Not only did William and Salma write their own ceremony, they’ve written this post too! I hope it touches your heart, as it does mine.

We first witnessed Tim as a marriage celebrant at the wedding of Salma’s cousin Anisa to her now husband Antonio.

We remember looking at each other during that ceremony and thinking we were witnessing something very beautiful, unique and memorable. Once engaged, we knew we wanted to reach out to Tim to see if we could create a ceremony that captured similar emotions that we had felt on that day. We were delighted he agreed to work with us for our wedding day! 

Will and I met in December 2016 and got engaged in October 2022 at sunset on Guincho Beach, Portugal. During this time, we have navigated a period of long distance and a global pandemic! Importantly, we have developed a relationship that is full of love, joy, adventure and authenticity. We wanted our ceremony to reflect this.

From the start of our work together with Tim, he got us to think about why we wanted to get married, what marriage meant for the both of us and importantly why we fell in love with each other. This became our LoveWork! We have very fond memories of this process, reflecting on our story so far. 

We spent a night at our favourite Italian restaurant (Eusebi’s) in Glasgow sharing our thoughts with each other. We had the perfect mix of tears and laughter over very delicious pasta!

Our Love Work was a highlight of our wedding planning journey and a welcome respite from the to do list!

We chose to marry at Dumfries House in Cumnock as it is close to where Will grew up. He has many memories of cycling in the grounds. The estate has a fascinating history of being rescued from closure by the now King Charles III. It sits at the heart of the local community.  Will and I have had many walks in the beautiful grounds and have created our own memories there before knowing it would become our wedding venue. 

We invited two close friends to share readings we had chosen.  Salma’s best friend Lindsay played the piano pre-ceremony. She also did the honour of playing as Salma walked down the aisle. Lindsay also kindly learnt piano versions of our favourite songs to play to the guests beforehand. We wanted to create a “name that tune” experience as people settled into their seats ahead of the ceremony itself! Hopefully the guests enjoyed the sounds of Bruce Springsteen and Backstreet Boys! 

We also wrote our own declarations to each other. It felt such a powerful moment to read these out loud to each other, surrounded by our friends and family.  It symbolised how far we had come in our journey and that we were ready to embark on our next chapter as husband and wife. 

Throughout our relationship we have created our own way of navigating love and life.  Our ceremony was just as unique as that and we feel really proud of what we wrote and shared on our wedding day.

So many people have commented on our ceremony, saying it was beautiful, touching and it really represented who we are as a couple. We achieved what we set our to do and feel very grateful for Tim’s guidance along the way. 

The promise of a humanist wedding is that it allows you to create meaning.

I knew from the moment I met them that Salma & Will would do that beautifully.

I’d never been to Dumfries House before, and the Tapestry Room is stunning, as you can see from these gorgeously atmospheric photos taken by Bartosz Madejski, AKA Weddings by Bart

Thank you so much for writing this post, Salma and Will. I hope you continue to enjoy navigating love and life together – don’t lose touch!