Grania Pickard Celebrant

What do you offer?

I'm a humanist celebrant creating wedding and commitment ceremonies, that are joyful, fun and inclusive.

Why do you want to work with the LGBTQ+ community?

As members of the LGBTQ+ community we have had to find our own ways to be in the world; we've had to find out who we are in all our colours, discover who our chosen family is, navigate being in the world in changing environments where we may not always be accepted and if we are lucky, find the person we want to spend the rest of our lives with. This is by no means easy but it has made us hella resilient and able to create beautiful lives that may not fit the status quo. As a queer celebrant I want to craft a ceremony that reflects this, that celebrates everything that you are, everyone who is there for you and have fun creating a ritual and an experience that feels right for you.

Allyship

Signing petitions against the revised EHRC guidance and writing to my local MP. Always attending Bristol Pride. Asking people's pronouns in both social and work life and respecting these. Regularly wearing a pin badge that says 'you're safe with me.' Sharing petitions on socials. Talking openly about my sexuality and defence of LGBTQ+rights on my professional IG page.

I'm a theatre maker and my first show recreated my wedding to my (ex)wife, and invited members of the audience to come on stage and play different roles including my wife - it was playful and fun but also normalised queer weddings for an audience who weren't aware that was part of the story.

I have badges on my website that say 'proudly performing lgbtq+ weddings' and I've included information about myself in the about me section, that shares that I am queer.

I'm just starting out so haven't delivered any weddings (yet) but will be sharing photos from weddings so in the long term will have photos of LGBTQ+ couples so people can see themselves reflected in others. On my IG page I've shared a statement about how the first pride was a riot and defending the rights of everyone in our community. I've also shared a lot of lgbtq+ providers and definitely up for sharing these profiles and celebrating them. Over all the copy I've been careful about what language I use, aiming to make it non gendered and asking people to provide their pronouns when completing an intro form.