Summer 2020 Update re Covid-19: Love is not Cancelled!
A huge number of couples and their families have had to make the sad and heartbreaking decision to postpone their 2020 wedding celebrations, due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic with its associated travel bans, country lockdown and social distancing measures in place. This includes many of my lovely couples who I was due to marry across Kent, Sussex and Surrey this Spring, Summer and Autumn … We will be able to celebrate their weddings next year, and must stay positive. Love isn’t cancelled!
July 4th update – Now that Register Offices are reopening to allow short and limited civil marriages with a max of 30 guests, they are naturally prioritising those marriages which should have taken place during lockdown, and it might be difficult to make new bookings whilst they work their way through their long list! So some couples will still be able to have a short legal marriage this year, with their closest family and friends – but unfortunately no party or wedding reception is allowed afterwards.
Independent Wedding Celebrants like me will be in very high demand to perform a wedding blessing ceremony for couples in this situation who want to invite their original guest list to their postponed wedding party! What better way is there of kicking off the delayed celebrations than by holding a full ceremony, with the people you love beside you, with the music you wanted to hear (maybe some singing too!) and making those vows to each other as you re-exchange wedding rings – without hand sanitiser, we hope!
Please scroll down this home page to find out more about me, and how I might be able to help you, especially if you have been affected adversely by Covid-19. Please do get in touch if you need any guidance. Perhaps you need to find an alternative (outdoor?) venue to host your wedding, or you have rescheduled your plans and find that your Registrars won’t be available at the new date and time. Or maybe you would like to celebrate your wedding day first, before your legal registration of marriage.
If you’d like to book me as your Celebrant for a wedding in Kent, Sussex, or Surrey firstly check my latest availability (there’s a list of dates booked/held on my Make an Enquiry page). Stay safe and look after each other. Katie x
Introducing Katie Keen
As an Independent Celebrant, I specialise in creating unique, bespoke and tailored wedding ceremonies for modern couples outdoors. Some of my favourite places to conduct wedding ceremonies are in private gardens and family homes, amongst woodland, in tipis and marquees, or at rustic venues like barns, farms and country houses.
I also conduct weddings and blessing ceremonies in the more traditional wedding venues, like historical castles, stylish stately homes and luxury country house hotels.
I adore what I do, but particularly love the process of getting to know you, so that I can tell your unique love story within each ceremony I create and perform.
Having performed over 200 weddings as an Independent Celebrant, I love the diversity of my couples, the incredible venues I get to work in, and the sheer amount of love and creativity I see going into each event.
I can work anywhere you’d like, but most of the time you’ll find me presenting weddings, vow renewals and baby naming ceremonies across the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey as well as parts of London.
I also adore working with alternative, quirky couples who want to celebrate their wedding with friends and family somewhere completely different – one of my regular wedding venues is in an old oyster-sorting building.
I’ve been lucky enough to conduct weddings on a retro amusement park roller-coaster as well as on stage at a live music venue!
I try hard to capture the essence of each couple I work with so that I can create a bespoke ceremony that’s perfect for you, adding in just the right amount of emotion, humour, tradition or symbolism needed.
Clients have said that I’m a calm and reassuring presence leading up to their wedding day, as I guide them through the process. I start to get to know my couples often many months before the wedding day, and it’s great fun putting each ceremony together with them.
Who needs a Celebrant-led Wedding?
I mostly work with couples who simply want to hold their wedding in a place that is unlicensed, for instance, their family home or fully outdoors in a garden, forest, festival site or woodland.
I also have clients who plan to marry at a venue that does have a civil licence, but who want their wedding day to start with a personalised ceremony that reflects their beliefs and personalities.
A Celebrant-led wedding ceremony is also a perfect solution for multi-faith couples as it allows them to “pick and choose” their favourite religious elements to include in their ceremony.
A large proportion of my customers are part or fully British couples who live and work abroad and have already quietly married in order to satisfy visa and residency requirements. They then organise to come home for a quintessential “English wedding” in front of friends and family.
I also work with international clients, often from the USA, who travel for an elopement here in the UK – which can be a large celebration following a symbolic wedding ceremony or something short sweet and intimate.
And then there are those British couples who have held their own destination wedding abroad, but who also want to host a wedding blessing once back in the UK, so that they can dress up and party again!
About Me
My husband and I have been married for 18 years and we live in a small village in mid-Kent with our two children. My lovely family don’t see a lot of me on weekends between about May and September during peak wedding season but I DO try to make up for it during the rest of the year!
We are currently making it our life’s mission to try as many gins as we can – there are currently about 45 bottles on our Gin tasting shelf … but there’s always room to squeeze another in!
I set up True Blue Ceremonies after several happy years spent as a Registrar of Marriages in Kent.
I loved my work and was often asked to perform ceremonies for friends. However I was always meeting couples who I knew could benefit from a Celebrant-led Wedding Ceremony which could be tailored to make it totally personal, enabling them to celebrate their special day without restriction.
Back then it was a bit frustrating only being able to offer a bog-standard wedding script – as we all know, one size doesn’t necessarily fit all! Once I spotted that gap in the market, the seed of my idea started to grow.
I’ve now been in business as a self-employed Celebrant since February 2013 offering bespoke ceremonies to super couples and families. I’d love you to let me tell your unique love story with a totally individual wedding ceremony!
To check my availability to create a Wedding or Vow Renewal Ceremony for you, please head over to my Enquiry Form.
Do look at my FAQ if you have questions as they may well be answered there – if not drop me an email – my contact details at the bottom of every page on this site or over here!
On stage receiving “Highly Commended” for Best Celebrant in the South East Regional heat of TWIA 2018 ( The Wedding Industry Awards ) in November 2017.