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.