“I just wanted to thank you
for your facilitation of a wonderful retreat.
Your calm and open presence
always grounds me and renews my spirit.
Also, it was lovely to share, smile and laugh.
Much love, Susie”
Celebrant Retreat: Spring 2026
The Creative Fire celebrant retreat offers love, luxury,
gentleness, and time to relax.
A heart-filled healing haven where you have
the space to return to your creative self.
This gorgeous getaway, in a creative environment
designed for celebrants,
will give you the space to explore and experiment
in a safe and supportive way.
A consciously curated space to honour your creative spirit,
each day you’ll have a chance to embrace
a sense of wonder, play and joy.
By doing so, you’ll develop curiosity and cultivate creativity.
The creativity sessions have been specially chosen
so you can use items or skills to include in your celebrant practice.
The Creative Fire Celebrant Retreat recognises that our relationship to and with creativity infuses everything we do professionally.
This retreat will gently awaken your creative embers, and ignite and liberate the inner creatrix so that your celebrant artistry may shine in the world.
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A time to laugh and a time to play
A time for forging friendships and a time to relax
A time for walks in nature and a time to be nurtured
Venue
Held at Glassonby Hall, Eden Valley in Cumbria
This lavishly restored five-star 15th Century Cumbrian Longhouse of Baronial splendour offers a peaceful retreat set amid rolling Cumbrian fells and farmland.
When you arrive, you step into the vaulted main hall, with vast stone hearth, arrowslit windows and iron chandeliers. Don’t be surprised if you sense the medieval revelry of yesteryear. We eat in the flagstone dining hall for more formal meals and gather in the Aga-warmed large kitchen for breakfast and lunch.
This peaceful retreat is a cocoon from the world with its beamed living room and deep windows with views over the Cumbrian hills. Deep sofas and a grand woodstove offer just the place to sit back and relax. Let yourself be enchanted by the Hall’s contemporary opulence layered over medieval majesty.
When?
5pm Friday, 27th March to 10am Monday, 30th March 2026
We keep our not-for-profit celebrant retreats
deliberately small (max. 10)
so you can get to know other attendees
and enjoy a relaxed environment.
Celebrant Investment
£555
Includes your own double bedroom for three nights in 5* luxury accommodation,
all sessions and materials with our carefully chosen tutors,
and a nourishing vegetarian menu created by our private chef.
We have one space remaining.
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Booking Form
To receive a booking form, email: veronikarobinson@hotmail.com
Creativity is manifestation: we are bringing something, that didn’t exist before, into being. During this retreat, you’ll learn to listen out for your creative voice and connect with your inner artist. We offer a gently structured and nurturing environment for you to ‘play’.
You will come away understanding and being able to implement the five corners of The Creative Fire and the three elements to sustain this through your professional (and personal) life.
Apart from our structured sessions, there’ll also be time and space for resting, walks in nature, or taking part in crafting a druid’s besom or coffin-blessing brush, rustic vow-renewal booklet and gift cards for clients, and more.
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Tutors
- a gilder
- an internationally renowned potter
- a calligrapher
- creativity coach
- novelist and celebrant with 30 years experience
- a comedy writer to help you infuse humour and playfulness into your celebrancy
Retreat Hostess
Veronika Sophia Robinson
Retreat Workshop
Veronika will open the retreat with a workshop exploring The Five Cornerstones of Creativity, and how we can use the elements of nature in the creative process.
Veronika is a celebrant (across all rites of passage) with 30 years of experience and has learned how to lean into her intuition and bring creativity to her ceremonies. She’s co-tutor, along with her husband Paul, at their boutique celebrant training school: Heart-led Ceremonies Celebrant Training.
Guest Tutors
Martin and Siobhan Miles Moore
Siobhan and Martin are the husband and wife behind the multi award-winning Miles-Moore Ceramics. Their work can be found in public and private collections all over the world, as well as in world class restaurants and bars.
By the time Martin graduated from UCLAN in 1989, he had developed a fascination with sacred and ritual vessels. His final degree show featured Coptic and Ginger Jar forms amongst others. It is only in more recent years he has felt able to embrace sacred communion and Tea Ceremony vessels.
Siobhan ‘s work is an exploration of perspective and the importance of understanding our own place in the world. Her elemental work incorporates gilding with precious and semi-precious metals to add greater light and contrast.
