Jackson & Tahlia

June 2023 @ Coast Path, Tintagel

When Tahlia first got in touch, it was clear just how special Tintagel was to her and her family. Now living in Australia, Tahlia still felt the pull of her family roots in the spectacular north Cornish Village of Tintagel and felt she needed to do something to mark her commitment to fiance Jackson in sight of the Church where so many of her ancestors worshipped and now reside.

I was happy to take a look at the area and was delighted to find Glebe Cliffs – an area of the coastal path behind the church and in sight of the famous Tintagel Castle. I sent photos to Tahlia and we agreed that this would be the perfect location.

On the day it was fine but windy, and accompanied by a family friend and the lovely Sarah of Chequered Photography. A heart felt handfasting with personal vows and blessings – such a pleasure to write and conduct. The colours of ribbons for the handfasting were especially chosen for their meaning to this gorgeous couple. Afterwards we spent some time looking around the church and paying respects to Tahlia’s relatives.

Their verdict on the ceremony? They summed it up in one word “Awesome!”

Tom & Evie

June 2023 @ Family Home, Devon

What a wedding! Held in the garden of the brides sister just across the border into Devon – it was a truly a country garden wedding. The weather held fair and the ceremony fulfilled the couples dream of getting married outdoors. The wedding was personal, relaxed and full of love. The tale was told of this couple who have been together since meeting in 2011. A handfasting was included as were readings and music. Truly a ceremony to remember for its boho vibe and wonderful guests.

Their verdict: “It was amazing – thank you so much!” So many guests commented to me afterwards that it was the most beautiful ceremony they had ever been to – I do love my job!!

Kevin & Amy

June 2023 @ Launcells Barton

What a lovely couple. As soon as Denise chatted to them she knew this would be a special ceremony. The bride Amy grew nearly all of the flowers and made all her own displays – just beautiful. the ceremony centered on a handfasting tradition and the couple ended up with a knot to keep forever.

This is the reaction of the lovely bride Amy on reading the first draft of the ceremony script:

” Hi Denise, this is great, thank you so much”

Beautiful images by Alex Toze Photography www.devonweddingphotography.co.uk

Max & Ali

April 2023 @ Trevibban Mill

Hello Nicola,

I hope you are well! Just wanted to say a huge thank you for everything for our wedding. You really made our day so special and our ceremony was our favourite part of the whole day! Lots of friends mentioned how wonderful you were too.

Sorry it has taken us far too long to say thank you! It really was the best day.

Loads of love Ali and Max xxxxx

Its always so lovely to get a thank you from a couple. It was a delight to work with Max and Ali to develop a ceremony which was just right for them. Their musical friends provided the music for the ceremony. As an Independent Celebrant I am always happy to include whatever is important to the couple and for Ali and Max some religious elements were just that – so we had a hymn and a reading referencing the Bible and a poem – the lyrics to a song written by the Groom. The Bride is a fabulous chef and provided everyone with a biscuit to eat together symbolising the nourishment of love to the soul. Following the signing of the register, accompanied by a wonderful rendition of “I love you always forever” by Donna Lewis sung by one of the bridesmaids, Con, accompanied by Ollie and Billy, everyone sand “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. The couple then “Tied the Knot”, and we all recited the Cornish Well-wishing to them before they led their guest to the reception and confetti!

James & Lucy

June 2023 @ Fowey Harbour Hotel

After their initial enquiry I met with Lucy and James via Zoom as they live out of Cornwall. We hit it off immediately and I was thrilled when they booked us for their family orientated wedding celebration at the very lovely Fowey Harbour Hotel. Fowey holds a very special place in the hearts of Lucy’s family, and it was the ideal location for their wedding. We then met at the hotel in person when the couple came on a planning visit and discussed the options for the ceremony location – the favourite was the Lower Terrace Garden, but the hotel also has some wonderful function rooms which were our “fall back” in case of poor weather. At the meeting we also went through the various rituals that could be included in the ceremony, and the decision was made to include a ring blessing, handfasting and to end with a tie the knot. After this chat and with the information from previous zoom calls and our questionnaire, I created a ceremony for this musical couple which included all the elements they requested.

On the day we didn’t need to worry about the weather as it was an amazing early summers day with blue skies and sunshine. The views out to sea were spectacular and the Lower Terrace Garden was the perfect setting for the ceremony. The guests were included in the ring blessing, and were asked for their support for the couple, to which they all responded with a resounding “we will”. The ceremony continued with a reading, followed by the handfasting together with heartfelt personal vows, after the signing of the Register, the ceremony ended with a Tie the Knot and a Cornish Well-wishing, before the couple walked out to a positive storm of confetti thrown by delighted family and friends.

