Our award-winning founder and Dorset celebrant, Ellie Brooks, invites you back to the beginning of your story, weaving the rich threads of who you are into your personalised ceremony.
Ellie – founder and celebrant
When I’m not weaving words into ceremonies, you’ll find me crafting flower crowns, roaming Dorset’s hidden woodlands and craggy shores, or curled up with my cat reading. I love to read about the past, about the ways and traditions of our ancient ancestors. And stories. I love to read stories. Like a frenzied magpie, I collect them, cram my already heaving shelves with them, and later, when I have devoured every word, I tell them. I tell them professionally to audiences from across the UK. I tell them to my friends, to my friend’s children, to their parents and sometimes, to their grandparents. I am a big believer in stories.
Perhaps this is why I love being a celebrant so very much… because what are ceremonies if they are not sacred stories? The kind to be shaped, cherished, and kept – not on a bookshelf gathering dust, but told and relived, again and gain. What is a wedding, or a handfasting, but a love story? What is a funeral if not a life story? I am nothing as a celebrant if I am not a treasurer of stories.
But there is an important difference in the myths I spin as a storyteller to the stories I weave as a celebrant: They are yours. They are real. They are sacred. And so I make it my business to honour them; it is a responsibility that is not always easy, but I cannot imagine doing anything else.
My Path of Service
People often ask me if I am religious, and the honest answer is I find beauty and truth in many religions. I also find beauty and truth in those of no faith but who love their life, and the people in it, with all their heart and soul.
Like all rivers lead to the sea, I believe all paths of kindness and goodness lead back to love. Most traditional religions around the world recognise their gods and goddesses as love in its purest form. As the tenders of the peace garden at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury would say: Many paths, one source. Love.
This is why I am delighted to offer inter-faith ceremonies, and why I undergo training from wisdom-keepers of all faiths and none, from all over the world, so I can offer the most loving, inclusive services that I possibly can.
My training
Sacred Celebrancy with the Priestesses of Avalon
I began my training as a Sacred Celebrant in Glastonbury, on the beloved Isle of Avalon, where the Priestesses of Avalon work tirelessly to blend ancient ritual and modern practice together, to igniting healing and celebration in a modern world. It is deep, primal work; steeped in Goddess energy and the bone-deep female intuition. To undertake this work is to be open to the elements, to be willing to be vulnerable in the deepest of the dark in order to strive towards the light.
It is a delight to be able to offer some of these ancient traditions, where appropriate, to those who aren’t of any particular faith, but still want the deeper sense of connection, ritual and meaning. Traditions such as the handfasting are embraced the world over, by many different religions – even Prince Harry and Megan Markle were handfasted by the Archbishop of Canterbury on their wedding day ~ it’s the part of the service where the priest wraps their stole around the couple’s hands, and blesses them. The time old tradition of handfasting lends us the expression: ‘tying the knot’ that we still use today. Beautiful.
Wildflower’s Ceremonial Assistants
Some of Wildflower’s services, especially those performed in the Avalonian tradition, require the support of a ceremonial assistant. I am incredibly blessed to work with my team of exceptional ceremonial assistants, each of whom have their own extraordinary qualities, all of whom are trained in the Wildflower way of delivering stunning ceremonies.
Celebrant-In-Residence at The Ancient Technology Centre
It is our honour to have become the ‘Celebrant-In-Residence’ at the The Ancient Technology Centre holding weddings here in partnership with Sam Savage of South Coast Weddings.
For a sneak peak at this enchanting venue, here is a stunning video by the amazing Darren Lovell Photography featuring Ellie Brooks, founder and sacred celebrant at Wildflower Ceremonies.
We welcome your feedback and questions about our services, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on hello@wildflowerceremonies.co.uk.