Marlborough’s Emily Rawlinson is delighted to be the first ever winner of the ‘Most Outstanding Family and Couples Celebrant Award’, presented at the National Celebrant Convention on September 27.
For those to whom the term ‘Celebrant’ is new – a celebrant is someone who is trained to provide a unique and personal ceremony such as a marriage, a renewal of vows, a civil partnership, a naming ceremony, a celebration of life, a funeral.
The celebrant profession continues to grow. Managing Director of Civil Ceremonies Ltd, Anne Barber, who hosted the awards, felt it was time to “recognise truly outstanding celebrants.”
The recipients of the awards were nominated solely by the families and couples the celebrants had worked with over the past year. Final judging was by Professor Rebecca Probert, Professor of Law at Exeter University who acted as the specialist advisor on the most recent review of marriage law in the UK, and Vanessa Harness, from the award-winning wedding and event planners R and F Weddings.
Anne Barber explained that,“Emily was nominated by her clients who just could not praise her highly enough for walking the extra mile for every one of them. They used terms like ‘amazing, outstanding’ but what really impressed the judges was the way they described her unique gift for listening and then creating such imaginative and beautiful ceremonies. A truly worthy winner.”
Emily has been a celebrant for nearly four years. She told marlborough.news, “I just love it. The joy of enrolling a celebrant to lead your ceremony is that you are not restricted by certain content. You can combine a variety of elements including religious, cultural and family rituals. Couples often like to write their own promises to each other. Usually a couple will have had their legal marriage or civil partnership before the ceremony.”
In the last year Emily has also started to work with local funeral directors, running funerals and ceremonies for scattering of ashes.
She loves the varied nature of her work. Over the years she has led a wedding celebration ceremony at the top of Montsec in Spain, hosted an Addams Family themed renewal of vows ceremony dressed as Wednesday Addams, and celebrated the adoption of a young girl into her new family.
Emily says that “the people I work with are at the heart of all I do. I enjoy the uniqueness in all of us and strive to capture and celebrate this in my ceremonies. To have won this award and to be recognised for work that I am passionate about, is amazing.”
For more information contact Emily Rawlinson at: Emily.celebrant@gmail.com or her website: www.emilycelebrant.com, or Facebook at: www.facebook.com/emilycelebrant