Myself
Hello, I am Barbara, and I hope to give you a better picture of the person you may entrust your special occasion to.
I love people and have spent my entire life working in people-oriented professions, from hotel receptionist, to hotel wedding and event organiser, then to teaching English to speakers of other languages, training language teachers, coordinating summer camps for adolescents, running an Airbnb, and recently tour guiding cruise visitors here in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula.
I am an extremely positive, energetic, enthusiastic and communicative person, who loves to have fun. I believe that I am very approachable, sensitive to the needs of others and a good listener. I love to be well-organised but am also flexible and welcome change. I can be serious when necessary, but also have a pretty good sense of humour I am told!
Who would have guessed that my work as Wedding and Event Coordinator in my twenties would see me later, in my sixties, using similar skills as a Wedding Celebrant!
My Family
The two most important people in my life are my sons, Mark and David.
Now grown men in their thirties, they have filled my life with so much love, so many experiences and memories, and continue to do so, as they journey through their lives. Further afield, I have a large family in Wales, where my mother was from. It is tough to have family spread around the world, but thanks to today’s technology, you never feel too far removed!!
Hello, I am Barbara, and I hope to give you a better picture of the person you may entrust your special occasion to.
I love people and have spent my entire life working in people-oriented professions, from hotel receptionist, to hotel wedding and event organiser, then to teaching English to speakers of other languages, training language teachers, coordinating summer camps for adolescents, running an Airbnb, and recently tour guiding cruise visitors here in Christchurch and Banks Peninsula.
I am an extremely positive, energetic, enthusiastic and communicative person, who loves to have fun. I believe that I am very approachable, sensitive to the needs of others and a good listener. I love to be well-organised but am also flexible and welcome change. I can be serious when necessary, but also have a pretty good sense of humour I am told!
Who would have guessed that my work as Wedding and Event Coordinator in my twenties would see me later, in my sixties, using similar skills as a Wedding Celebrant!
My Family
The two most important people in my life are my sons, Mark and David.
Now grown men in their thirties, they have filled my life with so much love, so many experiences and memories, and continue to do so, as they journey through their lives. Further afield, I have a large family in Wales, where my mother was from. It is tough to have family spread around the world, but thanks to today’s technology, you never feel too far removed!!
My life in a nutshell!!
I am so grateful for the wonderful life I have led, the people who have accompanied me on my journey, the incredible places I have visited and sometimes worked in, and the skills I was endowed with. I have tried to condense down over 65 incredible years into an overview.
Born and bred in the Green Belt of London, in Surrey, I started my travels at the age of 19, moving north to Edinburgh, a city I still adore, to start my working life in hospitality, as receptionist.
However, my love of languages, developed as a teenager, made me yearn to use them, and with French and German and a smattering of Spanish, I moved to Switzerland, where I worked in the beautiful car-free village of Wengen, high in the mountains.
It was heaven on earth and there I met a New Zealander who was to become my husband, and would whisk me away to the other side of the world to start a new and wonderful life and extend our family. Busy but brilliant times full of trips, sport, friends and visitors. I missed my links with foreigners and was lucky enough to get into teaching English, a profession I was and still am passionate about, a chance to pass on my love of language-learning to others and to help them master English – no mean feat.
Well, the story had a little twist to it after my divorce after nearly 25 years of marriage. I was convinced by European friends to return to Switzerland for a little while as an English teacher, and ended up staying for nearly 8 years, in the absolutely idyllic village of Pfaeffikon Zuerich.
How marvellous to spend the years leading to retirement in such a beautiful place, using all my languages on a daily basis both at work and in my free time, surrounded by dynamic, generally much younger colleagues, students and friends. Travel was the name of the game between the exhausting weeks of work. Luckily, I still coordinate summer camps for young people in the mountains of Switzerland during New Zealand winter months, in the picture-postcard village of Zuoz.
Retirement
Variety has certainly been ‘the spice of my life’. I could not imagine a routine retirement and so I set out to ensure that it would not be!! I have a large house and garden, which keeps me pretty busy, but it is a pity to be alone and so perfect to share with Airbnb guests from all over the world. Maybe, there will one day be a wedding in the garden, or my rooms used as changing rooms. I hope so!
