Laura + Ross at Newton Hall | March 2026
“Sarah is absolutely phenomenal, she made our day beyond special.”
The first ceremony I ever did, after my training with the Academy of Modern Celebrancy, was unexpected. I thought my first ceremony would be a wedding, but I was asked - by friend-of-a-friend Laura - if I would lead her mother’s celebration of life.
So I was delighted when Laura got back in touch two years later to ask if I would lead her wedding at Newton Hall. And I immediately knew how important it would be to bring her mum’s gorgeous presence into the room. Wendy had a successful candle business, now run by Laura, so it made perfect sense that we would begin the ceremony by lighting a candle for her best friend, her mum. And having done Wendy’s funeral, there were lots of familiar faces on this happy day who understood the undercurrent of loss.
Understandably, there was plenty of emotion on the day of Laura and Ross’ wedding - but lots of that was laughter and joy. The groom is a cheeky chappy (I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying that!) and Ross told me - and all the guests - that it didn’t matter if he cried when Laura came down the aisle cos “I’m a handsome crier to be fair”. That got a laugh. He also got regular laughs throughout the day because the flies on his suit trousers weren’t playing ball. So to speak.
Photos by Mark Dilbo Photography
This was an unusual wedding for me in that, for the first time, I was shadowed by another celebrant. Wonderful company, hilarious, helpful Molly. She’d been in touch to ask if she could observe me at a wedding and I thought: hats off for asking, why not.
We’d never met but she stayed the night before at my house, arriving laden with gifts: cute stripey handbag and stripey vase for me (I do love a stripe); percy pigs and chocolate bunnies for my kids (they do love sugar highs). We got on like a house on proverbial fire and - on the wedding day - it was great having a sidekick.
The couple’s little boys - Joey and Ollie - were angels, their dog Murphy too. There were worries before the ceremony that naps had been skipped and emotions were high, but everyone under two foot tall was good as gold. Murphy came bounding down the aisle with the rings attached to his collar, at just the right moment.
The only person, in fact, who screwed up was me.
You should never ask a woman’s age, I know that. I need to apply that to everyone, even if the person in question is a kid. Why did I guess the lovely flowergirl - who was so friendly - was in year 2? I think it’s just because my twins are in year 2. She replied, a bit dejectedly, that no, she was in year 5. I wanted the ground to swallow me up.
Then I couldn’t find my ceremony folder cos it turned out I’d left it in the bridal dressing room while I was yapping.
I forgot scissors for the handfasting ribbons.
Then - when it came to the symbolic moment, all eyes at the front - the handfasting went wrong. The bride and groom pulled and there was. no. knot.
Luckily they are mega chilled people and saw the funny side: I offered that we'd do it again later with their photographer (with two young kids and a dog in the ceremony and we were on borrowed time!) but Ross grabbed the ribbons, made a comically chaotic knot himself and said "let's keep this, it'll remind us of the day". A messy memento of a real moment.
I was a bit mortified but thank heavens for couples whose shared priority is have fun over everything has to be perfect.
In the end it was a great wedding for Molly to shadow - a reminder that we each bring our own je ne sais crap to our work. I said “well, you picked a good one: you’ll leave here knowing what to do and…what not to do!”.
“All of our guests still comment on how amazing our ceremony was.”