Introduction

James Donnan - Celebrant provides a number of professional services, principally as an independent celebrant.  A celebrant delivers a number of ceremonies including weddings, namings, vow renewals and funerals.

To create and deliver your ceremony, a celebrant needs to obtain and process certain personal information about you, your family and friends. The information you provide is entirely within your control.

This policy sets out how personal information is held by James to enable the creation and delivery of the services he is providing to you.

You have certain rights with regards to your data.  This policy explains your rights covering how your information is collected, stored, stored and deleted - and who it could be shared with.  It also lets you know when you might be asked for your consent to share your information. 

What the law requires

Under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws James must also provide you with their name, address and email address. 

James collects and uses your data under the category of legitimate business, consent or vital and lawful interest.  This policy sets out what that means for you.

Under GDPR some information is defined as special category data This includes race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation. It may also include disability, pregnancy, and gender reassignment in so far as they may reveal information about a person’s health. James will only collect these under the category of legitimate business interest as they are needed to allow him to create your personalised ceremony which accurately reflects you.

When you approve the final version of your ceremony script you are providing consent for your information to be used in the ceremony. 

How your information is collected, stored and disposed

• In creating a ceremony James Donnan - Celebrant may collect information from you, your friends and family which may include names and stories about you and them which are important to your ceremony. 
• James will use your contact information to respond to any enquiries, share scripts and invoice you for services delivered.
• James will store your information securely, using passphrases for electronic/online means and where paper-based in a designated part of secure premises.  James will not hold information for the time needed to prepare and deliver the ceremony,  and will delete electronic files and shred paper materials as soon as possible after your ceremony.  Certain information is required to be kept for up to six years for accounting/tax reporting purposes.

What information will be collected about you

• Contact details for you, which can include name, address, telephone number, email address, date and location of the ceremony and ceremony type.
• Emails, text messages, social media posts and voicemail messages
• Personal information from you in person and other family members and via email/video meeting/telephone necessary to create your personalised ceremony.  In a face to face meeting, James may take handwritten notes. The information will be transferred to electronic form in developing your ceremony. Once the ceremony script is create the paper notes will be destroyed.
• Photographs that you have given to James for use in developing the story or in the ceremony.
• Messages you send to James via his social media platforms e.g. Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, are subject to the privacy policies for any data collected via those platforms, and you should refer to the relevant policies on each platform. These are outside the control of James. 

The information collected may be shared in the following ways:

• The script and your contact details may be shared with another celebrant so that they can manage your ceremony in case of an emergency. 
• James may also share the script of your ceremony with other trainee celebrants or with peers for the purposes of professional development. In these cases, your information will be anonymised.
• James may share certain details with others who may be important in ensuring the smooth running of your event such as venues, caterers, photographers, entertainments etc. 
• In certain circumstances James may be legally obliged to share information with statutory authorities. This is to comply with the law.

Your have the right to see what information is held or to ask it to be removed

• You have the right to obtain a copy of the information held about you which should be requested in writing.  James may ask for proof of identity in these instances.
• You can request that information held on you is deleted. However, please note that some information may be required to be rained for accountancy or legal purposes.

Consent to use photography

James Donnan - Celebrant may ask for your permission to share images of your day across digital channels or in print. You are free to decline this request. It is your choice.

Review

This policy has been created in November 2023 and will be reviewed each year, or if required by a change in the law or regulation.