I remember that when I first spoke to Matt and Angela, they were going to marry at Edinburgh Castle, which in late January can be a cold and forbidding place, so I was very pleased when they told me they’d changed their minds and booked into Edinburgh’s most discreet private venue, One Royal Circus. A complete … Continue Reading
It’s always nice when people take the trouble to write and thank you after a ceremony, and I particularly like it when a couple creates a card using photos taken on the day. I got this last week from Jen and Ally, a lovely young couple whose wedding I celebrated at Glenbervie in early March: … Continue Reading
I just had a call from the Registrar in Duns, who was kind enough to let me know that from the 1st of April 2010, the fee charged by all the Register Offices in Scotland for doing the paperwork on your humanist wedding has risen by £2.00 per person. So from now on, expect to … Continue Reading
I’ve just had my second phone call from a couple whose wedding plans have been blown sky high by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano – thankfully in both cases, their marriage will go ahead, but there are parents and friends stranded all over the world at the moment, and lots of anxious brides to be. In the … Continue Reading
I was waiting to celebrate Lee & Kelly’s wedding at the Vu, the stunning hilltop venue just outside Bathgate, when I got talking to the very helpful young assistant, Mhairi Donald. It turned out that she’s a Business Studies student at Glasgow Caledonian University, and is working as a waitress at The Vu not just … Continue Reading
People often ask me if I know a good pianist for their wedding and until now, I had to say I didn’t. But at Sharon & David’s wedding at One Royal Circus on Saturday evening, I met Michael Kelly, aka The Wedding Pianist, who used Mike Gordon’s baby grand piano to knock out a couple … Continue Reading
Sandra Colamartino is a friend of mine who until recently edited Scottish Homes & Interiors Magazine, but after a long career as an art director on newspapers and magazines has abandoned the inky world of print to become a Chocolatier, and set up The Chocolate Library. She’s designed a whole range of wonderfully packaged chocolate bars … Continue Reading
I got a call the other day from Catherine Salmond at the Edinburgh Evening News. She was writing a story because Elizabeth Bell, the wedding co-ordinator at Houston House Hotel, had got in touch with the paper to say that 1 in 10 of their weddings this year are going to be Humanist ceremonies. So we had a chat … Continue Reading
I had a great evening yesterday at the Chaplaincy Centre of the University of Edinburgh, where the Student Humanist Association had asked me to give them a talk on Humanist Morality – a big subject, and one on which I am hardly expert – but what I said seemed to go down well enough, sparking … Continue Reading
It’s time to decide what kind of wedding ceremony you want, and who should conduct it.