Independent funeral celebrant · Stevenage, Hertfordshire
A funeral should feel like the person you are saying goodbye to.
How can I help?
I’m arranging a funeral
You don’t need to arrive with a plan. I’ll guide you through the process, explain your options and give you space to make the decisions that feel right for your family.
What happens when you contact meI’m a funeral director
How to book me, the areas I cover and what you can expect when you recommend me to a family.
Information for funeral directorsHello, I’m Emma.
I’m an independent funeral celebrant based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, and I create personal funeral and memorial ceremonies for people who want to say goodbye in a way that feels right for them, their family and, most importantly, the person they have lost.
I don’t believe there is a formula for a funeral.
Every person is different. Every family is different. And every relationship is different.
So, rather than starting with a template, I start with you.
Tell me about your person.
The stories. The memories. The things that made you laugh. The things that made you cry. The little quirks, familiar sayings, favourite things and moments that perhaps nobody else would know.
Sometimes it is the smallest detail that brings a person to life.
I’ll listen, ask questions, help you find the words when they are difficult to find, and then carefully bring everything together into a ceremony that feels personal, meaningful and true to them.
Whether you want something traditional or completely different, quiet and reflective or full of laughter, there is no right or wrong way to say goodbye.
There is simply your way.
Your One Last Thing
There are so many things we do for the people we love.
And when someone dies, there is one more thing we can do.
We can tell their story.
We can remember what mattered.
We can laugh at the things that made us laugh.
We can cry for what we have lost.
We can bring together the people who mattered to them.
And we can say goodbye in a way that feels like them.
For me, that is what One Last Thing is about.
Creating a ceremony that doesn’t just tell you that someone lived, but gives you a sense of who they were and what they meant to the people gathered there.
From our first conversation to the day itself
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We talk
I’ll spend time getting to know your person through the people who knew and loved them. You don’t have to give me a polished life story. Just talk to me.
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I listen
I’ll notice the details. The stories that make you smile, the things that mattered, and perhaps some you hadn’t thought were important until you started talking about them.
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I write
I’ll take everything you’ve shared and create a ceremony that brings your person’s story to life, in words that sound natural and genuine.
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We say goodbye
On the day, I’ll be there to guide you through the ceremony, so you can simply be with your family and friends and have the space to say goodbye.
A secular funeral doesn’t mean a funeral without meaning.
As a secular celebrant, I don’t bring a particular religious belief or set of beliefs to your ceremony. Instead, I create space for your beliefs, values and wishes.
If faith, spirituality, prayer or hymns are important to you, they can absolutely have a place within a ceremony I create. If they aren’t, that’s okay too.
Kind words from families
The day was perfect and what you put together made the service even better than what me and John could have hoped for. We as a family cannot thank you enough, mum will stay in our thoughts for many years and you as well because of the lovely words you said about mum.
Emma acted as celebrant for a cremation service following the sad passing of Hilary, a close family member; we feel very fortunate that she agreed to help us at a very sensitive and vulnerable time.
Throughout our involvement with Emma we felt that she was sensitive, approachable and generous with her time; she is an intelligent and emotionally literate woman who was able to properly understand who Hilary was as a person, together with the complex relationship we had with her over many decades.
Emma is an experienced celebrant and clearly enjoys her occupation, her organisational and presentational skills are excellent and she acted with calm authority on the day of the service.
Emma had to stand in for someone who had agreed to speak, but was held up in traffic; she demonstrated her ability to cope with the unpredictable.
Thanks Emma for the excellent service you provided.
Emma you were absolutely outstanding, wonderfully compassionate and caring. The way you adapted to our particular requests was both comforting and detailed, enabling us as a family to concentrate on making our mums service the memorable one it was. We can’t thank you enough.
You don’t have to know what you want yet.
You don’t need to have the answers before you contact me. We can simply have a conversation. You can tell me about your person, ask me questions and talk through what you might want.
Or ask your funeral director to contact me on your behalf.