Please also see the note in the footer about fees.
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Sophie is very much available if you would like to plan your funeral or life celebration, knowing that your time is limited. This is often a helpful thing to do with an independent celebrant, who can get to know key family and friends and make sure a wonderfully appropriate commemoration is ready.
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Sophie’s credentials
Sophie had senior roles in her professional career, including creating and leading events of all kinds. She has trained as a celebrant with Dinah Liversidge, of the Celebrant Coaching and Training Academy, achieving distinction in both wedding and funeral training.
She is a member of the Association of Independent Celebrants and subscribes to the brilliant principles of the Funeral Celebrancy Accord.
What makes Sophie tick?
Kind truthfulness, finding what love means for each of us, trustworthiness, celebrating difference, doing things well, caring for the wider world.
“[Sophie’s] careful planning, drafting and organisation allowed myself as a funeral director to provide the exact service [she] wanted for Mary. Even the finest details had been planned and factored in to ensure the day of the funeral went seamlessly to give Mary the send off that she deserved.”
—Joseph Grant, Brain and Waldron Funeral Directors