Wedding and Funeral Celebrant in Bournemouth

Hello, my name is Mandie Craven and I am a Family & Funeral Celebrant based in the South of England. I live in the beautiful, coastal town of Bournemouth with my husband and youngest daughter. While I mostly work locally, including across the areas of Christchurch and Poole, I am more than happy to travel to other parts of the UK to conduct ceremonies.
Prior to becoming a celebrant, I worked as an Assistant Headteacher in Primary Education for more than 20 years and I continue to tutor individual students.
During my teaching career, I was fortunate enough to meet and work with a wide range of people and families from all walks of life. This is something which is also true in my role as a celebrant. I have always enjoyed hearing the interesting and diverse stories of other people lives and I now have the opportunity to write about them too, which is one of my key interests.
In addition to writing, my pastimes include martial arts (I have a black belt in kickboxing and I am a fully qualified instructor and examiner); reading (mostly psychological thrillers), vegetarian cookery and travel (although opportunities are sparse at the moment). Recently, I have also started to learn the saxophone but progress is currently very slow!

As an enthusiastic writer, I have always been interested in the content of ceremonies for life’s key events. From a fairly young age, I was asked to write or source poems and readings for family celebrations, which I really enjoyed doing. After writing and delivering my father’s eulogy over 15 years ago, friends and relatives began to ask me to write (and often read) for their own celebrations, something I was always happy to agree to.
Years of leading whole school assemblies, training courses and local community events have enabled me to become a confident public speaker and I feel privileged to be asked to play a part in such significant occasions in people’s lives.
While writing my mother’s eulogy last year, I realised how incredibly important it was to ‘get it right’. Every word had to count and the finished article had to accurately reflect the person she was. I, like everyone else, have sat through many a funeral or wedding service and then asked myself – who were they talking about?
It was shortly after my mother’s funeral that I decided to train as a celebrant and offer unique and individual ceremonies, which are truly representative of the people involved on what will be one of the most important days of their lives.
I am able to offer the following services: Naming Ceremonies, Wedding Ceremonies, Civil Partnership Ceremonies, Renewal of Vows Ceremonies, Funeral Ceremonies & Memorials. I am also happy to discuss ceremonies for any other life events.
I look forward to hearing from you.