leilia dore, humanist celebrant

What do you offer?

I’m a celebrant who wants your ceremony - and the process of crafting it together - to be the most joyful, meaningful and connected part of your wedding. Whatever you want your ceremony to say, and however you want to say it – I will help you find beautiful words and meaningful symbolic acts to do so in a way that perfectly reflects who you are.

Why do you want to work with the LGBTQ+ community?

Everyone should have access to the joy of a personalised wedding ceremony – whoever you love, whatever you believe, and whatever marriage or partnership means to you. And everyone has the right to celebrate their love whilst feeling safe, secure and supported. Getting to tell people’s love stories in all their messy, human, glorious realness is an absolute privilege to me - for anyone, without exception. I love humanist ceremonies because they give so much scope to dismantle the patriarchy and turn traditions on their head. Humans have been creating new rituals and ceremonies for thousands of years - and often LGBTQ+ weddings have been at the forefront of driving new ways of doing things. That rich history is something to be celebrated - just like your unique love story should be, too. I want to work with you to tell your own beautiful story in your own beautiful way, and I want you to feel absolutely like yourselves whilst we do it. Sound good?

Allyship

As the manager of the Humanists UK celebrant network, I’m consistently looking for ways to strengthen the inclusivity and allyship of our celebrants. From securing headline speakers at our upcoming celebrant conference to talk about LGBTQ+ rights and the history of LGBTQ+ humanist ceremonies, to finding great speakers to run education sessions year round and figuring out ways to make our network more diverse - it’s my priority. Before becoming a celebrant, I worked for the World Health Organization on community engagement for the 2022 mpox (monkeypox) outbreak, pushing for men who have sex with men to have a seat at the table in developing policies and guidance to keep them safe and healthy. I developed tools to counter stigma and ran a webinar series to encourage governments and global actors to do better. I have a lot to learn, and make sure that I read as much as I can from LGBTQ+ writers, take courses and talk to people in my own community to make sure I am always doing better than the day before.

Although I am a cis, straight woman I’m committed to bringing my allyship to my business - and to keep trying to do better. I avoid using hetero-normative language or assumptions on my social media profile and website, and regularly share content from LGBTQ+ owned suppliers and couples. You’ll never see me buying into the gendered, stereotyped narrative that clogs up wedding-instagram (vom).