Handbuilding a Quaich
Martin will begin the workshop with a demonstration, throwing a few key Chawan forms and explaining their importance within The Japanese Tea Ceremony.
You are then invited to contemplate a range of natural materials.
You will be shown how these can be used to mark make and enhance a clay form.
Then you will be given some time to experiment and play with some clay, learning how it feels and forms, how it bends and breaks.
Key Task – you are then invited to apply your new knowledge and experience into hand building a simple, unique quaich form. You will be provided with all the materials and techniques needed to achieve this.
Martin and Siobhan will then take your work away, slowly dry it, then fire it to 1000 degrees, glaze it like the sample shown, then fire it to 1300 degrees.
Your finished work can then be returned to you by post (£10 extra) or collected from Veronika or Siobhan at a later date.
Creating a Gilded Grounding Stone
Siobhan will begin the workshop with a brief overview of the history and background of this ancient and endangered art form.
You are then invited to select two stones that speak to you from our responsibly sourced collection.
After a briefing and opportunities to understand the various materials on offer you will gild your first stone. This stone will be to practice techniques and approaches.
When it comes to your second stone you are invited to gild this stone as an active meditation. Imbuing all the power and the energy of the meditation into your work on the stone.
Once both stones are complete we will then seal and protect them, leaving them to dry in the daylight before adding them into your ceremonial tool kits.
Copper, Silver and Gold Alloys are included in your fees, Gold leaf and platinum leaf are available for an additional £10 charge.
Guest Tutor
Claire Gould, Calligrapher
Immerse yourself in a creative calligraphy workshop with Claire. The art of calligraphy shapes words into beautiful pieces of art. The practice is mindful and creative: as you get to know your calligraphy pen you’ll enjoy the swooshing of your pen, the novelty of a dippy ink pot and the simple repetition of shaping letters.
Calligraphy used to be a prerequisite for being a bank manager. The days of calligraphy being dull are long gone! Now it’s a way to combine heartfelt words with joy and colour, to experiment and play with inks and papers, and to enjoy slow writing. Focus on the words of a lovely quote as your nib bends in and out of letters. Create flowers and leaves with magical, shimmering inks and delicate, careful brush strokes.
A relaxed and therapeutic 2.5 hour workshop learning a modern script through tracing letter shapes and mindful repetition. You’ll take home a project of your own, a motivational calligraphy quote to inspire and bring joy.
Guest Tutor
Kate Brundrett
Kate Brundrett, an artist, illustrator and leadership coach, will lead an experiential afternoon workshop on Finding Your Essence.
Guest Tutor
Paul Robinson, comedy writer
Infuse Your Writing With Humour –
How To Think It! How To Present It!
Paul’s sense of humour was spotted by a teacher when he was five (Paul, not the teacher!) and he’s seen the funny side of life ever since.
Amongst other things, he’s won a radio award for “World’s Best Afternoon Show”; he was a writer and feature artist on the television variety show “Saturday Live” in New Zealand; and he’s the author of the successful book “You Must Be Joking!”. Paul’s comedy career includes writing parodies, being a popular compère, mimic and ventriloquist. (Don’t ask him how he does that, because he’ll probably say “Sit on my knee and I’ll show you”!)
Celebrant Retreat
Autumn 2026
Love Story
Sessions include:
Masterclasses with Veronika Sophia Robinson, a wedding celebrant with over thirty years experience, and author of several books for celebrants including Love Story: a Wedding Celebrant’s Guide to Writing Compelling Narrative (publishing Spring 2026)
Veronika will break down the literary elements of writing the perfect love story so you can amp up your writerly skills.
You’ll come away from this retreat with a strong sense of what works, what doesn’t work, how to write in a way that feels natural and fully reflects your writer ‘voice’; and how to live your best writerly life as a wedding celebrant. Veronika has designed these sessions to be fun, inspiring, creative and most importantly: to offer real writing breakthroughs.
Surround yourself with creative celebrants. This retreat is a must for any wedding celebrant, no matter where they are on their writing journey. Immerse yourself in a dedicated place of support, guidance and inspiration.
From the moment you arrive, Veronika will open the door to a world of creativity. Each day is dedicated to awakening your imagination whether through being in the heart of a beautiful landscape, writing sessions, shared experiences around the table where we’ll enjoy meals by a private chef.
Let your celebrant writing ‘art’ come alive.
If you yearn to reconnect to your creative spirit, this retreat promises to take your writing to a new level.
Guest Tutors TBA.
