Jackie's Story

If we’re lucky and paying attention at just the right time in life, we may be intrigued by someone or something and we follow a path. It was a wedding ceremony that allured me to become a Celebrant: an opportunity to engage in work that is creative, intentional and based on life stories.

People have always gathered in community to mark life’s milestones through ceremony and ritual. Taking the time to slow down can ease our way, even be transformative, as we journey through significant transitions. I like creating the space that allows people to mark the moments, large and small, that deserve acknowledgement and celebration.

My years of working in health care have given me a capacity to discern people’s stories. Stories of fear, joy, vulnerability, success, failure and adventure. These experiences taught me to be a good listener. Just as I hold those stories in confidence, I will honour your story.

My passion and curiosity for life stories propelled me to study with the Celebrant Foundation and Institute. Their rigorous program required me to spend hundreds of hours studying all aspects of Celebrant ceremony design and delivery. I am proud to be a Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant, which qualifies me to officiate at all types of life ceremonies. I am also an ordained Minister with the Canadian International Metaphysical Ministry. In 2020 I created Windflower Ceremonies as a formal way to offer my services as a Celebrant. Every ceremony is based on a life story be it love, loss, hope or renewal, closure or fresh starts.

Along my life journey I have walked forest floors, urban parks, seashores and mountain ranges. Nature speaks to me in its magnitude and its delicacy. It is outdoors where, “I feel punctuated by a holiness that exists inside everything” (M. Nepo). I hold a deep respect for nature’s ability to share her wisdom in the endless cycle of renewal.

Our cycle of life is beautifully mirrored in the seasons of nature: birth, blossom, death, renewal. Every windflower is a lesson in life. I would be honoured to help you celebrate your life seasons with a ceremony that is traditional, playful, unconventional, simple or elaborate: a ceremony as unique as you.