Marriage Law Reform: Why independent celebrants shouldn’t be left behind

Marriage law in England and Wales is finally being looked at properly - in all honesty, it’s about time!

As things stand, couples who choose a celebrant-led wedding still need to complete the legal part separately, at a register office before or after the ceremony they actually see as their wedding day.

Some couples find this a bit disjointed - they want a fully personalised ceremony and they don’t want to compromise that, but they’re busy and they don’t want to arrange to get legally married on another day.

The law doesn’t currently allow independent celebrants to legally marry couples in England and Wales. Your celebrant can write your ceremony, tell your story, include your children, honour your culture, reflect your beliefs, and create those moments you’ll remember forever - but they still can’t (yet!) do the legal bit.

That’s what many celebrants would like to change.

What is being proposed?

The Law Commission has recommended a major reform of wedding law in England and Wales. One of the biggest proposed changes is a move away from a system based mainly around licensed buildings and rooms, towards a system based around licensed individuals - and they specifically focus on humanist celebrants, who can currently perform legal marriages in Scotland, and some other countries.

This basically means the focus would move from where you get married, to who conducts the ceremony.

This could open the door to more flexible, personal, and meaningful legal ceremonies (woohoo). You could get married anywhere you wanted to, with the landowners permission of course, and still have a completely bespoke ceremony written for you, about you.

This is a really important step.

But there’s still a big question that remains - what about independent celebrants?

Humanist celebrants work within the Humanist belief framework - their ceremonies are non-religious, but they are still connected to a specific belief form.

Independent celebrants are different.

Independent celebrants are not tied to a religion, a belief system, or worldview. That means we can create ceremonies for couples who are religious, non-religious, spiritual, mixed-faith, multicultural, somewhere in the middle, or have no idea how to define themselves at all.

And lots of couples are exactly that.

They may not want a religious ceremony. The may not identify as humanist. They may want a ceremony that includes a little nod to faith, family traditions, their culture, and their ancestry. A ceremony that reflects all their different parts.

That’s where independent celebrants can offer something really valuable.

Why does this matter for couples?

This isn’t just about celebrants.

This is about giving couples the freedom of choice. Couples should be able to have a wedding ceremony that truly reflects them without having to split the legal part from the meaningful part.

For some couples, a register office ceremony is exactly what they want. For others a religious ceremony is perfect. For others, a humanist ceremony will be the right fit.

But there are so many couples who don’t sit neatly in any of those boxes.

They might want to blend traditions from both families. They might have different faiths. They might want something joyful, but not formal. They might want a ceremony that is warm, inclusive, and heartfelt, without being attached to one specific belief system.

The concern

The worry for many independent celebrants if that reform could go part of the way, but not far enough.

If humanist celebrants are included, but independent celebrants are not, then some couples will still be left without the kind of ceremony they actually want.

That would be a missed opportunity.

If the aim of reform is to create a fairer, simpler, and more modern wedding system, then it needs to reflect the way couples actually want to celebrate.

Not every couple is religious. Not every couple is humanist. Not every couple wants a standard civil ceremony.

Many simply want a personalised ceremony that they can make theirs.

What happens next?

The Government has said it intends to consult on the detail of wedding law reform, including the role of independent celebrants.

It is now a really important time for couples, celebrants, venues, and anyone who believes in meaningful ceremony choice to pay attention.

Because if the law changes, we need it to change properly.

What can you do?

If you believe couples should have more choice in how they marry, you can contact your local MP and ask them to support wedding law reform that includes independent celebrants.

It doesn’t need to be long or complicated.

You can simply say that you support modernising marriage law in England and Wales, and that you believe independent celebrants should be included within any new legal framework, with proper training and regulation.

Final thoughts

Marriage is personal.

It’s emotional, joyful, serious, funny, intimate, public, traditional, modern - sometimes all at once!

The law needs to protect marriage, of course it should. But it should also recognise that couples today do not all fit in to the same boxes.

If wedding law is going under reform, let’s make sure it is done in a way that is genuinely fair, inclusive, and meaningful.

Let’s not leave independent celebrants - or the couples who chose them - behind.

If you would like to find out more please visit these websites for more information:

Find your MP: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Give Couples Choice Movement: https://gccmovement.org/

Association of Independent Celebrants campaign: https://independentcelebrants.com/resources/legalising-celebrant-weddings-campaign-for-change

And of course, as always, feel free to contact me here if you have any questions.