Question 1

Using the App, the Village and your membership

Accepted Answer

Eligibility

You must be 18 or older to hold an account, make a purchase, or enter into these Terms. If you are using the Services on behalf of another person or an organization, you confirm you are authorised to accept these Terms on their behalf.

Minors may take part in a ceremony, retreat or session where a parent or guardian has registered them, agreed to these Terms on their behalf, and where we have agreed to it in advance.

We may decline to offer the Services to any person, and may change these eligibility criteria, at our discretion.

Your membership

While you hold an active Subscription you may access and use the paid features of the App and the Village. A description of what each membership includes is available on our pricing page.

Changes to the App and the Village

Because our Services are evolving, we may change or discontinue all or any part of the App or the Village at any time. Your purchase is not contingent on the delivery of any future feature, or on anything we have said publicly about future features.

Using the App

Through the App you can create customised ceremonies, including for the people you represent. Do not use the App while driving, operating machinery, or doing anything else that requires your attention. You are responsible for your own use of the App and for your clients’ use of it.

Your account

Some parts of the Services need an account. Give us accurate information and keep it current. You are responsible for everything that happens on your account and for keeping your password secure. Tell us about any unauthorised use.

Feedback and referrals

We welcome feedback and may use it freely. Where we run a referral programme, its conditions are set out in the Services, and we may suspend an account we believe is not following them.

Question 2

Workshops, courses and gatherings

Accepted Answer

What a gathering is

Be Ceremonial offers workshops, courses, circles and other gatherings that take place at a scheduled time, online or in person (each, a “Gathering”). Some run as a single session; others run as a series or cohort across weeks or months. The description on the relevant page tells you which, along with dates, times, duration and price.

Registration and payment

Your place is confirmed when payment is received, or when your registration is accepted for a free Gathering. Places in cohort-based programs are limited, and registration for a cohort may close after a stated date, after which you may be offered a place in a future cohort instead.

If you cancel

Payment for a Gathering is non-refundable and non-transferable, except where applicable consumer protection law requires otherwise. If you cannot attend, you may ask us to transfer your place to another person or to a future run of the same Gathering; we will accommodate this where we reasonably can, but we are not obliged to. If you cancel a place in a multi-session series after it has begun, no portion of the fee is refunded.

If we cancel or change it

We may reschedule, relocate, change the facilitator of, or cancel a Gathering. Where a Gathering is cancelled outright and not replaced, you will receive a full refund of what you paid for it. Where a Gathering is rescheduled and the new date does not work for you, you may choose a refund or a credit toward a future Gathering. Where a facilitator changes or a session within a series is moved, no refund is due. A Gathering may be cancelled if minimum enrolment is not reached, in which case you will be notified before the start date and refunded in full.

Attending online

Online Gatherings are delivered through third-party platforms, currently including Zoom. You are responsible for your own device, internet connection and software, and for joining from a setting where you can take part. No refund is due where you are unable to join for reasons within your control.

Recordings and materials

Every paid workshop and course is recorded, and the recording is made available to those registered for a stated period afterwards. Recordings are not available in perpetuity; each Gathering states its own access period. Free Gatherings are not always recorded, and no recording is promised for them.

Written materials, prompts, ritual guides and workbooks are provided for your personal use, and for use with your own clients where the Gathering is explicitly offered as professional training. You may not sell, publish, teach from, or otherwise reproduce our paid workshop and course materials. Our freely published content is treated differently — see Free content.

Question 3

Retreats

Accepted Answer

Applying for a place

A retreat is an in-person gathering, single-day or multi-day, at a venue we book (each, a “Retreat”). Retreats are offered by application. Submitting an application does not reserve a place and does not create a contract. A place is held only once we have accepted your application, issued you a payment link, and received your deposit.

Deposit and balance

Unless the Retreat page says otherwise, a non-refundable deposit is payable to confirm your place, with the balance due by the date stated in your confirmation. The deposit is non-refundable in all circumstances except where we cancel the Retreat or where applicable consumer protection law requires otherwise. If the balance is not received by the due date, we may release your place and retain the deposit.

If you cancel

Cancellation takes effect on the date we receive written notice from you. Refunds of the balance are:

More than 30 days before the start date — 100%
30 days or fewer before the start date, or you do not attend — None

The deposit is not refunded at any stage. Where we are able to fill your place from a waiting list, we may at our discretion refund more than the above provides. You may ask to transfer your place to another person or to a future Retreat; we will accommodate this where we reasonably can, but we are not obliged to, and a transfer may not be possible once the venue’s own deadlines have passed.

If we cancel

We may cancel or reschedule a Retreat, including where minimum numbers are not met, where the venue becomes unavailable, or for reasons beyond our reasonable control. Where we cancel outright you will receive a full refund of everything you have paid us, including the deposit. Where we reschedule and the new dates do not work for you, you may choose a full refund or a credit toward a future Retreat. Our liability in either case is limited to the amounts you paid us, and does not extend to travel, accommodation or other costs you have incurred.

