Do you know you can set up your wedding day exactly as you want it? This is especially true in Scotland. and it applies just as much to the ceremony as it does to the reception and the entertainment.
Scotland allows complete freedom
We are very fortunate in Scotland because it is the only past of the UK where any celebrant who is authorised by the Registrar General can provide a legal wedding ceremony in any style, anywhere.
It can contain anything that you want to put into it, so long as you name one another in lasting vows. So you can express your love and commitment in any way appropriate to you, and you can include in your ceremony any music, poems, readings or prayers that express your own particular values and beliefs.
Choice of celebrant
When it comes to finding the right celebrant you have a great deal of choice. There are Registrars, Humanists, Clergy and Independent Celebrants. There are also Interfaith Ministers.
These are ordained men and women who do not belong to any particular church, but who offer ministerial services to people of any belief, whether they have a religious faith or none at all. They are ministers to all people. And they are trained in ceremony.
They do not (unlike Registrars and Humanists) have any strictures on what can be included in a ceremony, such as a prayer or a poem that mentions God, but they also do offer ceremonies that are entirely non-religious. They will work deeply with a couple to create an individual and personalised ceremony that expresses who they truly are and what they most deeply feel about each other and about their marriage
Your ceremony is at the heart of your wedding day, and your vows, the most important promises you will ever make, are at the heart of your ceremony. So it is worth giving a lot of thought to how you will make these promises, and to finding a celebrant who will design a ceremony that gives them the context they deserve, and expresses your deepest values and vision for married life together.
Making lifelong promises, whatever you believe, or don’t believe, is a sacred act. It’s worth taking a lot of time and trouble over it.
with blessings,
Judith