I just had a call from a fellow Edinburgh based celebrant, Duncan Robertson that raised an interesting question: what do you do when you’re asked to perform a wedding for a couple where both parties speak different first languages, and neither of them are English? As Humanist weddings in Scotland become ever more popular, more and … Continue Reading
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Where can we get married 2
One of the nicest things about being a humanist celebrant is that every so often someone invites you to a dream location to conduct their wedding. It’s just happened to me – a summer wedding in a picturesque village in the French Alps. I’d love to do it, and the date is open in my … Continue Reading
Do we have to write the ceremony ourselves?
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
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
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