Who is Karen Irving or KSI as she’s known to her friends?

I am a 1960’s child with a love of all genres of music. I love reading and singing but do not have a particular type of book to read as my interests are wide and my husband reassures me my voice is not that bad when I’m belting out a song along with the radio.

I love to dance and will be the first on the dance floor or the first up to volunteer to learn a new type of dancing. I definitely dance like no one is watching. I love travelling and trying to learn new languages and experience different cultures. I truly believe we only have one life, there are no re-runs and we need to make the most of every moment.

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Having worked in Education for twenty-seven years initially in the classroom and for the last eighteen years as an Education Leader and consultant I decided I wanted a new direction, to change my career and to spend time doing something that I truly loved for the last ten or so working years of my life.

I wanted a career that would work around my love of travel and zest for experiencing new things.

My children are grown up and I had missed out on so many of their milestones in life as a result of my having to go to work, I wanted to do something that would be flexible enough to allow me time to spend with my grandchildren as they arrive into this world and to spend quality time with my husband and my parents as we all started to get a bit older.

I had read verses for family members previously at weddings and funerals and at my own wedding back in 2008 I felt very restricted by the formality and lack of both Tom (my husband) and my personalities in our wedding ceremony.

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After a fair amount of research and my list of things I loved to do I made the decision to become an Independent Celebrant training both under Academy of Modern Celebrants and the Celebrant Circle. This ticked all of my boxes my love of meeting people, my love for creative writing and my need to enable people to have a ceremony exactly as they envisaged without any boundaries.

An opportunity to to bring families together, to laugh with them, to cry with them but above all else to celebrate and rejoice with them!