The couples verdict on the ceremony: “Its absolutely perfect!! Thank you so much!”

Josh & Amber

May 2023 @ Pengelly Barns

When we first met Amber and Josh at a wedding fair they told us that they had already booked Cornwall Registration Service for their big day. As we chatted with them we had a real connection and they told us they were feeling anxious about the ceremony as they wouldn’t know who would be conducting the ceremony. We chatted some more about the benefits of using a Celebrant who really gets to know them before the date of the ceremony and our ethos of being completely focused on the couple and what they want. They went away to have a think about their options and contacted us the next day to book us for the ceremony! They switched the legal ceremony to a few days before at a local Registration Office. I met with Amber and Josh a couple of times to chat through the ideas they had for the ceremony and we also did a “walk through” the evening before the big day.
On the day Amber and Josh were very relaxed and enjoyed the ceremony – which contained all the traditional elements of a wedding ceremony. This is what they said:

“Hey Nicola, I’m not even sure what to say? You have been amazing and I’m so sad that this is it!! You’ve been amazing, kind, supportive, loving and I’m so thankful we found you. Amber and Josh”

It was a real pleasure for me to enable Amber and Josh to enjoy the ceremony part of their big day rather than being anxious and worried about it. The ceremony is at the heart of the day, and should be the highlight – I am so pleased that I managed to do this for this wonderful couple.

Jess and Ed

May 2022 @ Burncoose House

Hi Nicola, Just wanted to give a big thanks for everything you did at our wedding on the 14th- it was absolutely perfect- thank you! We had so many comments on how lovely the ceremony was and our guests weren’t wrong!
Thanks again!
Jess and Ed x

It was a delight to work with Jess and Ed and create a ceremony which was perfect for them!

Francois and Claire

April 2022 @ Ruthern Valley

Claire and Francois had to delay their celebration due to Covid – but they made up for it by enjoying their day with family and friends. They chose to celebrate their wedding in the natural surroundings of the Ruthern Valley, and enjoyed a beautiful handfasting and readings from their guests. Such a special day, and one they truly enjoyed.

Ben and Natalie

April 2022 @ Elizabeth House, Plympton

What a beautiful setting for the wedding of Ben and Natalie. After a stormy few weeks the day of the wedding was cold but the rain and wind stayed away. A wonderful gathering of family and friends celebrated with the couple – and their verdict on the ceremony – “perfect”!

Luke and Charlene

April 2022 @ Padstow Harbour Hotel

This lovely couple chose the fabulous Padstow Harbour Hotel for their ceremony. Having had to postpone their ceremony last year due to Covid, they wanted to make their ceremony extra special and chose to include a handfasting as they said their vows. Hardly a dry eye in the room at the end of the ceremony. “Thank you for making our day so special.”

Verity & Marco

February 2022 @ The Barn

“We love you both so much – it was truly amazing and all that we dreamt of and more. I just loved seeing your smiley faces at every moment” “OMG I am crying its so beautiful, thank you, thank you, its so so perfect” These words mean so much to both of us, this was such a special ceremony for us – held in the barn of one friend in the wedding industry for another friend in the wedding industry. So honoured to create and lead this awesome ceremony for our friend and amazing photographer Verity and her fabulous man Marco! We had an absolute blast with this one creating such an individual ceremony which included a hound howl in support of the couple and an amazing rendition of “Any Dream will Do”.

Sarah and David with Baby Annie

February 2022 @ Knightor

We were delighted to conduct a very special naming ceremony for a much wanted little girl called Annie. This lovely family are dairy farmers and so we incorporated a sand ceremony using a old glass milk bottle, family friends sang “Annie’s song” and another friend added a special reading. Surrounded by her loving family, little Annie was the centre of attention and smiled and laughed her way through the ceremony. The family chose family and friends to be “Gwithiaz” (Cornish for Guardians) to be there for Annie throughout her life, and all received a certificate to mark their promises. Proud of their Cornish roots we added a welcome to the guests and a blessing in Cornish. The family’s verdict? “Thank you so much – it was a wonderful service, and the addition of the Cornish wording was perfect!”

