Covid-19 Update: Love isn’t Cancelled
Since last year, I have seen so many of my couples and their families make the heart-breaking decision to postpone their 2020 (and now 2021) wedding celebrations. All sadly due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic with its associated travel bans, lockdowns and local tiers, as the UK still has social distancing measures and restrictions in place.
Most of the lovely couples I was due to marry across Kent, Sussex and Surrey had to change their plans … The world is pretty chaotic right now but we know we’ll be able to celebrate their weddings in the future, and must stay positive. Love isn’t cancelled!
Register Offices are now reopening to allow short civil marriages with a maximum of 15 guests (prioritising those which should have taken place during the first lockdown), so it will still be difficult to make new bookings whilst they work their way through their list. Some couples will been lucky to celebrate a no-frills legal marriage, with close family and friends – but sadly still just a limited reception allowed afterwards. And of course no hugging or dancing yet!
Independent Wedding Celebrants like me across Kent and beyond will be in very high demand to perform a Wedding Blessing ceremony for couples who want to invite their original guest list to their postponed wedding party in either 2021 or 2022. Why not kick off your delayed celebrations with a highly bespoke and personalised ceremony with the people you love beside you? And of course, lots of hugs and kisses!
Please scroll down this page to find out how I might be able to help you. Maybe you need to source a new venue to host your wedding, or you find that your Registrars won’t be available on your new date and time. Perhaps you did manage to get legally married with just a few guests, but need to celebrate big-style next year with a Celebrant led Wedding?
If you’d like to book me as your Independent Kent Wedding Celebrant for a wedding in Kent, Sussex, or Surrey (or anywhere else!) head over to my Make an Enquiry page. Stay safe and look after each other. Katie x
Introducing Katie Keen
As an Independent Kent Wedding Celebrant, I specialise in creating unique, bespoke, tailored wedding ceremonies for modern couples. Some of my favourite places to conduct wedding ceremonies are outdoors – in private gardens at family homes, amongst woodland, in tipis and marquees, or at rustic venues like barns, farms and country houses. I’m lucky to have such a variety right on my doorstep, like The Dreys, Longton Wood, or Kingdom.
I also conduct weddings and blessing ceremonies in more traditional wedding venues like ancient castles, stately homes and luxury hotels. As their recommended Celebrant, I’m often called upon to officiate at some of the most beautiful historic venues in my locale, such as Leeds Castle, Hever Castle, Wadhurst Castle, Sprivers Mansion, and Hayne House.
I particularly love getting to know you properly, so that I can tell your unique love story within each ceremony I create and perform. You’ll get some homework to complete together as part of our planning process!
Having performed almost 250 weddings as an Independent Kent Wedding Celebrant, since starting my business in 2013, I absolutely love the diversity of my couples, the incredible venues I get to work in, and the sheer amount of love, talent and creativity I see going into each wedding I work on.
I can travel 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 love 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 East Quay an old oyster-sorting building.
I’ve been lucky enough to conduct weddings at Dreamland, 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 truly 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 cultural or traditional 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 many international clients from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Japan and Singapore who travel for an elopement destination wedding here in the UK – which can be a large celebration following a symbolic wedding ceremony, or something more 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 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 one 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 ).