Privacy Policy

Eternal Words is an independent celebrancy practice owned and operated by Jodie Birch as a sole trader (referred to in this policy as “Eternal Words”, “we”, “us” or “our”). For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, Jodie Birch is the data controller of any personal information you share with us.

You can contact us at any time about this policy or your personal data at hello@eternalwordsbyjodie.co.uk.

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect and process the following categories of personal data:

• Enquiry details — your name, email address, telephone number (if provided), the date and location of your ceremony, and any information you share in the message field of our contact form or by email, phone or messaging apps.
• Ceremony details — once you book, we may collect further personal information necessary to write your ceremony. For weddings this typically includes names, family relationships, personal stories and readings. For funerals this may include information about the person who has died, their family, their life story, tributes, and (where relevant) sensitive information about health, beliefs or relationships shared by you or your family.
• Correspondence — records of emails, messages and notes from planning conversations and meetings.
• Payment records — invoices, payment references and the fact that payment has been received. Card details are handled by our payment providers and are never stored by us.
• Website data — limited technical information collected automatically when you visit this site (see our Cookie Policy).

Some of the information shared for funeral, vigil or legacy ceremonies may be treated as “special category” data under UK GDPR (for example, information about health, religion or sexuality). We only process this information where it is necessary to prepare your ceremony and where you have provided it to us for that purpose.

We only use your personal data where we have a lawful basis to do so under UK GDPR:

• To respond to your enquiry and discuss whether we are the right celebrant for you — on the basis of taking steps at your request prior to entering a contract.
• To plan, write and deliver your ceremony, and to invoice for our services — on the basis of the contract between us.
• To meet our legal obligations, including keeping accounting records — on the basis of legal obligation.
• To improve our service, keep secure business records and, where relevant, share anonymised reflections in blog posts or on social media — on the basis of our legitimate interests, always balanced against your rights.
• To share your testimonial, photograph or story publicly — only ever with your explicit consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

Eternal Words is a small independent practice. We do not sell, rent or trade your personal information. We only share personal data where it is necessary to deliver our service or to meet a legal obligation, including with:

• Funeral directors, wedding venues, planners and other professionals working with you on your ceremony, where you have asked us to liaise with them.
• Trusted service providers who help us run our business, including our email provider, website host, form and analytics providers, cloud storage, accounting software and payment providers. These providers act as data processors and are contractually required to keep your information secure.
• HMRC, our accountants and other regulators or advisors where we are legally required to do so.
• Law enforcement or other authorities where we are compelled to disclose information by law.

Some of our service providers (for example, email and cloud storage) may process data outside the United Kingdom. Where they do, we rely on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or an adequacy decision, to ensure your information receives an equivalent level of protection.

We keep personal data only for as long as we need it:

• Enquiries that do not lead to a booking — deleted within 12 months.
• Ceremony files (scripts, notes, correspondence) — kept for up to 7 years after your ceremony so we can support you with copies, anniversaries and future ceremonies, then securely deleted.
• Accounting and tax records — kept for 7 years to comply with HMRC requirements.
• Testimonials and marketing content — kept until you ask us to remove them.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you (a subject access request).
• Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
• Ask us to erase your information, where there is no good reason for us to continue holding it.
• Ask us to restrict or object to how we use your information.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we have relied on consent (for example, to share a testimonial).
• Ask for your information to be transferred to another service in a structured format.

To exercise any of these rights, please email hello@eternalwordsbyjodie.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

We take the security of your information seriously. We use reputable providers, strong passwords, two-factor authentication where available, encrypted devices and secure cloud storage. Access to your information is limited to Jodie Birch and, where necessary, trusted professional advisors who are bound by confidentiality.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, we would ask you to contact us first so we can try to put things right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practice or the law. The current version will always be published on this page, together with the date it was last updated.