James and Stephanie

January 2022 @ The Green

Always a pleasure to have a winter wedding.  James and Stephanie contacted us in November 2021 to see if we had availability for their wedding in January and we were delighted to oblige!  After our initial contact James had to go away for work so it was late December when we finally met up to chat about their wedding ceremony ideas.  They were interested in a sand ceremony and a “tie the knot” and we chatted about the overall feel they wanted for the ceremony.  They loved my initial draft of the ceremony but decided the two rituals would be too much so decided on the “tie the knot”  – very appropriate for a naval wedding!

It was a beautiful day and it was fantastic to be back at The Green.  The wedding arch had been made by the father of the groom – one of the nicest we have seen, and beautifully decorated.  The bride was walked down the aisle by her father, and both sets of parents were asked for their welcome for their son or daughters partner.  It was a beautiful ceremony with lovely readings (“Scaffolding” by Seamus Heaney is one of my current favourites), culminating in a “tie the knot”.  We sent the couple on their way with our Cornish Well Wishing, and the guests agreed to repeating the last line in Cornish!  A Guard of Honour awaited the couple on their exit.  At the end they both said it was a “wonderful ceremony – just the best” and thanked us for everything.  It was our pleasure!

Ashley & Rhianwen

June 2021 @ Porth-en-Alls

Ashley and Rhianwen planned to have their ceremony last year, but in common with many other couples they had to postpone to June this year.  They chose the glorious Porth-en-Alls at Prussia Cove, a spectacular house on the edge of the cliffs in the beautiful Mounts Bay – it is a location with a definite wow factor!  The day was overcast, but the couple were determined to be outdoors in the sheltered garden.  The drizzle came in as an early shower of Cornish confetti during the ceremony but it didn’t dampen the feeling of love in the air.  Rhianwen and her bridal party made a magical entrance through the garden door and Ashley visibly relaxed as she joined him at the top of the aisle.  Rhianwen and Ashley chose to include two readings in the ceremony one about family and the other about friendship.  The couple asked family members to bring forward different coloured ribbons and place them over their joined hands for the Celtic handfasting, such an appropriate ritual in this most Cornish of settings.  It was so pleasing that the couple made no changes to the script we had written for them, and they loved the ceremony.  As it was one of the first larger ceremonies of the year after lockdown we went double handed and Nicola was joined by one of our affiliated Celebrants Grace.

Paul and Angela

May 2021 @ Mother Ivey's Bay

From the moment this couple first contacted us, we knew that this would be a special day.  They married, had a family, and then grew apart and divorced, and now have found each other once again – what a fabulous love story!  Mother Ivey’s Bay is such an important place for the family – with memories of many happy family holidays.  They wanted to marry on the beach – and we were happy to oblige!  The weather was blustery but fine, and we were all barefoot in the sand.  The couple were surrounded by their lovely family in an intimate, heartfelt and joyful ceremony especially created for them!

“Thank you for doing such a great job and making our special day so memorable!  Thanks for all your help, advice and ideas.  We had such a great day.”

Siobhan & Caroline

May 2021 @ Island House, Newquay

What a gorgeous celebration this was – a renewal of vows, combined with a family celebration at the iconic Island House in Newquay.  We created a special ceremony for Siobhan and Caroline and added in a sand ceremony which enabled Jack and Molly – this couples adorable twins – to join in.  Caroline and Siobhan’s mothers, Denise and Mo were both there too.  We loved every member of this family – they are warm, funny, loving and gorgeous and it was a real privilege to create and deliver this ceremony for them.

“Hello ladies, just a short message to say a huge thankyou once again for all you did to make our special day so very memorable.  It was a pleasure to meet you both and have you be such an integral part of our Renewals.  Stay safe and take care….. see you in 5 years!! LOL  Siobhan, Caroline, Denise, Mo, Jack and Molly Xx”

Can’t wait for 5 years time when we can do it all again!

Beautiful Photographs courtesy of Sarah from Chequered Photography http://www.checkeredphotography.co.uk/

Matthew & Laura

7th June 2020 @ Their own home - Get Wed Online Ceremony

Hi Denise,

We just wanted to say thank you for conducting our e-ceremony last month.

We had a great time and really felt it added to the days celebrations. We were both surprised by how moving and meaningful ways and felt it was a great way to acknowledge what could have been a miserable day. After the ceremony, we cracked open the champagne, zoomed some family and friends and had a five course dinner!

Thank you for your support and guidance in the preparation. We felt you pitched the whole event in exactly the right tone and made it very easy for us.

Thanks again – stay safe.

