ABOUT
Based on Gadigal and Wangal Country in Sydney, Big Life Ceremonies is about ritual, community and doing the important things together. Amidst systems that seek to individualise and commodify our relationships and our lives, coming together to mark time can be a radical act.
I’m Jen, a registered marriage celebrant offering whole-of-life celebrancy to help mark life’s big moments. Sometimes that’s a wedding or commitment ceremony, or a renewal of vows. Sometimes it’s a naming ceremony or blessing ceremony to acknowledge new life. As a queer person, I’m also big on rituals and ceremonies that affirm our identities and gather community in acts of celebration and care.
I also work with those approaching death and the family and friends of those who have died, offering funerals, memorials and end-of-life services such as living wakes. This includes funerals and memorials to honour pregnancy loss. I’m currently training as an end-of-life doula (or death/mortality doula) and hope to soon be working more in this space. For now, we can work together to ensure you are connected with the other administrative, emotional, practical and spiritual support you might need as you navigate this journey and everything it brings.
My wife and I got married in 2022. We’d gone in thinking the ceremony itself wasn’t so important to us - more of a formality to get through. But standing before our loved ones and asking them to hold us accountable, to them and to each other, was more meaningful than we anticipated.
In the process of planning our wedding we quickly realised how much the industry catered to an idea of ceremonies, and of relationships, that didn’t look like ours. We were fortunate to have meaningful relationships with everyone who worked on our wedding and were so grateful for the care they brought to the day. Still, it was clear that the industry could only benefit from a stronger presence of queers. We are a huge vibe, afterall.
Around the same time, friends and family started asking me to officiate ceremonies and events. I realised that the way queer folk cultivate community and ceremony is unique and deeply meaningful, and offers an alternate way of doing things for those who don’t fit within conventional norms. I wanted our communities to have access to ritual, ceremony, and opportunities to mark life’s big moments in ways that look and feel authentic to us. Life is big, and we should honour that. That’s how Big Life Ceremonies was born.
get in touch
Interested in working together? Get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat, online or in person, at a time that suits you.