Letter from London Wedding Celebrant Mair Garland to The Guardian: Humanist weddings are deeply personal and meaningful (02/08/2026)

As a London wedding celebrant, I was so pleased to have a letter published in The Guardian this month, highlighting the joys and benefits of a humanist wedding ceremony.

'Humanist celebrants are knowledgeable, passionate and unashamedly geeky about creating meaningful non-religious ceremonies.' Photograph: Alamo

Letter by London Wedding Celebrant Mair Garland

As a humanist celebrant, I was saddened by Rachel Connolly’s conclusion about humanist weddings (What makes a good wedding these days? I say flirting and chaos, but not three days in a French castle, 29 July). She writes: “The idea of being married in a humanist service by someone wearing, say, skinny jeans and a black T-shirt gives me willies.” I must disclose my ownership of several pairs of skinny jeans, but I have not worn these in my role as a celebrant (though never say never – I’m always guided by couples’ dress codes).

Ms Connolly seems to have the impression that a humanist ceremony represents a compromise to the formal and ceremonial rituals we’d traditionally associate with a religious wedding. On the contrary, humanist celebrants are knowledgable, passionate and unashamedly geeky about creating meaningful non-religious ceremonies that are deeply personal to couples and their families.

A non-religious ceremony needn’t be unceremonious or casual. I’d love for Ms Connolly to come to one of our weddings to see what the fuss is about, especially with the forthcoming legalisation of humanist marriage ceremonies.

Mair Garland, London

Mair Garland is an experienced humanist London wedding celebrant , leading weddings as well as baby naming ceremonies, funerals and celebration of life ceremonies in London, the South East and beyond. Mair specialises in bilingual ceremonies in Welsh and French.

This letter was originally published in The Guardian, which can be found here . You can also follow Mair on Instagram here and subscribe to her newsletter on Substack.

Garland Ceremonies Monthly Newsletter: July 2026 by Experienced Celebrant Mair Garland

My July

A summery summary for another busy month! As well as my ceremonies, I also squeezed in a couple of days in Boulogne-Sur-Mer in northern France with my family - my little boy loved the aquarium and I drove on the right side of the road for the first time with zero disasters!

Celebrating 50 Babies Named & Gorgeous July Naming Ceremonies

I was so pleased when I noticed I’ve now named more than 50 babies since starting as a naming ceremonies celebrant back in 2020. It’s been such a treat to work with all my wonderful families to welcome their new additions into the world and I can’t quite believe that some of those babies are now in school!

Celebrating 50 Babies Named This Month!

And this July was full of wholesome family moments - these included my first ever ceremony at the Horniman Museum for brothers C &C, as well as two garden ceremonies for L and T. There’s always something so meaningful about holding a baby’s naming ceremony in their first home and of course we didn’t need to be at all concerned about the rain spoiling our plans!

And next month, I’ve been promised a fire juggling guidefather at a naming ceremony - a first time for everything, I’ll try and get some photos!

If you're thinking of holding a naming ceremony for your baby or child with an experienced celebrant, please get in touch.

Baby Name Fever - and a quote in HuffPost UK!

And speaking of babies and baby names, this month the Office for National Statistics released the top 100 baby names in England and Wales for 2025. As an unashamed baby name geek, I wrote up an analysis of some of the trends I’m seeing, which you can read here.

I was also delighted to be quoted by HuffPost UK for their piece on this story too, which you can read here.

What are your favourite names from the new top 100? Personally I love the girls’ name Eliana, which is a new entry to the top 100 at number 62.

Wedding Law Reform Consultation Announced: Legal Humanist Wedding Ceremonies Are On Their Way!

Just before schools broke out for summer (and just before Burnham became PM), the Government dropped a new consultation on wedding law reform. Very excitingly, it’s supporting making humanist wedding ceremonies legal for the first time, which means couples would no longer have to have a second civil ceremony as well as well as a few other positive changes, like opening up where couples can get married.

