Flourish – together in life’s sacred moments

The death of a loved one can be a precious, painful and overwhelming time intermingled with the desire to honour your loved one with a special ceremony of farewell.
It is my privilege and joy to meet together with you and your family to create a ceremony that will tell your loved one’s story well and mark this moment as sacred and memorable for you all.

Flourish

A funeral is a family milestone. I look forward to working with you to create a special ceremony for your family that will honour and capture the life of your loved one and their legacy, sowing seeds of hope that will help your family flourish for generations to come.

Together

First and foremost this is your ceremony. My key role is to help you create a ceremony you would like and want. Using my, creativity, skill and understanding of ceremony, I will work, together with you and your family / group to achieve this.

Sacred

I will always approach you and your family with the dignity, reverence and respect that marks this sacred moment for you and your family. The views of both you and your loved one about life, spirituality and faith are important and I will work with you to honour your beliefs.

Moment

It is a great honour and privilege to take up the role of celebrant and to be present with you, your family, friends and community and ‘hold’ the moment as you grieve and farewell your loved one, creating a place of trust and safety for you to do this.

Compassionate and Respectful

In one meeting Jennie managed to extract the essence of Roger and all that he meant to us. We have had many positive comments from our friends about the compassionate and respectful way she conducted the service and she certainly helped Amie, Claire and I through the difficult week prior. We would have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Jennie to any of our friends.

– Lorraine Hammond

Safe Hands

From the moment I met you Jennie I felt a connection to you. Your compassion, warmth and professionalism were wonderful. Your delicate and thoughtful shaping of the service while accommodating my and Andy's wishes was incredibly helpful for me and I always felt like I was in safe hands. There is absolutely nothing I would have changed, and, heaven forbid, if I ever need a celebrant again, you would immediately be my first choice. Thank you for making a difficult time easier.

– Anna

A Crafted Ceremony

Jennie is a kind, empathetic and talented celebrant who listened carefully to our stories of Mum to understand the person she was. She worked closely with us to craft a ceremony which strongly reflected Mum's life, character and spirit. She assisted with the structure and content of the service offering several choices to make from various poems and readings. I highly recommend Jennie as a celebrant who will work hard to ensure you get the service you desire for your loved one.

– Jane Adams, Auckland

An Inclusive Approach

Thank you for your care. We appreciated the way you conducted the service with genuine regard for Graham’s life, us, his family and all who were present. Thank you for your all-inclusive approach which made people of all faiths feel comfortable. It was indeed a great send off, of which we feel our brother would’ve approved!

– Liz Scouller

Abundant Help

Mum’s service was really lovely, and oddly enough, when I think of her funeral I have fond memories, not sad ones. We are eternally grateful for your abundant and well-honed help and advice and of course work on the day in leading us all through it. It’s quite a brilliant thing to witness people at work who have genuinely found their ‘calling’. So a truly heartfelt thank you from me and the family.

– Kathryn Askelund

Help in a Daunting Time

Thank you for helping us through this daunting, unfamiliar and emotional funeral process. We are so grateful to you for making Emma's service go seamlessly; you did a fabulous job of interpreting and presenting our feelings and stories about Emma, we were entirely happy with the service.

– Paul & Sue, North Shore

A Perfect Match

We all felt very privileged to have Jennie involved in taking Janet's memorial service. Her gentle and kind manner was a perfect match to Janet herself and she would have been proud of the dignified aura that was felt by all.

– Helen Shiach

A Calm Well Organised Experience

The whole experience was very calm, well organised, well-coordinated and very gentle for us all. It meant that our family and friends could celebrate in a most elegant and appropriate way. Jennie, you were a very gentle, considerate and caring celebrant.

– Sharon Baker, Australia

Mum Would Have Loved It

Jennie, I still can't thank you enough for leading Mum's funeral. I am sure she sent you, bless her. You were wonderful. My lovely friends commented that Mum would have loved everything about the day.

– Karen Dyson, Auckland

Memorable in Constrained Times

With her experience, Jennie sensitively provided a framework within which, we as a family, were able to plan a Memorial Service to celebrate the life of my mother. Certain constraints of present times, did not detract from the planning of celebration of a of a life long-lived. Jennie is compassionate, has a warm personality, and is at ease with all age groups. She has a wonderful choice of words, her prose is beautiful. Thank you Jennie, we shared a memorable experience.

– Susy Smith

We Highly Recommend

Our family engaged Jennie to plan and deliver a memorial service for our Dad. From the initial contact to the service itself Jennie was super communicative and organised. She was empathetic through the whole process, which helped us through an emotional time. She put together a service which was just right for our Dad and handled last minute changes on the day with ease. We highly recommend Jennie. She is professional and has a knack for knowing how to deliver a beautiful service. Thank you Jennie.

– Whitney Adam, Auckland

Thoughtful and Tactful

I’d like to thank Jennie for all she did for my family – it is truly appreciated, she captured my 105 year old mother well! I would also like to compliment her on the beautiful way she handled the missing family member and the ex-husband – very thoughtful and tactful; well done. I have had a lot of feedback as to how good the service was and feel sure that Mum would have approved!

– Denise Hepworth

Dignity and Inspiration

Thank you Jennie for everything you did to make Mum's funeral the celebration that it was. Not only is Jennie beautiful - she is gracious, eloquent, patient and empathetic. She has a deep faith, respect for the family's wishes and is relaxed in the midst of loss and sadness. Although there is time pressure when preparing for a funeral, Jennie organises everything with dignity and inspiration.

– Joanne Wills, Auckland

Professional Manner

It was special to work with Jennie in this very tragic situation – her profoundly gentle, sensitive and professional manner was just perfect.

– Kaye Shannon, Sibuns Funeral Director

Our Deepest Thanks

Dan and I wanted to pass on our deepest thanks for helping us with such an important job at the most difficult time of our lives. The weeks since have been no less difficult in many ways but we are so glad to have had a wonderful ceremony to keep in our hearts and memory.

– Dan and Emma

A Beautiful Memorial Service

I would like to thank Jennie for the beautiful memorial service for my sister and brother, and for all she did for us at a sad and difficult time. She was a lifesaver and just so good at her job. I really don't know how I would have pulled anything together. It was perfect for the circumstances.

– Brenda Rendall, Dunedin

A Positive, Inclusive Presence

An extraordinary listener, tempered with encouragement and measured advice; a creative spirit, happily suggesting and accepting new and innovative ideas: a calm inclusive presence, with an intelligent nuance for understanding a wide variety of people; a fun loving personality, with the ability to find positivity and love while acknowledging challenges and difficult times.

– Deb and Greg Cook, Auckland

Practical and Efficient

Recently, Jennie helped plan with me and the family the funeral service for her late mother. Her manner was caring and consultative, along with practical efficiency... A pleasure to work with.

– Revd Graham Button

Welcoming and Caring

I have known Jennie Milne for nearly twenty years, and never fail to wonder at her particular gifts. She carries of sense of ‘presence’ that makes you know you are welcomed – an empathy, a listening, a caring, a desire to walk with you through the deepest experiences of life. 

– Margaret Tooley

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