What do you need to become a celebrant?

Life as a celebrant

Becoming a celebrant in an over crowded market can be a tough call.

Most new celebrants will report back how hard it is to get their first funeral and often take months to get off the ground.

I hear many stories about people giving up their full time work, hoping to jump straight in to a forty hour week with funerals, only to find this is not the case.

Funeral directors are inundated with new celebrants coming through the door every day and with their favourite go-to celebrants, some of them can be reluctant to make a change.

 

So that’s the trick? Keep plugging away at it is my advice.

I have celebrant colleagues who spent their first month going door to door and introducing themselves to as many Funeral Directors as possible. Follow up each email with a phone call or face to face visit and don’t be shy. Sometimes you have to push to get that first gig.

I was fortunate that I had a big network of people in my town already and so I told as many of my friends and associates that I was starting a new path. When people came to know what I was doing, work came in by word of mouth

 

Skill set

A beautiful florist friend of mine recently let me know that she was hoping to train as a celebrant. From making incredible wedding bouquets and coffin sprays, she felt she’d seen the industry from a different angle. Her ability to hear what her customer’s want would make her a good celebrant. Here’s what else I recommended she’d need:

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A good communicator

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Be able to write

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A good listener

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Happy with public speaking

Stationery nerd alert 

When funerals were predominantly on line during the pandemic, I sat and watched a local celebrant, a man, deliver his service. The first thing that captured my attention was the way he held his folio of the script.

Previously, I had placed my printed script on the lectern and looked down at it intermittently  as I read along. Of course this meant everyone in the chapel had a great view of the top of my head! Perfect if your roots are up to scratch.

The guy I watched, had a very lightweight folio, like this one here, which meant he could hold it up and read from it whilst still being able to scan the congregations faces.

I immediately ditched my desire for an exquisite leather one, which is too heavy to hold, and opted for a lightweight one straight from Amazon. 

Now I can hold it up easily for the whole service, without feelling like I’ve been at the gym. Plus they’re relatively inexpensive so I can have more than one, handy for when multiple services are going out the door and I want to be prepped well in advance.

 

WHEN THINGS GET TOUGH

Noah looked like a fool until it started to rain. Keep building.

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