The consultation is open until 24th September and anyone can respond to it.

And here’s my blog on this subject from a few weeks ago and a link for a blog I wrote for The Wed Collective on the key differences between celebrants and registrars is here.

Get Ahead of Being Dead Book Launch

On the funerals side, I had a great time at one of Evie King’s events for her brilliant new book, ‘Get Ahead of Being Dead’ at Poetic Endings in South-East London. If you’re thinking of writing a will or your funeral wishes and don’t know how to go about it, Evie’s book is a brilliant place to start - and unexpectedly hilarious for a book about death!

The brilliant Evie King with her new book!

And if you are thinking of talking through or formalising your own funeral wishes (and it’s never too early), I’d be more than happy to help.

Award Nominations As An Experienced Celebrant

I’ve been nominated for not one, but two awards this month - how exciting!

The Wedding Industry Awards

If I’ve married you since October last year, I’d love for you to consider voting for me. (Only recent couples are allowed to vote for nominees) My link to vote is here.

I'm in! Honoured to be considered for the 2027 Wedding Industry Awards

The Good Funeral Awards

I’m so touched to have been nominated for the Good Funeral Awards this year. Anyone who has seen me lead a funeral service or a celebration of life is eligible to submit another nomination for me, which helps strengthen my original nomination. If you’d like to nominate me, please fill out the form here.

So that was July - another gloriously sunny month of ceremonies! I’m looking forward to more garden ceremonies in August and I’ve been speaking this week with some lovely couples and families about their ceremonies in September and beyond. Is anyone else excited for autumn already?! But before that, I’m heading back to Wales for a few days for the Eisteddfod (a brilliant arts festival taking place in Pembrokeshire this year).

As ever, I’d love your feedback on the newsletter and if you’re thinking of planning a ceremony later this year (I still have some availability in November especially!) or in 2027, I’d love to hear from you.

Hwyl am y tro (bye for now!)

Mair x

Mair Garland is an experienced humanist celebrant based in London, leading weddings, baby naming ceremonies, funerals and celebration of life ceremonies in London, the South East and beyond. Mair specialises in bilingual ceremonies in Welsh and French.

This post was originally published on Substack. You can also follow Mair on Instagram here.

Big News for Couples: Humanist Weddings Could Soon Be Legal! My Take On The Latest Government Consultation As An Experienced Wedding Celebrant

You might have seen in the news last week that Government announced some potential major new changes to wedding laws in England and Wales in the near future. Spoiler alert: humanist weddings led by celebrants like me are finally set to become legal. As an experienced wedding celebrant, I thought I'd share a quick summary of the most relevant changes for couples being put forward. These include:

• Legal humanist and other celebrant-led weddings (!)

• Opening up the types of venues where couples can get married

• More inclusive legal wording for trans and non-binary couples and nearly-weds

• Using different languages in legal wedding ceremonies going forward (an important one for me as an experienced wedding celebrant specialising in bilingual ceremonies in Welsh and French)

For more detailed information, take a look at the Government consultation, which is open for responses until 24^th September 2026. The link is here.

But if you don’t fancy poring through the full 100 pages (I’ve done that for you already!) here’s a short summary of what I think are the most important changes for couples below.

As Nessa would say: "Oh! Get married your way!" Source: Ministry of Justice's Instagram Page

Will humanist wedding ceremonies become legal?

Yes. Finally! The Government recognises that the current system - where couples who want to have a humanist or another kind of celebrant to lead their wedding also have to have a separate civil ceremony with a registrar, adds extra cost and admin for couples.

Under the proposed rules, celebrants, including humanist celebrants like me, will be able to offer legal ceremonies in England and Wales for the first time. Hooray! Humanist ceremonies have been legal for several years now in Scotland and Northern Ireland and continue to be hugely popular.

This is great news and means that couples who want a celebrant-led wedding will only need to have one wedding ceremony, which will be legally binding – this will help save time, money and complexity for couples.

