SICA member Anne Wels

Anne Wels‘s biography

My name is Anne Wels and I’d be delighted to be your celebrant and help you tailor a service to fit your needs for one of the most important moments in your life and it will come straight from the heart.

Before I tell you more about me, can I clarify a little thing, so you know what to expect. Most people think that someone who conducts a ceremony outside of a religious organization is a humanist, but that is not the case at all. Humanist principally means atheist, or secular, and that’s not what I do. I conduct ceremonies which are created around the individual. Whether you’d like your ceremony to be completely non-religious or have some religion in it is entirely up to you: someone else’s belief system shouldn’t dictate your choices at such important times in your life.

What I believe is irrelevant, it is your ceremony. I am interested in all forms of religion and spirituality from earth-based to animistic religions.

I wanted to become a civil celebrant after attending so many various ceremonies throughout my lifetime, mostly with religious context, and although I completely understand and respect the need for this type of service, they have left me feeling quite cold and unemotional. Whether it be a funeral, a wedding or a naming ceremony, it is a life milestone and should be a celebration. My heart has gone out, on more than one occasion, to grieving families at funerals, when the individual conducting the service, missed out a family members names or got important information wrong. A funeral is the last thing you do for your loved one and you want to make it memorable for the right reasons. A wedding should be full of words that mean something to you and your partner, words that come from your heart. A naming ceremony is something you want for your child, with words and promises that fit around your beliefs, and wishes for their future, this is what I would like to do for you.

Born in Aberdeen, I spent most of my working life in the service sector of the oil industry, working in marine logistics and marine planning. I loved my work, the interaction with the ship crews and the quayside personnel, but after losing four family members in a short space of time, and preparing their services for another celebrant to deliver, I decided that this was what I really wanted to do.

Trained by Civil Ceremonies, I completed and passed the National Qualification NONC Level 3 Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy. As a professionally trained Funeral Celebrant, I will help to create a truly personal funeral ceremony that is exactly as you wish it to be.

Not everyone wants the same type of funeral, and I will meet with you to discuss the ceremony fully. You will be able to check the ceremony content beforehand and I will offer you a full text of the ceremony to keep afterwards. The ceremony will capture the very essence of the person and tell the story of the life that has been lived.

I’m a highly confident organiser and public speaker. In my spare time I have volunteered in the Aberdeen Seafarers Centre, I am a trained Ship Welfare Visitor and also help out in the local sheltered housing complex, helping to support their various activities. Animals are a passion for me, all shapes and sizes, I am a sucker for their huge, ‘Love Me’ eyes, especially those who have been rescued.

In January 2021, after a number of request to perform wedding blessings and vow renewals, I completed my Diploma in Couple & Family Celebrancy with ‘Celebrant Training Scotland’ and can now offer a wider range of ceremonies from baby reveal to baby namings, wedding blessings, or vow renewals, divorce ceremonies or graduation ceremonies, even the opening of a new business or an envelope.

My ceremonies are personal, relaxed, and straight from the heart, it can be as romantic and sentimental or as crazy, and as long as it’s legal, be as quirky as you wish. Your ceremony, you way.

Although based in Aberdeen, I’m not restricted to this area and would be happy to travel wherever you need me to be for your occasion.