A celebration of gratitude and graduation
Ella’s Graduation Celebration took place on 25th October 2025, planned for c 6/6:30 S.W.I.T (Standard Welsh Ish Time!), here at my home and micro- event venue, Cerdyn Villa. Ella’s ceremony was to be fun, relaxed and full of laughter, good food (we had Raz with his high quality street food van Grub On The Go, parked on our drive), music and absolutely no clock watching.
Ella Peel is an hugely talented, genuinely lovely, and incredibly intelligent whirlwind of a woman. Who I genuinely believe has more days in her week (by far) than the average person. Her ability to multitask, and achieve to such high standards is impressive. The ability to do all of it bi-lingually and so passionately and empathetically, make her a “Merch Ddirgel”, a Wonder Woman.
I have the incredible good fortune of having her work alongside me to manage my social media content and we’ve been doing it for a while now, it’s getting hard to say which content is me and which is her representing me. Together with her life partner Luke, they make a formidable team. They could (and probably will) change the world and it is and will be a better place for them being in it.
A private celebration of gratitude and graduation
Ella is an actor, her first language is Welsh, she’s also a councillor, firefighter, event organiser, virtual assistant and now also holds a 1st class BA Honours Degree in Arts & Humanities after 6 years with the Open University. Hence the ceremony. As an OU student you don’t get the full university experience of sharing space and social time with fellow students on your course, so whilst there was an official graduation, which was, obviously, magnificent, it didn’t allow Ella to thank her friends and community or enable her friends and community to celebrate with her.
I was both the celebrant and the venue host for the event, with her choosing the garden here at Cerdyn Villa to bring together a close-knit selection of friends and family with whom she shares a mutual love and respect. People without whom, her journey would not have been possible, and with whom her life is all the more joyous.
My hubby, John, had set up the fire pit ready for s’mores later in the evening, and strung lots (and I mean lots!) of lights. We’d put out table and seating. Then Luke and Ella arrived and decorated The Round with balloons, lanterns and more lights. I provided loads and loads of jars, hurricane lamps and candles and all the ingredients for S’mores.
As people arrived they helped with more decorations, enjoyed mulled alcohol free wine and Nonsecco.
My partner in offering micro event packages, Ann Seymour, was there to capture the event. So much laughter and gratitude was shared. The mortarboard was designed and made by Linzi who owns Bumblebees in Llandovery.
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves and hope Ella, leaves her thoughts in the comments x
