Your Wedding Your Way

In what often feels like a fast pace of life so many of us find a sense of peace and well being when in nature.  No surprise then that many couples choose to marry outdoors here in Scotland, and we’re happy to officiate come rain or shine, and have ideas for beautiful outdoor places, or are happy to travel to the special location you have chosen.  We’re also happy to hike as needed!

What does having a personal ceremony mean to you? Is it hearing your story told back to you?  Is it exchanging personal vows?  Is it the freedom to include the ritual and readings you like?  Whatever it means to you, you are free to include whatever you wish – we’ve not yet had to say no to including something we don’t feel comfortable with.

We very much take our lead from you as to how much or little religious content you would like in your ceremony - if any. You can choose to have a less religious and more personal ceremony, either with just a nod to a particular tradition, or have your ceremony completely centred around a particular tradition.

One of the most popular requests we have is for a handfasting ceremony.  This can be held indoors or outdoors, with or without guests, and can simply be a hand tying ritual included in a personal ceremony, or it can be a full blown Pagan handfasting with several rituals including sharing food and drink, jumping the broom, and specific wording to acknowledge you as man/woman, honour you as lord/lady, and draw down the god and the goddess.

Humanist ceremonies are person centred and all about you.  When the Humanist Society of Scotland began offering celebrant led ceremonies, you were not permitted to include anything in your ceremony that could be classed as religious or spiritual.  These days there are several break away humanist belief groups who are more flexible, which is great, but possibly confusing at the same time as to what it means to have a humanist ceremony. However you define humanist we are very happy to hold your ceremony for you.

Many couples feel a belief or connection with something, but find it difficult or unnecessary to put this into words.  Some couples live their lives inspired by a particular spiritual teacher or guru – for example Sai Baba, Neale Donald Walsch, Eckhart Tolle.  Whatever they are we can explore your beliefs and how they can be woven in to your ceremony for you.

If you and your partner have differing beliefs, we can find the best way for you both to feel comfortable with the wording and content of your ceremony.  To re-assure you, wherever you differ in how you each connect to your faith, or maybe one of you has a faith and the other doesn't, you are joined by your love for each other so we can embrace and honour your differences by focussing on that.

We have held many ceremonies in church over the years, mostly in privately owned churches, and we can supply you with a list of churches, both large and small, so that if you have your hearts set on marrying in church, but would find the liturgy of a traditional church wedding service limiting, we can hold a personal service for you and within that you can choose to include any aspects of a traditional service you like.

You can choose to have a religious ceremony outside of church ie in a hotel, hall or castle - anywhere really, indoors or outdoors.  If you would like your ceremony to centre around religious belief we are very happy to work with you to create that – we welcome your thoughts and ideas and it would bring us great pleasure to help you have the ceremony that feels authentic for you.

Your ceremony can be whatever you wish it to be. If you feel you don’t fit into any particular mould, we’re here for you – we don’t do ‘one size fits all’ as you are unique!  We would explore what ‘alternative’ means for you – perhaps it’s the content? Perhaps it’s the location? Perhaps it’s everything about your day?  There are no limits!  (Or certainly we have yet to be asked to include something we’ve felt the need to say no to!).

Perhaps you already have a family, and would like your children to be involved in the ceremony?  Ritual is a nice way of doing this – with any adult help and supervision if the children are very small.  Or maybe one or both of you have children from a previous relationship and it feels important to include them and to acknowledge the new family unit that is coming into being – there are lots of ways to do this that we can explore.

What does being ‘green’ mean to you?  Is it simply to hold your ceremony outdoors in nature? Or do you have strongly held views about global warming and the environment?  We look forward to sharing ideas about going green for your wedding ceremony.

Spring time is a lovely time to get married, and a lovely time to bless and officially welcome your baby.  Just as we celebrate the start of the new year, we celebrate the start of a new era in your relationship, and the start of a new life – a new life born from your love.  Check out the packages page to find out more.