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Many thanks to Peta for providing her snapshot
Peta Shepherd - Civil Marriage Celebrant -Appointed September 2006
I was born in Cape Town, South Africa to an Irish lady, and was the product of a short and sweet romance between her and a visiting Portuguese sailor. After being adopted at 10 days old by an Australian lady and her South African husband, my family and I immigrated to Australia in 1974. We moved to small country town called Cranbrook where I completed my primary school and then travelled to Mt Barker daily on the school bus my father drove for high school. After finishing school I moved to Albany and after working and living there for 2 years I sprouted wings, hocked all of my belongings, and travelled back to South Africa to visit relatives and as well as spending 3 months working as a cook/companion to a well heeled couple in Hampshire and travelling around southern England and parts of Europe.
Upon returning to Australia, I pursued my dream to become a Vet nurse by writing to every vet in Perth and was fortunate enough to employed by the head of W.A Veterinary Assoc in Morley before moving on to a scuba diving wholesale company. I ultimately decided to settle down and further my education by enrolling at Curtin University to study Social Science which later evolved into a Bachelor of Arts in Education from Edith Cowan University which I graduated from in 1993.
In 1992 I met my husband to be at a party after he used the chat up line of "Hi, my name is Ron and I like ironing!" He was down from Shark Bay where he was the Regional Manager for CALM and we started what turned out to be a 4 year long distance relationship, during which time I lived in Perth, moved back home with my parents, and got a job as the art teacher at South Kalgoorlie Primary School.
After 4 years of catching up every 6 weeks he proposed at dinner one night and as they say the rest is history.....
We moved to Geraldton for 5 years, 14 years ago, and have grown to love the place and the people. We have 4 school age children who keep us on our toes and we are grateful for the excellent facilities and lifestyle Geraldton has to offer us. We bought a caravan a couple of years ago and in 2008 took the kids out of school for 6 weeks and travelled across to Queensland, and then spent 6 weeks travelling through the Northern Territory and Kimberley's in 2009. Our wanderlust having been satiated for a while, we are now focussing on family, friends and creative pursuits. I am a mad keen scrapbooker, but love art/craft of all mediums.
I pursued my dream of becoming a celebrant after initially being knocked back under the old system in 1997, and did my training with Carol Astbury in Perth whilst my twins were a year old and dad held down the fort. I must admit that it was stressful and confronting having to meet the rigorous training standard that Carol had us achieve in our course, but I know that I was trained in all aspects of celebrancy to the highest of standards. I continue to challenge myself when it comes to my ceremonies and business and endeavour to juggle teaching, family and celebrancy to the best of my ability.
I love the interesting people that I meet through this business, both clients and other celebrants, and look forward to continuing this fascinating journey long into the future.
Peta Shepherd
Civil Marriage Celebrant
Geraldton WA
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