The Thomas Robinson Building offers the perfect location for such a ceremony. It is a former chapel building that has been lovingly restored and is now home to Stourbridge Registration Office. The building is available to be booked for life celebrations on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Each ceremony, led by a professional and experienced celebrant, is written individually for your family. It gives a focus for family and friends to gather together to remember your family member who has sadly passed away. A life celebration remembers the good times and happy memories rather than dwelling on their passing.
Your Ceremony Options
The tastefully refurbished Wollescote Suite can accommodate up to 58 guests in a relaxed and calm environment. To cater for more intimate or larger services, we offer A5 size Order of Ceremony booklets in quantities of either 20 or 40. You can also order a commemorative copy of each of the readings in an A4 size navy presentation folder.
You may choose for your guests to contribute to a lasting reminder of the Life Celebration in the form of a memorial frame, tree or guestbook. You can then take this home as a focal point for remembrance or quiet reflection. Many such ideas can be found online.
You can further enhance the service with a sand ceremony, giving the wider family or close friends the opportunity to participate.
If you choose to bring a photo it can be positioned on the desk as a focal point, alongside an optional floral table arrangement, which you can then take home, or place at your loved one’s resting place.
Your celebrant will be happy to talk through all of your options with you, to create the most fitting and appropriate Life Celebration ceremony.
We offer Order of Ceremony booklets in quantities of either 20 or 40. A guide for family and friends to follow through the service and to take away as a memento. Personalised with your loved one's information and maybe a picture then professionally printed and delivered directly to the Wollescote Suite ready for when you arrive.
You can also order a commemorative copy of each of the readings given in a navy presentation folder.
Premium stationery is available on white 280gsm silk card. Luxury stationery is available on cream Conqueror hammered card.
Premium order or ceremony booklets cost £30 for 20 or £45 for 40.
Luxury order of ceremony booklets cost £50 for 20 or £80 for 40.
Commemorative readings are £10 each for on premium card and £15 each on luxury card.
Please email register.office@dudley.gov.uk with you stationery requirement. We will email you a quote and a link to pay at our e-store.
You can further enhance the service with a sand ceremony, giving the wider family or close friends the opportunity to participate.
During the ceremony different coloured sands are poured into a bespoke solid oak frame that forms a memorial to take away after the ceremony as a lasting reminder of your loved one. Appropriate wording is spoken by the celebrant reflecting on the significance of the coloured sands.
We offer a choice of sand ceremony options to choose from.
The desk as the front of the Wollescote Suite may be used as a focal point. You may choose to place a framed photograph of your loved one here. We can supply a floral arrangement for you to position on the desk, and you may then choose to take it home or to your loved one’s final resting place.
Your arrangement is just £50 and will be designed with care and consideration. Our experienced local florist will then deliver your floral tribute to the Wollescote Suite on the day of the life celebration ceremony, ensuring a beautiful display for you to take away afterwards.
Due to the seasonal availability of flowers, the pictures shown are used to provide you with an example, but your arrangement may have a variety of stems depending on the time of year.
A memorial provides an opportunity for your guests to leave you with their favourite memory of your loved one, or some words of comfort or reflection.
It will be made available in the Wollescote Suite so that your guests may add to it after the life ceremony, and you can take it with you as a centrepiece if you gather for refreshments afterwards. Many ideas can be found online.
Sand ceremonies
A sand ceremony is a unique way of personalising your ceremony.
A sand ceremony can be part of the life celebration and will follow the period of reflection. We offer a choice of three ceremony options and the cost includes sparkling coloured sand, in shades as muted or as bright as you prefer, as well as the unique personalised sand ceremony frame into which you will blend your sands.
During the ceremony, guided by the celebrant, you and your chosen guests will each pour sand into the frame. This creates a unique and personal keepsake that symbolises your loved one’s life and their ongoing influence within the family as the sands move and resettle over time.
The sand ceremony is an ideal way to involve children in the life celebration ceremony - you can even choose brighter rainbow shades of sand as a reminder that the darkest times create the brightest rainbows – a symbol of hope for the future.
Each ceremony option can be modified to suit your family, so although we have suggested who they may be suited for, please select the one which feels right for you.
The fee for a sand ceremony, which includes the cost of a personalised hand-made oak frame, is £95.
Suited to a bereaved family including adult or young children
We now celebrate _______’s life with a symbolic sand ceremony.
Firstly we have the sand base representing his parent’s union and the solid foundation upon which his life began. That foundation represents his family, his upbringing, and all the important steps that paved the way to adulthood. This foundation represents the support he had throughout his life.
_______’s family have selected 2 colours of sand to represent his family - gold for his marriage to _______ and silver for his children and grandchildren.
_______ will pour the sand to symbolise her commitment to _______ (partner pours some of their sand) and child will pour their sand to symbolise the love the children and their father had for each other (child pours some of their sand).
(Partner) and (child) will now pour another layer of sand each.
As the two containers of sand are poured into one (both participants simultaneously pour their remaining sand in the central vase), the separate colours of sand will blend into a new colour. This is symbolic of the whole family working together through the good times and bad, always caring for one another throughout _______’s life.
Finally, we add a layer of white sand, representing you all, his family and friends, who must now find a way through life without _______.
May this sand ceremony and the memorial you’ve created be a lasting reminder of his love and support for you all, as you continue to love and support each other at this difficult time.
Suited for a bereaved spouse/partner
We now celebrate _______’s life with a symbolic sand ceremony.
Love is a force more formidable than any other. It cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession ever could.
This love joined ______ and ______ together as one. You each brought to the relationship different strengths, and offered one another support, laughter and comfort throughout your lives together.
To symbolise the importance of each of you within the relationship, and how that continues now though _______ has passed on, three colours of sand will now be combined in the sand ceremony.
We begin with a layer of white sand, which symbolises the foundation of your relationship. Then partner will separately pour the two colours of sand, symbolising her and ______ as individuals. Then, the sand blended from their two colours is poured as a symbol of their joining together forever in love. Lastly, I will add another layer of white sand, representing you, their community, supporting partner and holding her in love through the new life she now has to navigate. Though the container may be moved around, and the colours may shift and blend in new ways, the grains of sand cannot be separated. ______ is no longer with you, but he and partner will remain joined in an everlasting harmonious whole.
(The celebrant holds up the completed frame, presenting it to the bereaved partner.)
May this memorial continue to remind you that the love you shared with _______ is as eternal and as inseparable as this sand.
Rainbow ceremony – Suitable for all, but especially for those with younger children
We now celebrate _______’s life with a symbolic sand ceremony.
_______’s family have chosen to create a rainbow to remind them that after a rainstorm, the sun breaks through the clouds and a rainbow appears. This carries an important message of hope and optimism for the future.
Firstly, ______ will pour the base sand representing _______’s parent’s union and the solid foundation upon which his life began. That foundation represents his family, his upbringing, and all the important steps that paved the way to adulthood. This foundation represents the support he had throughout his life.
The coloured sands will be poured by members of the family, so that together they create this special memorial.
(Celebrant will guide the family through pouring the layers of sand up to 5 colours)
Life going on does not mean you will lose or forget your love for _______.
Your love for them will never go away; it will always be there alongside your love for all those who surround you still.
(The celebrant holds up the completed frame, presenting it to the family)
May this rainbow memorial be a reminder that though the storm of grief may continue, the brighter times will follow; and you will remember ______ with love, and treasure the moments that you shared. May his legacy live on through the generation that succeeds him.
