Are you a funeral celebrant?

[butteredtoasts]

And would you mind sharing how you got into it and how you find it?

I am looking to change careers. I’m currently in a high pressured job and really starting to hate it. It’s stressful, and not compatible with family life.

I want to start looking into becoming a funeral celebrant. I think I have strong transferable skills from current job - I support people going through a difficult time, it involves strong written skills and also public speaking.

I am nervous of the self employed element - uncertainty of income, taxes etc but I’m sure I could get there.

I’m posting in chat for traffic, and in the hope there may be some celebrants here who would be happy to share their experience. Thanks very much!

I'm not one, but i do know one.

She found it difficult to get work, the funeral directors had ones they work with and wouldnt recommend her until they saw her work, she found it almost impossible to get a job initially, until someone close to her died and she did the ceremony.

Unless you're really really busy, as in multiple funerals a week kind of busy, you aren't likely to make a lot of money from it either.

She describes it as a pocket money job, not a livable wage.

I know someone who does this – and from what I can gather, recommendation is key. We used her for both my parents’ funerals, which was a given, as they knew her and liked her. The funeral director in both cases (same company but different person) asked if we needed a recommendation for a celebrant. We mentioned using this person and they said, Oh we don’t know her: we only recommend celebrants we know are good.

Once they saw her ‘in action’, they said they would be happy to recommend her in the future.

edited to say: I have no idea how much money she makes.

I’ve been a funeral celebrant since 2019. There are many great celebrants out there, they get amazing feedback and it’s a very rewarding job. However, it’s a very saturated market and getting work and maintaining your profile with those funeral directors who you’ve managed to get in with isn’t easy at all. As said by a previous poster I would only consider it if you’re not reliant on it financially. I do ok but it is just a nice extra. There are some who make a living from it but they’re few and far between. And it’s not enough to think I’ll make it work, do the marketing, throw myself into it, whatever. We all thought that at the start and most become dispirited very quickly. I’ve never done as much as I’d hoped to do when I started even though I’ve done comparatively ok.

Thanks all for your replies.

@ItsmeMargowould you mind if I asked a bit more? On average, how many funerals do you take a week? And how long did you take to build up to your current levels?

there is an element of financial necessity. I would love to eventually be able to give up my current job but would need to clear on average £2k a month. Is that an absolute pipe dream? The idea initially would be to do it alongside my current job, or one I can transition to on 2 days a week, so would hopefully take on services around my current working hours.

thanks so much again for you input x

Hi, did you mean me as an active celebrant? If so, please feel free to pm me i

@ my mother-in-law had one at her celebration of life. Celebrant was a humanist and brilliant..made my mother-in-law sound like a saint, she was so good at her job! Mother-in-law was an absolute bitch!