Imagine giving your favourite relatives and/or friends a highlight reel of their life with surprise guests from their past – you can with the This is Your Life Ceremony!
You may remember the TV programme This is Your Life with its iconic theme tune and memorable hosts Eamonn Andrews, Michael Aspel, and Trevor McDonald. The joy they brought to various actors and famous professionals as they helped them recall the best bits of their lives. On top of this, they would introduce them to friends that were made and lost to the mists of time.
How fab would it be if you could organise a This is Your Life Ceremony for your parents, an older relative, or a friend?
When Would We Do It?
A This is Your Life Ceremony would make a fantastic gift for one of those key birthdays or a big wedding anniversary.
Imagine your Gran’s 70th birthday. You say that you are having a family party and she is very excited. In another room, you have stashed old friends, colleagues, and relatives that she has lost touch with.
I appear and announce, “Gran, This is Your Life! Ceremony Party!”
We tell Gran’s life story, hear her take on things, and re-introduce her to the people you have found and hidden in the other room. They can have a chance to comment too.
We take pictures and contact details so Gran can have a physical memory of the day with the chance to stay in touch with all her re-found people.
Happiness and joy all around. Good job, grandchild 😊
OR
It is your parents’ Silver Anniversary (25 years). You raid your parents’ address book and gather together friends and family from across the globe.
You hire a lovely venue and hide some of those friends and family in a quiet side room until they are needed.
Your parents are swaying to the music, nibbling from the buffet, and mingling like the best guests ever. I appear and say, “Parents, This is Your Life Ceremony!”
We go through how they met and what they thought of each other. You ask friends and family for their thoughts. We bring in the surprise guests from the quiet side room.
There are hugs and happy tears and much cheer.
Well done, Child/ren for such a unique and fantastic evening! 😊
How Does It Work?
You get in touch, and we have a chat about your person or persons.
You tell me as much as you can about their life, and we plan a ceremony around it all.
We create a list of people you need to find. Together we plan questions to ask them so we can add that information to the ceremony in readiness for their surprise appearance.
You tell your birthday relative or anniversary couple that you have planned a party and they must attend. You get everyone else there. And I write a script to weave it all together.
On the day, we make sure we have your surprise guests in person or as a video message or on Skype/Zoom/Facetime. You start the party and on cue, I appear to begin the surprise This is Your Life Ceremony.
Along with friendly faces from the past, you can include excerpts from films or programmes they may have watched; national and international events that they have lived through, and pop songs of their era.
We can plan it to last for no more than an hour so they are not too overwhelmed and have plenty of energy and time to chat to everyone afterwards.
Once I have finished my role, I shall leave you all to enjoy the party and get to know your surprise guests.
What Are You Waiting For?
I think this would be a truly amazing ceremony for anyone to have organised for them. Imagine how chuffed you would feel to have your favourite people gathered around you while you are reminded of your best bits?
Now imagine how chuffed your parents, Gran, or Great Uncle Ernie would feel?
Eep! Too exciting.
Get in touch now and let’s get planning.
Sarah x
PS
You might see similar ceremonies being listed as “Living Funerals” but I think this might be a lot more fun and a lot less maudlin in the title.