Page the Celebrant

11/01/2026

This beautiful bunch of roses was given to me yesterday by a lovely family for whom I recently conducted a funeral service. Losing a loved one at any time of year is heartbreaking, but it feels especially poignant at this time of year ...and I am blown away by the kindness and generosity shown by the family whilst they are in the depths of grief. I don't often ask my clients for reviews after a funeral as it feels a bit intrusive and not always appropriate....but receiving feedback like this is just wonderful! ❤️🙏🏻 Love my job so much!

10/01/2026

Slightly belated but Happy New Year and a huge thank you to everyone who has supported my celebrancy business this year. I'm very very lucky to do this job that I love so much and am super grateful to all the families, couples, funeral directors, grief experts and wedding suppliers who have engaged my services this year. Lots of exciting stuff planned for 2026...watch this space!

24/11/2025

This fabulous pair are so talented and the story that they have created is incredibly powerful. Well done lovely ladies x

We had a truly wonderful time performing the premiere of our show COMFORT at Child Bereavement UK today for , especially as the theme this year is Sharing Stories, Strengthening Hope.

It was an absolute honour to share this story with bereaved families and we are so grateful for all their lovely positive feedback and it was a joy to make pom-poms with everyone afterwards.

Our sensitive new show focuses on bereavement, countered with humour and energy, to highlight the importance of talking openly and honestly with children about death.

Beanie is eight when her beloved mum dies in a hospice, leaving her with tangled memories and a carefully knitted blankie for comfort. What do you do when someone you love so much has gone forever? Beanie must navigate a new way of living, with friends, classmates, and adults unsure of how to behave with her.

But then the blanket goes missing at school. As Beanie’s world unravels, can a tight-knit community help her deal with her grief?

This 30-minute show acts as a springboard for discussion and raising awareness for support. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more about COMFORT and how we can bring it to your school, bereavement support network, hospice, or other setting.

Thank you.
Love Joe and Willow xx

17/11/2025

Children's Grief Awareness Week 17th - 23rd November.

Lorna Vyse - Author has devoted much of her life to helping bereaved children and has now written books to help support young children and teenagers.

In this blog, she writes of the importance of talking about death and grief to children and young people:

https://rosedalefuneralhome.co.uk/bereavement/bereaved-children-and-young-people/

13/10/2025

Calling all friends who work in education. If you're free that evening, do sign up....it's free and will definitely equip you to better support your students who are going through a bereavement.

If you work in education please join us for this FREE workshop exploring how to effectively support bereaved students. Hosted by Healing Harbour on 19th November, between 5.30pm-8.00pm, we will be considering how our use of language and pastoral support are crucial to help children and young people with their loss. With grief education becoming part of the National Curriculum from September 2026, this workshop will provide you with an awareness of the importance of your role. Book now as places are limited!

06/10/2025

Calling all celebrant and FD friends. If you have a few hours free on Thursday morning, this would be a great way to spend them! I've been lucky enough to take part in Lorna's training sessions in the past and she's fab! Highly recommended for all those who work with young people experiencing loss and bereavement.

Due to a cancellation, there are now a couple of spaces available on this FREE training for Funeral Directors and Celebrants this Thursday (9th Oct ) hosted by Healing Harbour. Book now to secure your place!

18/09/2025

It was an honour to support my friend Lorna Vyse - Author and all the wonderful people who were part of the Baton of Hope relay yesterday afternoon around the fine city of Norwich. Raising awareness of such an important and emotive issue. Well done everyone!

17/09/2025

"There's no such thing as bad weather....just the wrong clothes". Although if your wedding day or the graveside burial of a loved one is on a mucky old day like today, I'm not sure you'd agree with that sentiment! As a professionally trained celebrant, one thing I always do is to work with the venue and my clients to ensure that we have a plan B for inclement weather, so your special event can go ahead regardless and still be every bit as meaningful as you want it to be.

PagetheCelebrant.co.uk

05/08/2025

What a start to the summer hols ..... First a fabulous reunion with the K block girls Rachel Marie Rach Fitzy Fitzgibbon Amanda Mills June Allen Niki Payne in the Cotswalds. So lovely to catch up with these beauties after such a long time, felt like we'd never been apart. We missed u Melissa Evans but we will organise another one very soon ❤️

Then Niki and I dashed up to Liverpool for a night (a small 9hr round trip!) to catch the launch of Tim Minchin's new album Time Machine...and this was really very special indeed. Having seen him perform live several times in massive auditoriums, it was a real treat to be so up close and personal with the great man in such an intimate venue. An unforgettable experience. ❤️

Then all the way back down to South Wales for the Bucafest ....the wedding of the year! 4 days of festival fun, laughter and friendship culminating in a beautiful sunset ceremony that I am so proud and privileged to have delivered for my lovely friends Samm Buca and Benji Buca.( Page the Celebrant) There are no words to explain just how magical this experience was. ❤️

Finished off with a quick visit to Dad's to see my nephews and to break up the long journey home .. and finally I'm back in Norfolk with a head full of wonderful memories, a heart full of love and a car full of washing! Time to sleep for a week now!

03/07/2025

A word about direct or unattended cremations. Whilst they are clearly much less expensive than a full funeral; please spare a thought for the loved ones who need to say goodbye. As a celebrant, I can offer families and friends the chance to do this by way of a celebration of life ceremony that can happen before or after a direct cremation has taken place. This is a very cost effective option that can happen anywhere....a garden, beach, pub, theatre...the list goes on. As humans we have observed rituals such as funerals for thousands of years, and I would go so far to say that we need them to help us process our grief and begin to move on with the new normal.

27/06/2025

We shared our new animation ‘Room for an elephant’ with our group for young people and asked them what people did that helped them in the grief (written in blue) and what didn’t help (written in red).

For more tips from young people on what can help when you’re grieving 👉childbereavementuk.org/az-tips

27/06/2025

Huge thank you to the fabulous Lorna Vyse - Author and Lucy from the wonderful Rosedale Funeral Homes for a fantastic day of training yesterday. I've been lucky enough to do Lorna's childhood bereavement training for Celebrants before and it was inspiring and very thought-provoking. Yesterday's course was designed for people working in schools and it was absolutely superb. Teacher friends in Norfolk and Suffolk - do look out for their next training offer, they are sooo worth it! Fantastic outreach work from Rosedale as ever, really taking the idea of Compassionate Communities to the next level.❤️