Become a Celebrant

The Celebrant Diploma is a very high quality, internationally accredited, intensive course which covers a wide range of the critical skills you’ll need to be an outstanding Celebrant:

• Explore what makes a first class modern Celebrant
• Understand how to choreograph ceremonies
• Improve your public speaking voice
• Develop your creative writing skills
• Understand how to look after yourself and ultimately create and deliver ceremonies that are truly meaningful, personal and memorable

Unit 1: Customer Management At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Describe features of modern and historical ceremonies and their role in society.
• Identify and explain characteristics required to make an engaging celebrant and ceremony.
• Describe the preparation for initial engagement with customers.
• Gather information from customers through interviews.

Unit 2: Ceremonies, the basics At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Demonstrate that they can structure and choreograph a ceremony.
• Demonstrate the use of creative writing techniques.  
• Demonstrate that they can (a) bring their own style to a ceremony (b) organise the content and (c) state their obligations with respect to copyright.
• Demonstrate that they can (a) prepare a presentation copy of a script and (b) prepare for their performance.

Unit 3: Public Speaking At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Describe the fundamentals of communication and analyse their current level of confidence and ability.
• Demonstrate that they can use the techniques described in the ‘SCRIPT method’ to develop a ceremony script.
• Use and evaluate their own voice skills and develop a plan for improving their public speaking.

Unit 4: Weddings, Affirmation and Renewal of Vows At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Describe the Law governing Marriages and Civil Partnerships.
• Outline the best practices when meeting couples and gathering information.
• Identify and describe preparations required in advance of a marriage ceremony.
• Develop and perform a marriage ceremony.
• Develop an affirmation or renewal of vows script.

Unit 5: Funerals and Memorial Ceremonies At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Describe the impact of grief and the role of the celebrant when faced with the recently bereaved.
• Describe the best practice when working with bereaved families. 
• Identify and describe preparations required in advance of a funeral ceremony.
• Develop and perform a funeral ceremony.

Unit 6: Looking after yourself At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Recognise and describe ways of managing stress.
• Describe relaxation techniques.
• Recognise the key elements of sleep hygiene.
• Talk to children and teens about death and Covid-19.
• Talk to families about planning a funeral during Covid-19.

Unit 7: Naming Day At the end of this unit, Candidates will be able to:

• Describe the role of the celebrant when meeting families.
• Describe the best practice when working with families wanting a naming ceremony.
• Develop and perform a naming ceremony.

Mandatory Units 1,2,3,6.
Optional Units Candidates must choose Units 4 or Unit 5 or elect to do both to receive the Diploma. save £814* Course Duration Once you are enrolled, you have a maximum of 6 months to complete your training.

Laura Widdop – (Centre Manager & SQA Co-ordinator)  Laura has over 15 years of experience in delivering training in various sectors.  She has been the Centre Manager and an Assessor with UKCAPSA for over 4 years. Laura is there to support to all candidates in any way she can.

Debbie Daly – (Assessor)  Debbie successfully completed the Diploma 4 years ago and has been working as a Celebrant ever since. She loves to share her skills and knowledge with her candidates.

Paul Browett – (Assessor) Paul successfully completed the Diploma 3 years ago and has become a very popular Celebrant winning Celebrant of the Year (2022) at the Your Scottish Wedding Awards. Paul is very passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience.

Brian Baxter – (Assessor)  Brian successfully completed the Diploma 3 years ago and has been a Celebrant ever since and has been nominated for numerous awards. Brian is delighted to be able to share his knowledge with anyone looking to embark on their Celebrant journey.

Yvonne Hannah – (Assessor) Yvonne successfully completed the Diploma 2 years ago and has been working as a busy Celebrant ever since. She is so passionate about being a Celebrant it was the natural next step to become an Assessor with UKCAPSA.