Coffin Club is something different! We work together to provide funeral celebrant training and end of life planning empowerment.
Kate Tym (Blonde Kate) and Kate Dyer (Red-head Kate). We first met when we worked as Registrars for our local council. We jumped ship to become wedding celebrants and, after a short time, decided to train to conduct funerals – and so Kate and Kate Celebrants was born.
It didn’t take much time for us to become aware of how formulaic funerals tend to be and were so frustrated with the lack of choice and creativity being offered. Not only that, but we were amazed how little people knew about what was available to them for their final fling and how there seemed to be a reluctance from many in the funeral industry to make this information readily available.
Not ones to see a problem and not set about fixing it, our mission became to communicate and educate and bring the tricky topic of funerals out in the open. We started with a Coffin Club in our own area of Hastings on England’s south coast, before teaching other people to set up Coffin Clubs in their communities.
We also developed a range of resources from sorting your Lasting Power of Attorney to keeping a body at home – our ever growing library of downloadable guides covers all the stuff no-one talks about, but everyone should know.
We started training other celebrants through our sister company Match and Dispatch, as we really see funeral celebrants as being key players in helping to change the face of funerals. And, with the help of Dawn Kemp Celebrant, we even launched Funeral Celebrant Day in 2024.
We’d found our calling! People loved our approach and we’re really thrilled and grateful to have had our passion recognised with a trophy cabinet full of awards. We’re absolutely convinced that bringing death back to life is vital for better outcomes around grief recovery and resilience and, we couldn’t agree more with our inimitable patron, Miriam Margolyes, when she says, ‘Everyone who is going to die should come to Coffin Club.
Viva la Coffin Club revolution!!
Here’s some of the most frequently asked questions we get asked. If you’ve got any other questions, please do drop us a line, as we’d love to hear from you.
To find out if there’s a Coffin Club in your area have a look at our directory of clubs. If there isn’t a club near you and you would still like to plan your own funeral you could do that with our fabulous downloadable funeral-planning course. All the content of a Coffin Club course, but in a downloadable form. To find out more click HERE. Or, take the initiative and set up a Coffin Club in your area
Yes, we have a fabulous downloadable plan your own funeral course which has loads of brilliant fun and fantastically informative videos, an accompanying handbook and a funeral wish list that you work through to create your perfect send off.
Look no further than our Celebrant Directory. We only list celebrants who have undertaken our Celebrant-plus training and who work in a completely person-centred way. From a smaller, more traditional service to all bells-and-whistles, thinking outside the box (pun intended) our celebrants really can support you every step of the way
The Kates are only too happy to come and talk about Coffin Club and how to change the face of funerals forever. Please get in touch by filling in a speaker’s request form.
Head over to our Resources to page – to find out all you’ll need to know!
Yes, we do – through our sister company Match and Dispatch! We are the ONLY organisation that encourages celebrants to work outside of the funeral-director-as gatekeeper model, market directly to their communities, serve the families they work with in a broader way and regain complete control over their careers. You can also find links to our Funeral celebrant course here and Funeral training here.
We really believe that celebrants are key to changing the face of funerals – we love you guys
‘I’m Sheron of SheronBurtYourCelebrant, based in Daventry Northamptonshire. I recently completed the
Coffin Club Celebrant-plus training. It was one of the best training courses I have been on to-date. It was so inspiring and thought-provoking! I’d finally found two women after my own heart, forward-thinking and paving the way for changes in the funeral industry. I was so frustrated with Funeral Directors’ way of thinking and working, I was literally losing the will to live (excuse the pun!), ready to throw the towel in, and then I heard Kate and Kate’s webinar and I thought “Now you’re talking”
I’m so excited about the future and I’m looking forward to moving forward and empowering change!’
Thank you so much. An inspirational couple of days. Kate and Kate were so generous in sharing their knowledge and experience. I was reassured to know that working with Funeral Directors is still very much part of what they do. I feel so much more confident about taking my celebrant practice forward in an independent way. I’ve already started making changes