What the fee includes

The Retreat page states what your fee covers, which typically includes the program, on-site accommodation, and meals prepared for the group. Unless stated otherwise, the fee does not include travel to and from the venue, ferry or transit fares, travel insurance, personal expenses, or anything you arrange independently.

Travel and insurance

You are responsible for your own travel arrangements and for arriving at the venue. We strongly recommend travel and cancellation insurance covering the full amount you have paid, particularly for Retreats reached by ferry or requiring overnight travel. We are not responsible for travel disruption, weather, ferry cancellation, or any other circumstance that prevents you from attending, and no refund is due beyond what is set out above.

Accommodation and the venue

Accommodation is at the venue we name, and specific rooms, cabins or sleeping arrangements are allocated by us or by the venue and cannot be guaranteed. Shared accommodation may apply where stated. While on site you are a guest of the venue and must follow its rules, including those on quiet hours, smoking, alcohol, pets, fires and restricted areas. We may ask you to leave a Retreat, without refund, if your conduct endangers or seriously disrupts others.

Food, health and access needs

Tell us about dietary requirements, allergies, mobility needs and any accessibility requirements at the time of application, and let us know promptly if they change. We will do what we reasonably can, within the limits of the venue and our chef’s kitchen, and we will tell you before you pay if we cannot meet a requirement. We cannot guarantee an allergen-free kitchen. You remain responsible for your own medication, medical needs and care while attending.

Question 4

Working with us one-to-one

Accepted Answer

What we offer

Be Ceremonial offers personal services delivered by Megan Sheldon, including celebrant services, end-of-life doula support, ceremony coaching, and non-medical accompaniment for people and families navigating medical assistance in dying (each, a “Service”). Services are offered in limited number and are accepted at our discretion.

Your engagement

The particular Service, its scope, sessions, fee and timeline are set out in the proposal, booking confirmation or written agreement we send you before work begins (your “Engagement”). Where you and Be Ceremonial sign a separate written agreement for a Service, that agreement governs and prevails over this section to the extent of any conflict. Work outside the agreed scope is charged at our then-current hourly rate, agreed with you in advance.

Fees, deposit and payment

Fees are quoted in Canadian dollars for clients in Canada and United States dollars for clients elsewhere, and are stated in your Engagement. Unless your Engagement says otherwise, a non-refundable deposit is payable to reserve a date or begin work, with the balance due before the ceremony date or on the schedule set out in your Engagement. Packages of sessions are paid in advance and expire on the date stated in your Engagement. Ceremony dates are held only once the deposit is received.

Rescheduling and cancellation

Sessions may be rescheduled with at least 48 hours’ notice. A session cancelled or missed with less notice is treated as delivered and is not refunded or rescheduled, except in an emergency or bereavement, where we will always try to find another time.

If you end an Engagement before it is complete, the deposit is retained and fees for work already carried out — including planning, drafting and correspondence, not only time spent with you — remain payable; any balance for work not yet done is refunded. For a ceremony cancelled fewer than 30 days before the date, the full fee remains payable, as the date has been held and the work largely done. If we must withdraw from an Engagement, we will refund fees for work not carried out and, where we can, help you find another practitioner.

Travel

In-person work on the North Shore is included in the quoted fee. Travel beyond is quoted separately and agreed in advance.

The limits of this work

Our Services are ritual, ceremonial, educational and companioning in nature. We do not draft, witness or advise on wills, advance directives, representation agreements or any other legal instrument. Where our work touches advance care planning or funeral pre-planning, we help you think and feel your way through the questions, and we will encourage you to take the resulting decisions to a lawyer, notary, physician or funeral provider to be given legal or clinical effect.

Grief support

Grief support is non-clinical ritual accompaniment. It is not bereavement counselling, psychotherapy or crisis care, and it is not available in an emergency. If you are in crisis, in danger, or thinking of harming yourself, please contact emergency services or a crisis line rather than us. We may recommend that you work with a registered clinician alongside or instead of us, and we may end an Engagement where we believe the work you need is outside what we can safely offer.

Medical assistance in dying

Where we accompany a person or family through a MAiD process, our role is non-medical presence, ritual and support for the people involved. We take no part in assessment, eligibility determination, provision, or any clinical aspect of the process, and we do not advise on whether to proceed. Those matters rest entirely with you and your medical team.

Ceremony and celebrant work

We design, plan and lead ceremony. We do not perform legally binding marriages. We are not a marriage commissioner or a registered religious representative, and nothing we do solemnizes or registers a marriage. Where a legal marriage is wanted, it is arranged separately with a registered solemnizer, and the licence and its registration are your responsibility. You are likewise responsible for booking and paying your venue, funeral provider, photographer and other suppliers, and for any permits required.

