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Our Naming & Couples Celebrant Training Tutors

Anne Barber

Anne is Managing Director of Civil Ceremonies Ltd. She created and established Civil Funerals in the UK in 2002 and founded the Institute of Civil Funerals in 2004. Her previous career included the role of New Project Director at Lifecycle Marketing Ltd and Distribution Director with Bounty Services (UK) Ltd. She has been involved in establishing many services with Local Authorities and Registration Districts across the UK, in particular Naming Ceremonies, Renewal of Marriage Vows Ceremonies and Commitment Ceremonies as well as Civil Funerals. Anne wrote and published ‘The Complete Guide to Naming Ceremonies’ in 2008. She has established the website www.celebrantsupplies.co.uk and in 2014 she set up the Child Funeral Charity (of which she is a trustee). with industry colleagues. Her qualifications include a BA (Hons) Degree in Business Studies and an MBA.

Emily Rawlinson

Emily RawlinsonWith a degree in Sociology and a Diploma in Integrative Counselling, Emily established a career working in supported living for adults with learning disabilities. As a manager she worked hard to educate and support staff effectively. After ten years, Emily re-trained as a teacher and moved to China to teach English as a foreign language. As the result of a family bereavement she returned to the UK, and began a new vocation as an Independent Civil Celebrant, completing her training with Civil Ceremonies. Emily is a respected Celebrant and winner of the 2018 National Celebrant Award for Outstanding Celebrancy. She conducts couple and family ceremonies throughout the country (and abroad!). She is very approachable and is always happy to share her experiences of real life practice, and support students with any concerns they may have.

Natalie Dean

Natalie DeanNatalie’s background is in Financial Services, she worked her way up in the industry to become a technical paraplanner and team leader. She is a confident public speaker and has always had an interest in creative writing having penned everything from technical reports to children’s stories. It was after the birth of her first child in 2010 that she discovered a love for ceremonies. She wanted to welcome her little girl officially but did not want a religious ceremony, so decided to hold a naming day. After working with a Celebrant to create the script, she knew that this was something she was meant to do. She completed her training with Civil Ceremonies in June 2015 and has since conducted many couples and naming ceremonies, with a passion for creating unique and personal ceremonies for her clients. She is enthusiastic and passionate about her work and loves helping others on the Naming and Couples course. She is always happy to help and support delegates to ensure that they get the very best out of their training and can join the profession with the tools to create outstanding ceremonies.

Chris O’Malley

Chris O'MalleyFollowing her retirement from a varied teaching career spanning forty years, Chris trained with Civil Ceremonies Ltd to become a qualified Independent Civil Celebrant and is a tutor and assessor on the Naming and Couples Course. She specialises in couples and family ceremonies and using the skills and experience gained as a headteacher, Chris supports and encourages candidates – helping them to gain confidence in writing and delivering ceremonies. She also shares her joy and enthusiasm for being part of people’s special days.

Gary Hayes

After a career in teaching, lecturing, public speaking in a variety of contexts, and having a love of performance, Gary decided that celebrancy was the next step in his varied career. He is a full-time celebrant and the founder of Fab Ceremonies and after successfully qualifying as a funeral and a couples’ celebrant, he founded ‘Fab Ceremonies’, based in Liverpool. Growing up in Southeast London in the 60s and 70s led Gary to embrace the re-emerging Mod Culture of the time. Hence ‘Fab’, also a nod to the Fab 4! Gary has successfully ‘niched his business and conducts ceremonies all over the UK and beyond.

Helen Cook

A life-long learner and natural collaborator Helen joined the Civil Ceremonies team in 2020 following a successful career as a civil servant.  She trained as a civil celebrant in 2014 and is active in the Herts, Beds and Bucks area where she has built a reputation for tackling difficult, sensitive and specialist ceremonies. She is passionate about the celebrancy industry and committed to providing families with great support, advice and ceremonies.  She views the Couples and Naming course as an opportunity to work within a great team, to influence the standard of celebrants in the workplace nationally and to encourage and coach those who want to learn in a fun and informal environment.

Bernie Powers

Always keen for a new challenge, in 2009 Bernie completed her Naming and Couples training, and has since undertaken numerous ceremonies for Civil Ceremonies.  She takes great pleasure in delivering these ceremonies and working with families to make the occasions memorable. Originally her career was in banking but, whilst raising her family, she worked in a solicitor’s office and at the same time undertook a degree in teaching and English Literature. She then had a very successful teaching career which spanned a full 24 years.

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    Call us on 01480 276080

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      If you would like one of our Celebrants to conduct your ceremony, please send us the following details so that we can check availability:






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        Please note the Level 4 course is for practising celebrants only.

        * Required

        Call us on 01480 276080

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        IT Skills you will need both during your training and working as a celebrant

        Do you have the following skills:

        1. Ability in creating, naming, using, saving and retrieving files and folders.
        2. Familiarity with using your version of Word (or similar software).
        3. Understanding of toolbars and icons.
        4. Ability to copy and paste sections of text.
        5. An understanding of ‘track changes’ and how to use this function.
        6. Ability to bold, underline and italicise text.
        7. Be able to change font type, size and colour.
        8. Ability to centre text in the middle of a page and right and left justify it.
        9. Be able to alter line spacing in a document and insert a page break.
        10. Be able to use the undo and redo functions.
        11. Understand how the tab key works.
        12. Ability to use headers and footers, bullet points and numbering
        13. Understanding of the difference between ‘Save’ and ‘Save As’.

        If you said ‘yes’ to all of the above then you have good basic skills.

        If you have answered ‘no’ to any of the above then you will need to improve your basic skills before starting the course. This can be done in a few hours by using one or more of the free online tutorials available on the internet.