For most of us, if standing up in public is terrifying and speaking in public is worse, then telling the most important person in your life how much you love them in front of an audience composed of your nearest and dearest is unthinkable. So – given that’s what a humanist wedding in Scotland is … Continue Reading
Author Archives
Tim Maguire
Wedding Music – a new idea
Next month (May, 2008) I’m going to be marrying a lovely young couple called Robbie and Vicky at Dunblane Hydro. One of the things I’m most looking forward to is watching Vicky come down the aisle to the song she has written and recorded for the ceremony. It’s called ‘Sweet Blessings’ and you can listen … Continue Reading
Seeing someone else on the side…
Couples sometimes feel bad about approaching more than one celebrant before they decide who they want to work with. I recommend that you speak to more than one of us. OK, you can read our profiles on the web site, but until you meet someone, you don’t really have a sense of who they are. … Continue Reading

Photographers
choosing the right photographer for your wedding is important
Dotting the “i”s…
One of the great joys of being a celebrant is that we deal with the fun bits of the wedding – meeting the couple, creating and delivering the ceremony – and the Registrars do all the painstaking (but crucial) investigative work behind the scenes – checking you really are who you say you are; checking … Continue Reading
Nae fuss please, we’re Scottish
As P.G. Wodehouse once observed, “it’s never hard to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine” and it’s true that there are no words in English (or Scots) for “joie de vivre”. I quite often meet couples who say they really don’t want “a lot of flowery, romantic guff” in … Continue Reading

Are we allowed to sing?
My advice is to find a song that’s not too complicated, so everyone can join in

Let’s begin at the beginning
Weddings always begin with the entrance of the bride. Well yes, up to a point, Lord Copper. That’s usually the case, but it really doesn’t have to be like that. Many of the women I marry have successful careers, earn more than their partners and live independent lives full of achievement and purpose. How many … Continue Reading
My parents are very religious, I don’t want to upset them…
Humanist ceremonies are non-religious, not anti-religious. Humanism is about the things that unite people, rather divide them, and the most important of these is love, so it’s difficult for even the most intolerant person to take offense. I often say that “although this ceremony is non-religious, it will be entirely legal, mostly civil (slight pause … Continue Reading

Order, Order!
The most important thing to remember about your humanist ceremony is that it should be exactly the way you want it. So if you’re totally chilled and like whatever, man, you probably won’t want an Order of Ceremony. On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who sets goals and can recite most … Continue Reading