Confidentiality

We keep what you share with us in confidence and will not identify you or your family publicly without your permission. We may describe our work in general, anonymised terms. We may need to break confidence where we believe someone is at risk of serious harm, or where the law requires it.

Materials we write for you

Ceremony scripts, readings and other materials we write for your ceremony are yours to use for it. We retain copyright in our own templates, frameworks and underlying material, and may reuse and adapt them for others.

No guaranteed outcome

We bring care and craft to the work. We cannot and do not guarantee a particular emotional outcome, a particular experience, or how anyone present will respond.

Organizations

Where an organization engages us — for workplace or hospice workshops, staff and volunteer training, speaking, a wellness plan, or consulting — the engagement is governed by the separate proposal, statement of work or service contract signed by both parties, which prevails over these Terms to the extent of any conflict.

The organization is responsible for telling participants what the session will involve, for making attendance genuinely voluntary where the subject matter is grief, death or loss, and for having its own support arrangements in place. We facilitate; we do not provide clinical support to an organization’s staff, and we do not report on individual participants. Anything a participant shares in a session stays with us.

Question 5

What applies across everything

Accepted Answer

Not medical, clinical or legal care

Everything we offer is ritual, ceremonial, educational and companioning in nature. None of it is intended, designed or implied to diagnose, prevent or treat any medical condition or mental health need, to ascertain the state of your health, or to substitute for professional medical, psychological, counselling, financial or legal care. We do not diagnose, treat or prescribe, and we do not give legal advice or prepare legal documents.

Not every practice we offer suits everyone. Rituals are invitations, not prescriptions, and you may decline any part of anything at any time. You are responsible for deciding what is right for you and for seeking professional care where you need it. We are not a crisis service and are not monitored between sessions; in an emergency, please contact emergency services or a crisis line.

Third parties

Our work involves independent venues, chefs, artists, practitioners, funeral providers, technology platforms and other suppliers. Where a third party provides accommodation, food, transport, a platform or their own goods and services, your arrangement for that element is with them. We are not liable for their acts or omissions beyond our own reasonable care in selecting them.

Our recordings and images

We may record online Gatherings and may photograph or film Retreats and other in-person gatherings, for participants’ later access and for our own promotional use. We will tell you when a session is being recorded and, wherever the format allows, give you a way to take part without appearing — keeping your camera off, sitting outside the frame, or asking not to be photographed.

By attending without raising an objection with us, you consent to being included in recordings and images, and you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to use them in connection with Be Ceremonial, without payment to you. You may withdraw that consent for future use at any time by writing to us, though we cannot recall material already published.

Your recordings

You may not record, screenshot, live-stream or otherwise capture a Gathering, Retreat or session, in whole or in part, without our written permission. This protects both our material and everyone else in the room.

Confidentiality between participants

Much of what people share in our gatherings is personal — about illness, dying, grief and family. What is said in a gathering stays in the gathering. You agree not to repeat, publish or share outside the group anything another participant shares, and not to identify another participant without their permission. This obligation continues after the gathering ends. We may remove a participant, without refund, for a serious breach.

We ask this of everyone and we take it seriously, but we cannot guarantee that another participant will keep confidence, and we are not responsible for a breach by someone other than us. Please share only what you are comfortable sharing in a group setting.

Free content

Our podcast, blog, newsletter and other freely published content is yours to read, share and quote. You may draw on it in your own teaching and practice, with credit to Be Ceremonial. You may not republish it as your own work, present it as yours, or sell it. Paid workshop and course materials are not covered by this and may not be taught from.

Testimonials

Where you give us a testimonial or review, you agree we may publish it with the name or initials you give us. Tell us at any time if you’d like it taken down.

Risk at in-person gatherings

Retreats and other in-person gatherings take place at venues that may include uneven ground, forest trails, waterfront, stairs, wood stoves, open fire and shared kitchens, and may involve walking, being outdoors in winter weather, candles, and working with materials such as clay, ink, plants or tools. You take part voluntarily and at your own risk. You are responsible for assessing what is appropriate for your own health, fitness and mobility, for following instructions given by us or the venue, and for your own medication and medical needs.

The nature of the material

Our work concerns ritual, ceremony, dying, death, loss and grief. Sessions may include material about illness, funerals and bereavement, and other participants may share their own. This can be moving, and it can be unexpectedly activating, including for people who feel prepared for it. Ritual practices — breath, silence, movement, reflection — can surface strong emotion or memory.

You are the best judge of your own readiness. By taking part you accept that you are responsible for your own emotional wellbeing during and after a gathering, for deciding what to engage with and what to decline, and for seeking professional support if you need it. Our facilitators hold the space; they are not acting as your therapist, counsellor or clinician. If you are in acute grief, in crisis, or currently under care for a mental health condition, please speak with us before registering and with your own practitioner about whether the timing is right.