Language learning is always on going and I am lucky enough to work as a tour guide occasionally, bringing German or French-speaking tourists from Akaroa to Christchurch for the day. It is hard work but very rewarding. I also still adore working as a relief teacher, surrounded by people of all ages, nationalities and beliefs.
So, how did I become a Marriage Celebrant? A young man, recently married, happened to ask me if I had ever thought about becoming a Marriage Celebrant. What a brilliant idea, I thought, supporting and encouraging couples on such a special and happy occasion! I have since taken part in two intensive courses, one on the Wedding Process and Law and the other on Ceremonial Writing and Business and I am now an official Marriage Celebrant.
I am really looking forward to the coming years of retirement filled with friends, family, travel and not forgetting, new and rewarding ventures, the most exciting of which must surely be being a marriage celebrant and guiding couples of all ages, sexual orientation, nationality and cultural backgrounds through their special ceremonies.
Thank you for reading this and I do hope I will get the chance to meet you in person.
I am so grateful for the wonderful life I have led, the people who have accompanied me on my journey, the incredible places I have visited and sometimes worked in, and the skills I was endowed with. I have tried to condense down over 65 incredible years into an overview.
Born and bred in the Green Belt of London, in Surrey, I started my travels at the age of 19, moving north to Edinburgh, a city I still adore, to start my working life in hospitality, as receptionist.
However, my love of languages, developed as a teenager, made me yearn to use them, and with French and German and a smattering of Spanish, I moved to Switzerland, where I worked in the beautiful car-free village of Wengen, high in the mountains.
It was heaven on earth and there I met a New Zealander who was to become my husband, and would whisk me away to the other side of the world to start a new and wonderful life and extend our family. Busy but brilliant times full of trips, sport, friends and visitors. I missed my links with foreigners and was lucky enough to get into teaching English, a profession I was and still am passionate about, a chance to pass on my love of language-learning to others and to help them master English – no mean feat.
Well, the story had a little twist to it after my divorce after nearly 25 years of marriage. I was convinced by European friends to return to Switzerland for a little while as an English teacher, and ended up staying for nearly 8 years, in the absolutely idyllic village of Pfaeffikon Zuerich.
How marvellous to spend the years leading to retirement in such a beautiful place, using all my languages on a daily basis both at work and in my free time, surrounded by dynamic, generally much younger colleagues, students and friends. Travel was the name of the game between the exhausting weeks of work. Luckily, I still coordinate summer camps for young people in the mountains of Switzerland during New Zealand winter months, in the picture-postcard village of Zuoz.
Retirement
Variety has certainly been ‘the spice of my life’. I could not imagine a routine retirement and so I set out to ensure that it would not be!! I have a large house and garden, which keeps me pretty busy, but it is a pity to be alone and so perfect to share with Airbnb guests from all over the world. Maybe, there will one day be a wedding in the garden, or my rooms used as changing rooms. I hope so!
Language learning is always on going and I am lucky enough to work as a tour guide occasionally, bringing German or French-speaking tourists from Akaroa to Christchurch for the day. It is hard work but very rewarding. I also still adore working as a relief teacher, surrounded by people of all ages, nationalities and beliefs.
So, how did I become a Marriage Celebrant? A young man, recently married, happened to ask me if I had ever thought about becoming a Marriage Celebrant. What a brilliant idea, I thought, supporting and encouraging couples on such a special and happy occasion! I have since taken part in two intensive courses, one on the Wedding Process and Law and the other on Ceremonial Writing and Business and I am now an official Marriage Celebrant.
I am really looking forward to the coming years of retirement filled with friends, family, travel and not forgetting, new and rewarding ventures, the most exciting of which must surely be being a marriage celebrant and guiding couples of all ages, sexual orientation, nationality and cultural backgrounds through their special ceremonies.
Thank you for reading this and I do hope I will get the chance to meet you in person.