vikki harris celebrant

What do you offer?

I’m a super friendly, inclusive, bubbly, modern Humanist Celebrant. I create inclusive, joyful, unique, happy-tear-filled ceremonies that give your guests goosebumps.

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

I’ve always had a passion for storytelling and people and I go out of my way to ensure that your ceremony is filled with joy and is a true reflection of you! We rip up the traditional rule book and build a ceremony that’s joyful, unique and full of happy tears. I am a lifelong supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and I go out of my way to champion equality and diversity in everything I do. So if you’re looking for a modern ceremony, get in touch - I’d love to help shape your day.

Allyship

My allyship goes back to the late 90s when I worked in a bar in the beating heart of the gay scene in Manchester where I spent the majority of my social time, and also worked in their gay-owned head office in the marketing team. I also based my dissertation around the experiences and expectations of LGBTIQA+ consumers in a hospitality setting on and off the scene. When I left Uni my first job was in an agency where we got a LGBT community magazine off the ground. Ready to take on the world I left to set up a business with my absolute ride or die who is still my best friend to this very day. My role was varied but specifically, I looked after the publishing arm of our bars/publishing business, an LGBTIQA+ magazine. All the time championing the community and using our voice to campaign for equality. A business sale and career break later I entered the corporate world and involved myself in their equality, diversity and inclusion staff forum as an ally and led the business' activity on the Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaign - the resulting work being to this day the thing I am proudest of.

It’s so important to me - my lifelong best friend is a gay man and we very much stand up and make our voices heard. It goes beyond just waving a flag and attending pride. These days it’s about us supporting our friends and their children on trans journeys and calling out behaviour that is not ok. Over the pandemic I was on the local committee of quite a high profile networking group and our branch was instrumental in overturning national policy around the trans community being welcomed as part of it. It sounds ridiculous that almost 30 years on from when I first started campaigning the fight goes on.

I use only inclusive language in my ceremonies - welcoming guests as family and friends, not ladies and gentlemen or any other gender-normative terms. I don’t assume anything - I always check pronouns, and make sure that we start each ceremony with a clean sheet of paper and build it how the couple wants to build it. In all my documentation I share with prospective couples none of it is gendered in any way.

I have a blog on my website all about my allyship and talk about inclusivity when I am at wedding fairs.