Welcome to my new website oak and thorn ceremonies.co.uk
It’s time for a pivot, a rebrand and a rebirth.
I am still the same creative and colourful person you have long known under my #funkycelebrant umbrella, I have just allowed my heart to take control of the direction my celebrancy is going to take from now on.
Where has Oak and Thorn Ceremonies come from?
I found my way into eclectic paganism in 2020, having resisted walking the path for a long time. This was despite the fact , the more I read and learned about paganism the more it resonated with me.
At the beginning of my celebrant journey, way back in 2011 when I was looking at which organisation to train with, I decided to go the independent route rather than the humanist because I knew I believed in something… I just wasn’t sure what.
One of my first forays into ceremony creation as part of the course was for a made-up couple who had pagan leanings…I based it on one of my friends and her partner…spooky right?
And then when I was researching to create and deliver just my 2nd ceremony (a commitment ceremony), I was asked to marry shamanic paganism with wicca… and despite not knowing a lot about either, with their permission I took a shallow dive into what each pantheon meant to them as individuals and as a couple. It was an honour to create a ceremony that resonated with them, and everything I learned in the process just felt right, and gladdened my heart…But still I resisted…
Although originally raised in Birmingham, I now live in Manningtree, in north Essex an area steeped in history. With its own neolithic henge on what is now known as Tye Field and not far from England’s first capital city, Camulodunum (Colchester).
And then there is Old Knobbley just up the road, in Furze Hills, Mistley. An ancient Oak tree with its own Facebook page, website and book, a visit to the tree nestled in woodland letting myself sit still under its boughs and listen to the bird song always feels a little bit magical. Oh what that tree has witnessed (some of its contemporaries were cut down and used to build Nelson’s ships for the Battle of Trafalgar, so we’re incredibly lucky Old Knobbley is still here!
The Stour Estuary stretches out behind Manningtree, all salt marsh and grey-green water and enormous skies. On a clear day the light does something extraordinary out there. It’s the kind of landscape that makes you stop mid-sentence. I walk it regularly with the dogs, and honestly it’s where a lot of my ceremony ideas are born. You can’t be in a place like this and not feel something.
Over the years and through a couple of rebrands, my love for nature, walks in the woods with my dogs and other half as well as sitting on a beach watching the waves lap the shore has grown.
But my branding felt stagnant and really wasn’t representing the direction my life and work has been taking me.
So yes, I’ll always be a little bit funky, a lot of a bit different, daring, bold and inventive. I just need the branding to match the direction my heart is taking me.
So once again welcome to Oak and Thorn Ceremonies.
Where is Oak and Thorn Ceremonies going ?
I am an accredited member of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance https://sustainableweddingalliance.com/and have been putting planet friendly ceremonies at the heart of everything I do for some years.
It’s now time for my branding to fully align with my vision for the type of celebrancy I offer.
I am here for those people who want to stand in nature, feel the ground or water beneath their feet and celebrate themselves in a ceremony that truly reflects the people they are, right now, fully present and at one with the elements around them.
I have long been creating and conducting nature based, spiritual and pagan ceremonies for those who just get it, but now I am fully embracing where the energies are directing me.
You don’t have to be pagan or even spiritual to have an outdoor ceremony with me, but you do need to feel comfortable with whatever the elements may throw at us…except jaspers (wasps) and mozzies…I’ll let you off embracing them!
There may be sun wind or rain, as we celebrate the seasonal shifts with words and rituals that resonate.
G&M had their Litha ceremony in front of the oak man as the sun set in a woodland in Kent. A very special moment in time for all involved as we called in the cast a circle, called in the quarters and celebrated their union.
D&P held their ceremony in the woods in Norfolk, no pagan rituals, instead something created especially for them that involved work colleagues and an afternoon tea table set with cake and champagne!
Both ceremonies grounded in the places each couple felt most comfortable. Both unique and jasper free!
Working with me means being heard properly first and foremost, inclusivity is more than a byword, so as I get to know you, your story, your relationship with the land, your sense of what’s sacred… (even if you’ve never used that word before) we will all get a sense of how we best communicate with each other. Then I get to work building a ceremony that feels like it could only ever have been yours. The seasonal and elemental elements I weave in aren’t decoration, they’re the framework that holds the whole thing.
Why Oak and Thorn Ceremonies?
Oak & Thorn are ancient trees long steeped in British and Celtic folklore.
They are pivotal to our woodland and forests and carry a lot of symbolism both individually as together.
The Oak is associated with strength and wisdom, as well as luck and endurance. All are required when it comes to a successful union! Often used in ceremonial rites of passage, the leaves, acorns and wood celebrate all the connections we form in life as well as those where the earth and the heavens connect.
The Thorn, in this case I am talking about the Hawthorn is symbolic of life, death and rebirth.
Also known as May Trees, you will see the blossom used a lot in May day celebrations as well as in wedding crowns and bouquets too for a wedding ceremony . It has a long association with love and fertility and protection.
Said to stand at the gateway to the Faerie realm it will ward off negative energy and is said to offer divine safeguards.
Together they balance beautifully: strength and rootedness (oak) alongside liminality, threshold magic and new beginnings (hawthorn).
I am rooted in my own lived experiences, and the history of the places I have lived and I want my ceremonies to reflect the path I am very happy to be walking with all who choose to work with me.
Oak and Thorn Ceremonies is for people who want to feel something real on their ceremony day. If you’re drawn to the outdoors, if you care about the planet, if you want your ceremony to reflect the actual humans you are rather than a template… this is your place. Drop me a line and let’s start that conversation.
Michelle | Oak & Thorn Ceremonies
Inclusive, sustainable, and nature-centric ceremonies in Essex & Suffolk.