Release

To the fullest extent permitted by law, and except where our own negligence causes it, you release the Be Ceremonial Entities from liability for any injury, loss, illness or distress arising from your voluntary participation in an in-person gathering or from your engagement with the material.

Question 6

The legal part

Accepted Answer

What you can buy

The Services include recurring subscriptions to the App and the Village, and one-off purchases including places in Gatherings and Retreats, one-to-one Services, gift memberships, and individual recordings and resources. The clauses below apply to all purchases; the clauses on subscriptions apply only to recurring purchases.

Currency and tax

Prices are shown in Canadian dollars or United States dollars depending on where you are and on the offering. The currency of your purchase is shown at checkout, and you pay in that currency. We are not responsible for your bank’s or card issuer’s exchange rate or foreign transaction fees. Prices are exclusive of any applicable taxes unless stated otherwise; where tax applies it is added at checkout.

Discounts, subsidies and promotional codes

We offer a member discount on certain offerings, and a limited number of subsidised places each year, available on request. Discounts and subsidies are applied by promotional code at checkout, cannot be applied retroactively to a completed purchase, and cannot be combined unless we say so. Each code has its own conditions, may be limited to one use per person or to a particular offering, and may be withdrawn or expire. A member discount applies only while your membership is active.

Gift memberships

A gift membership may be purchased for another person. The purchaser pays; the recipient redeems the gift and, on redeeming it, becomes bound by these Terms. Gift purchases are non-refundable once the gift has been sent to the recipient, except where applicable consumer protection law requires otherwise. A gift is redeemable for the period stated at purchase, does not renew automatically, and is not exchangeable for cash.

Refunds

Refund rules sit with the thing you bought, and are set out in the section covering it: Workshops, courses and gatherings; Retreats; Working with us one-to-one; and, for subscriptions, Subscriptions automatically renew below. Two rules apply to everything: a gift purchase is refundable until the gift has been sent to its recipient, and a recording or digital resource is non-refundable once access has been provided.

Nothing in these Terms limits any right you have under applicable consumer protection law, including the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (British Columbia), and where such a law gives you a right to cancel or a refund, that right prevails over anything stated here.

Fees and payment

The amounts due are presented to you before you place your order. You authorise us to pass your payment information to our payment processors, to pay the applicable fees and taxes, and to bear any charges your bank, app store or other provider levies. Your order is not binding on us until we accept and confirm it. If you have a concern about a charge, please raise it with us before disputing it with your card issuer.

Subscriptions automatically renew

Subscription amounts are due at the beginning of the subscription and at the beginning of each renewal period. Cancel before the renewal date to avoid being charged for the next period. You will not receive a refund for the period already paid, and you keep access until the end of it. Where you subscribed through an app store, cancel with that app store.

Changes to price

We may change our subscription pricing and will notify you in advance. Changes are not retroactive and apply only to renewals after they have been communicated to you.

Content and ownership

We and our licensors own the Services and our Content. You keep ownership of what you create and post. Where you make your content available to our global library, you grant us a broad licence to use it in operating and promoting the Services. We may remove or edit content at our discretion. You receive a limited, non-transferable licence to use our Content for your own permitted use and with your own clients, and may not resell it or distribute it on third-party platforms.

Conduct

You agree not to use the Services unlawfully; to interfere with or disrupt them; to scrape, harvest or copy them by automated means; to impersonate anyone; to harass other users; or to attempt to gain unauthorised access to any part of them. We may investigate and act on breaches, including by removing content or suspending accounts.

Warranties and our liability

The Services and Content are provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, and we do not warrant that they will be secure, available, error-free or uninterrupted.

In no event will we be liable for lost profits, data loss, or special, indirect, incidental, punitive or consequential damages. Our total liability to you on any claim is limited, in the aggregate, to the fees you paid us for the offering the claim arises from.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded, including rights you have under the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act (British Columbia).

Term, termination and indemnity

These Terms run from the effective date until either of us ends them. You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access at our discretion. You agree to indemnify us against claims arising from your use of the Services or your breach of these Terms. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination will survive it.

Governing law and arbitration

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Province of British Columbia. Disputes are resolved by binding individual arbitration, and you waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action — unless you opt out by writing to us within 30 days of first agreeing to these Terms. Either of us may still bring an individual claim in small claims court or seek injunctive relief to protect intellectual property. The courts of Vancouver, British Columbia have exclusive jurisdiction over those actions.

General

These Terms are the entire agreement between us. If a provision is held unenforceable, the rest stands. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them freely. Our failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it. Neither of us is liable for a failure caused by something beyond our reasonable control. No agency, partnership or employment relationship is created by these Terms.

Terms of Service

The short version

Four things that apply to all of it

Questions about these Terms