Humanists UK estimates that as many as 20% of couples will choose a humanist celebrant to lead their wedding once the changes come into force. More information from Humanists UK here.

That sounds amazing! When will celebrant-led weddings become legal?

Unfortunately, there’s no timescale set out in the consultation just yet and it could still be a few years away.

So, if you’re planning your wedding right now, it’s safest to assume you’ll still need a separate civil ceremony with a registrar if you’d also like a celebrant-led ceremony. If you’d like some advice on this, please get in touch.

The most basic legal ceremony with two witnesses midweek in a register office costs around £50, so it doesn’t need to cost the earth.

Where will we be able to get married in future? Could we get married at home?

One of the biggest changes announced is the intention to open up the types of venue where weddings can happen. The Government says it sees no reason why a legal wedding can’t take place on a beach, in a field, a forest or a couple’s back garden. I couldn’t agree more!

This is part of the wider proposals to move away from venue-based licences to licences being held by ‘officiants’, including humanist celebrants like me.

Again, there’s no timescale been shared to say exactly when this will happen.

The only condition is the venue must be safe for the couple and guests (so no getting married during a bungee jump or a sky dive!) and that the ceremony can happen without interruptions (so not in a stadium during a football match or a gig, for example).

Will legal wedding ceremonies be made more inclusive for trans and non-binary nearly-weds?

One really positive change from the consultation is the plan to update the words of consent (which need to be said in a legal ceremony) to include ‘spouse’ as an option as well as ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ for any partners who don’t identify with those terms:

“I [name] accept you [name] as my [husband/wife/spouse].”

What we don’t know yet, however, is whether anyone getting married will still have to use their legal name (as is the case now) as part of the changes. Many thanks to celebrant Holden So from Giddy & Gay Ceremonies for raising this crucial point on their Instagram page.

There’s also a brief reference to the ability be flexible on how the legal wording can be said in cases where either of the couple has a disability or a medical condition, where they give Tourette’s syndrome as an example.

We’d love a legal bilingual ceremony. Will this be possible under the new rules?

Yes, I think so! As an experienced wedding celebrant specialising in bilingual ceremonies in both Welsh and French, this is something I’m keeping a close eye on.

It’s worth a reminder that if you speak Welsh, you can already have a legal ceremony either fully in Welsh or a bilingual Wales/English ceremony in Wales with a registrar. Obviously in England it’s a lot harder to find a Welsh-speaking registrar, and it’s a big reason why Welsh-speaking couples in London choose me as their celebrant – so I really hope this is something I’ll be able to offer when the changes come through.

There’s not all that much detail on other languages like French in ceremonies in future, but the consultation does say the legal wording ‘could include words spoken in a language other than English or Welsh.’ This sounds positive to me, but the devil will be in the detail and I’ll be asking for more clarification when I respond to the consultation to make sure this will be possible.

So there's my take as an experienced wedding celebrant!

The main changes include:

• The legalisation of humanist and other celebrant-led weddings – finally! But with no timeline set out as to exactly when that will happen, I still recommend couples book a second civil ceremony with a registrar for now.

• Moving away from licensed venues to licensed people known as ‘officiants’ (including humanist celebrants like me!)

• A welcome move to more inclusive legal wording to include the term ‘spouse’

• The possible inclusion of other languages in legal weddings ceremonies

  
  

What do you think? Would these changes make it easier for you to have the wedding you want? If you could have your wedding anywhere you wanted, where would you have it?

As ever, if you have any questions, you’re so welcome to get in touch and more information about my wedding services is here. And for more inspiration, I'd love for you to read about three gorgeous weddings I led in June here.

Mair Garland is an experienced humanist celebrant based in London, leading weddings as well as baby naming ceremonies, funerals and celebration of life ceremonies in London, the South East and beyond. Mair specialises in bilingual ceremonies in Welsh and French.

This post was originally published on Substack. You can also follow Mair on Instagram here.