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Goode, Jackie

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Location: Fortrose
Covering areas: Highlands, Grampian, Western Isles
Phone: 07725 047 509
Mobile: 07725 047 509
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About Me

My background and experience
I became a Celebrant after my sister had been married by my, now colleague, Sylvia Cameron! It was a lovely ceremony and it inspired me to find out more about Humanism and what was involved to train to be a Celebrant. I had attended two Humanist funerals previously so had an idea of what it was all about. After looking at the web-site I felt elated – a group of folk who thought like me! And not just in Scotland but the whole world!
I read about the training they offered and by a strange set of coincidences found myself on a funeral training course 6 weeks later! It felt exactly the right thing to be doing.
I have also trained as an actor and have some confidence in relation to speaking in public so I found that to be a great advantage in conducting ceremonies. I’ve done all sorts of jobs over the years, met and worked with a diverse range of people which has enabled me to understand human beans a wee bit better!

What humanism means to me
Like my colleague Alan Smurthwaite - it’s about being kind, respectful and offering to help others, from all races, genders, colours and religions. Every human being has the right to live their choice of life. As our literature says – ‘there are more things that unite Humanity than divide it’.

We now have a team of 9 Celebrants covering the Highlands and Orkney therefore helping keep travel costs to a minimum. We all work together - if your nearest celebrant is unavailable, we’ll work between us to find an alternative celebrant. We of course travel outwith our own areas should you wish to book a specific celebrant.

The Highland Team of Celebrants are:
Sylvia Cameron in Inverness (who is also the North Co-ordinator)
Alan Smurthwaite- Muir of Ord, Inverness-shire
Jackie Goode- Evanton, Ross-shire
Mairi Ross - Beauly, Inverness-shire
George Caldow - Fochabers, Moray
Janet Donnelly - Glen of Rothes, Moray
Penelope Hamilton- Dornoch, Sutherland
Kate Roger - Thurso, Caithness
Dagmar Sitte- Orkney
Lesley Simpson - Grantown-on-Spey, Badenoch and Strathspey

Funerals

Like many celebrants, conducting funerals is a very rewarding vocation. To have a family share their personal memories and feelings about someone who has died is a very unique and humbling position to be in. To hear how much those attending enjoyed the funeral is sometimes quite overwhelming. I use the word enjoy because it is a comment I often hear, usually in a hushed voice as ‘enjoy’ isn’t the first word that springs to mind when thinking about funerals. But family and friends do seem to enjoy the fact that a Humanist funeral reflects the deceased as they really were, tactfully describing their idiosyncrasies. And I like to have an appropriate light-hearted feel to my ceremonies, making those attending remember the humorous qualities that the deceased had and choosing the right poetry can give a lot of comfort to family and friends.

Namings

Same Sex Affirmations

I have not yet conducted a same sex affirmation but can’t wait until I get my first booking. One of the best days of my life was going with some gay friends to the Pride March in Glasgow in the mid 90’s. What an experience! To be with hundreds of people from all walks of life, celebrating their sexuality - not to mention the fantastic array of outfits and the most stunning eclectic diverse looking men and women I have ever seen! (And I still have the photo of me and Mr. Gay UK – and what a handsome young man he was!)

Weddings

How I feel about being a wedding Celebrant
It’s a wonderful feeling after marrying a couple in a castle, hotel, back- garden, on the shores of a loch or 2000ft up a mountain, then driving home often through fantastic scenery and thinking what a wonderful thing it is to be part of the bride and groom’s special and memorable day. I feel very fortunate to have such a great occupation.

My approach to weddings
I want every couple to be able to include their own individuality within their ceremony to reflect their life and the way they live it.

What I love most about conducting weddings
I love writing the ceremonies and choosing poems and prose to suit each couple. And I enjoy the various elements that can be included in the ceremony. Whether that is Hand-fasting (tying and untying the hands bride and groom’s hands together), or scattering flowers in a river, or having some of the wedding guests involved in the ceremony. Wedding Band Warming is a great way of making your guests feel part of the ceremony – (passing the wedding rings around the guests to hold for a few seconds whilst offering their own silent thought or wish for the happiness of the marriage).

My advice to you
Like Alan and Sylvia say – trust your celebrant! You may want to light 25 candles, but maybe not a beach on the West Coast in November? And don’t stretch your finances too far – some of the best weddings are the ones done on a budget – Cava can be just as good as a bottle of Moet…. most folk can’t really taste the difference!

My favourite piece of wedding poetry
I love many pieces of poetry so it’s hard to choose any specific one, but one of my favourite light-hearted (Anonymous) poems is called “He Never Leaves The Seat Up” and is about the wonderful differences between man and woman. It just reminds you that marriage is about forgiving and forgetting the wee things that make you grit your teeth! Also one simple poem called “I love you” gives me a lump in my throat and usually makes Auntie Jeanie shed a tear.

My favourite piece of wedding music
At the first wedding I conducted we all sang ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ with much hilarity. I have such a wide taste in music so I find it difficult to choose a favourite. ‘Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams is a beautiful piece to have playing in the background as your guests arrive. But then something by Orbital can also be just as good. Your choice of music can be as eclectic as you like whether it’s Fat Boy Slim or Fats Waller, PJ Harvey or Pink Floyd.

My most unusual location for a wedding to date
On Dores beach on the shores of Loch Ness. It was blowing a gale; the waves were almost lapping around our feet and the guests were all huddled together to keep warm, but it was great. The glass of Cava afterwards put a tingle back in our toes. I have a wedding this autumn on a Munro (that’s not someone from the Munro clan but a mountain over 3000ft) in Sutherland, so I’ll have to don my walking boots for that one and make sure the couple and I have a hot toddy (lemon, honey and a good splash of whisky) in a flask to celebrate reaching the top!


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