Steve Morris - The (Sometimes) Costumed Celebrant

Information For Steve Morris - The (Sometimes) Costumed Celebrant

My celebrations are based on research combined with innovative staging and creative, poetic writing to create a truly magical experience. Themes and costumes a speciality!

It’s hard choosing a celebrant. Almost all of us say exactly the same things. We all claim to do ‘bespoke, personal ceremonies’. It’s “your day, your way”. “Beautiful, unique celebrations.”

How do you separate the celebrants you really want to consider from the ones you don’t? For me, it’s not about the fancy website or the glitzy presentation. It’s not even about the five star reviews (though they help). It’s about knowing what your celebrant’s values are, if that person is ‘authentic’, and if that person is competent.

I’ve been a celebrant (full-time) for just over two years. I worked in regeneration, in some very tough areas, and then in adult social care. I always knew that I would end up a celebrant, because my hobby was re-enactment, and I was most at home in the Iron Age. Work gave me the intellectual skills – listening, recording, drafting, editing, public speaking and organising. Re-enactment made me a showman, taught me how shows work, and gave me a lot of practical skills so I can make things and improvise like crazy.

I was also a pagan. I studied alternative mythologies, customs and anthropology. I studied ritual, to the point where I was writing scripts and helping to redefine what ritual was and how it worked. I lost my faith, for a while, but I kept the knowledge of how ritual works.

Practical skills like these are what sets good celebrants apart. Some celebrants are experts at selling themselves, but then fail to deliver when the going gets tough. I see celebrants on FaceBook all the time, asking the community hive mind for help with basic stuff that they should already know. I see people who offer a set of rituals which you can choose between – and yet who claim to offer “bespoke ceremonies”. I don’t think that is true. If everyone gets a handfasting or a sand ceremony or a unity candle ceremony or a rose ceremony or a cocktail ceremony –there are loads, but if you don’t have more than that as a choice – how can you possibly say it’s “unique to the client?” A good ritualist will write a good ritual just for you. When I did my training, I and my fellow cohort were asked to come up with a ‘ritual’ of our own. Most people in the room didn’t know what a ritual was, so they came up with a tone-poem. Something which meant something to that individual, but was by no stretch of the imagination a ‘ritual’. I was trained by one of the leading exponents of celebrancy training in the UK, but I left that room absolutely none the wiser about what writing a ritual involved and what elements a ritual should contain. Basically, a good ritual involves the use of words, movement, non-verbal communication and symbolism to evoke emotional and (dare I say it, spiritual) reactions consistent with the ‘desired effect’ – so a ritual to promote love and commitment, like a marriage rite, should leave the participants loving and committed to each other.

My ‘tribe’ looked to me for their ceremonies and celebrations, and it was something I loved. I remember once organising a surprise betrothal celebration as part of a public show for one of the group members. The look of surprise, horror and delight which crossed the face of our tribal member as she realised that this element of the show was ‘real’ – that she was actually being proposed to in front of an audience of maybe 300 people – is something I will remember with delight to my grave. I led the naming ceremony for my daughter at a sacred spring on a hill fort in West Wales, and took young men through their rites of passage into manhood and full tribal membership.

So, ask yourself what your celebrant actually believes. When they say “it’s your day, your way” does that just mean they will do anything they think might please you? Or do they have boundaries?

Steve Morris - The (Sometimes) Costumed Celebrant at a Glance

Price Range

550 - 950

30 years experience in imagining, creating and delivering handfastings and other non-legal weddings. My couples love the words and the show; they are true Renaissance people who are both artists and scientists at the same time. All my ceremonies and celebrations are unique to you, and completely bespoke. It can take me weeks to get all the details right! I only ever do one wedding at a time so you are sure of my complete attention at all times. I work nationally and internationally. My base fee for a wedding is £450, plus expenses if I have to travel outside a 30 mile radius. I work best with some grandeur as a setting, whether that be in nature or in a man-made structure such as a castle. What is your fantasy? I can make it come true, and as it is a celebrant led celebration, it does not have to take place in a licensed venue I have a huge wardrobe covering almost all historical periods, most major literature, film and TV. What I don’t have I can make. I can adapt scripts into your perfect handfasting or wedding script. I am entirely non-judgmental. I welcome couples and families of all kinds, including polyamourous relationships. Love is important, not sexuality.

Top Wedding Tips

Map

158 Lea Road, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, WV3 0LQ