Matt and Laura

Alison and David

2nd May 2020 @ Garden of their own home - Get Wed Online ceremony

Cornish Celebrants has joined up with some fabulous Cornish Wedding Businesses to provide zoom ceremonies for couples who want to celebrate their would be date.  David and Alison were due to go on a cruise and had planned to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary whilst visiting Italy.  Covid-19 put paid to their plans, so “Get Wed Online” came to the rescue, and we created and choreographed a zoom ceremony for them to celebrate their 25 years with friends joining them on line.   David and Alison got in touch with this testimonial after the ceremony:  “We just wanted to say a huge thank you for our beautiful ceremony on Saturday 02 May. It surpassed our expectations in every way. Who would have thought, just a few weeks ago before the lockdown, that a ‘virtual’ gathering and ceremony could be so successful?! Our friends and family loved it and they all said how happy it made them feel to be able to share it with us. ⁠
⁠Thank you so much from both of us. Love and best wishes, ⁠
⁠Alison and David xx”⁠

Stephen and Dorothy

March 2020 @ Tregenna Castle, St Ives

In early March we headed off to lovely Tregenna Castle at St Ives to conduct an intimate renewal of vows for Stephen and Dorothy who were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary.
The sun shone on this wonderful couple who summed up their relationship by saying: “It is a friendship that still surprises and doesnʼt grow stale. After 42 years together and 35 years of marriage we are still the best of friends. It is a love of which we are both immensely proud and for which we are truly grateful.” It was such a pleasure to create and conduct their ceremony and we were so pleased to receive this testimonial from them:

Annie and Ben

20th October 2019 @ Launcells Barton

“It was such a brilliant day, we honestly couldn’t have asked for any more.”

From our first meeting with Annie and Ben we knew this was going to be such a special ceremony.  This couple were filled with ideas for their ceremony and wanted it to be as inclusive as possible.  We incorporated a prayer and a religious reading alongside more secular offerings, we also added in some short pieces of advice from the couples grandparents.  It was a real pleasure to create a ceremony which everyone present enjoyed.

Tom and Sean

3rd August 2018 @ The Orangery, Mount Edgcumbe

We simply can’t thank you enough for performing such a beautiful wedding ceremony for us. It genuinely was the highlight of our day! Your calm and caring nature really put us at ease (and you can’t ask for more than that when wearing a Harris Tweed suit during a heatwave). So many of our guests commented on how personal and thoughtful the ceremony was. Some were even convinced that Sean and I had known you for years! That comment really is a testament to the time you put into making sure you got to know the both of us to really well to make the ceremony as personal as possible. You became a friend to us during a truly horrendous time for my family in the months running up to the wedding and we can’t thank you enough for that. In light of everything that had happened, you made last minute changes to our ceremony to ensure that everything remained respectful and appropriate.

So thank you again Denise, and to Nicola for great moral support and crowd control during the day. We wish you both all the very best of luck and have no doubt that your business will continue to leap from strength to strength.

Malcolm and Kathy

7th July 2018 @ Trebudannon Point to Point Barn

Kathy said “I can’t thank you enough for making our wedding ceremony so special and memorable.  So many people said it was the nicest wedding they’d ever been to!

It was lovely to be able to tailor it to suit our needs and tastes, so that the ceremony was truly a reflection of our personalities.

It really was the most perfect day!

Xx”

It was such a privilege to be involved in this couples wedding, they really are the nicest people!  They transformed the point to point barn into a wonderful wedding venue, with chill out areas, and even a tea and coffee station for their guests.  So thoughtful.  The choir that Kathy sings with was an integral part of the ceremony.

It was truly a magical occasion!

Dan & Matt

19th May 2018 @ Enys House

We are so grateful we had Nicola conduct our ceremony in the grounds of Enys Gardens, in Penryn. From the minute we met her, Matt and I immediately warmed to Nicola – she is warm, funny, genuine and made us feel like we were part of her own family.

The ceremony was perfect – not only were the words bespoke and personal to us – her delivery and facilitation was simply excellent. We had around 105 guests and have been inundated with family and friends who said it was the most beautiful ceremony they had been part of.

Emily and Sean

19th May 2018 @ Polzeath Beach

Hi Denise,

Wanted to share a HUUUUGE thank you for conducting such an incredible, personal and memorable ceremony.

It couldn’t have gone more perfectly, and we have had so many comments from guests about how personal it was and how well suited to us as a couple! We barely made a tweak from your first draft, you captured everything so well. Your style was perfectly natural and so calm and funny during the random bits which didn’t go quite so to plan!