Gill Vidal | Wedding & Funeral Celebrant

Wedding and Funeral Celebrant in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

Hello! I’m Gill, a family and wedding celebrant based in a small village near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, I live with my husband and have three grown sons.

I have a passion for DIY and gardening, and the great outdoors (outdoor weddings are up there in my top ten favourite things!), I have an avid interest in animal rescue and welfare and have 2 lovely rescue dogs Marley and Bou, I also work with a local dog rescue charity when I can. My husband is a musician so I have developed a love of live music over the years! I also have a weakness for binge worthy TV series and travel. I am originally from Liverpool but lost the accent long ago sadly, but I still get to travel up north in our camper and visit family and friends.

When I tell people what I do, they often look at me intensely and say “ooh what’s that?”, or they say “that’s interesting, what made you decide to do that?” there is no short answer to this, it was a journey!

As a social worker and then Director of services for young people, I always wanted to work with people, they fascinate me, there is nothing better than to help people to grab the best opportunities in life and to make their dreams become a reality. I loved to train and develop people, and really enjoyed getting up in front of groups of people and talking (that’ll be the extrovert Liverpudlian in me!). My husband and I had a celebrant wedding after struggling to see how we could have a meaningful ceremony that really captured the essence of us, and afterwards I just knew that was what I wanted to do, so I trained with UK Soc to give me a quality and credibility I felt i didn't see elsewhere!

I consider being a celebrant to be an honour and a privilege, it’s about making people’s memories the most amazing that they can be.

We are all individual, no two people are the same, so why should we accept sameness in the most important times we share? Surely we should all expect our one of a kind ceremony, nothing less? We are all worth time and energy being spent on our important celebrations. There is nothing standard here, every ceremony I create is different and unique and a never before heard tale of love and life.

I am a family and funeral celebrant, more and more in life we are making decisions, as the individual human beings that we are, to celebrate in our own chosen way. Whether that is to celebrate a life event such as a milestone birthday, a retirement or a divorce, a wedding, a baby naming or a funeral. My mission is to deliver a celebration of life, love and everything in between by telling the story behind the people, shining a light on the uniqueness and beauty of them and their story and bringing smiles and tears that will create long lasting memories. Everyone deserves that.

If there is one bit of advice I would give anyone considering a celebrant it is this- you need to feel that the person is right for you. This is a very important decision. It really should matter to you, the type of personality, charisma and energy the person performing your ceremony brings to the table, these are once in a lifetime occasions. The essence of the person will translate through your ceremony and make it the best it can be, their style of writing, the timing of their delivery, their tone, their ability to articulate your identity in a certain manner is the very heartbeat of a celebrant ceremony and needs to be in tune with yours.

A celebrant should enthuse about your story, be passionate and want to create the most personal ceremony that will be remembered.

We will work together to make sure that happens, no matter how long it takes. The sky really is the limit.