{"id":145,"date":"2016-07-19T15:03:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quizzical-morning.flywheelsites.com\/blakehutchings\/?page_id=145"},"modified":"2025-06-19T12:57:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T12:57:45","slug":"the-legal-bit","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/weddings\/the-legal-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"The legal bit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Legal Bit<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For many couples, their Humanist wedding is the <em>real<\/em> wedding\u2014the moment where they speak their vows from the heart, in front of their loved ones, in a way that feels truly personal and meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>At present, Humanist marriages are legally recognised in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and in Jersey since 2023. In England and Wales, however, they are not yet legally binding, although there is strong and growing support for that to change.<\/p>\n<p>Until the law catches up, most couples in England and Wales will complete the legal formalities separately at a Register Office (usually a day or two before the Humanist ceremony). It\u2019s often a quick and simple process\u2014just a few legal words, a couple of witnesses, and you\u2019re done.<\/p>\n<p>The positive side? This frees up your Humanist ceremony to be anything you want it to be. There are no restrictions on the content, the venue, the time of day, or the way you want to celebrate. Want to say your vows in the woods at sunrise? Go for it. Fancy a lakeside ceremony, a rooftop party, or even something midair? No problem. You&#8217;re not limited to licensed venues, official scripts, or traditional formats. Your ceremony can be shaped entirely around your story and your style.<\/p>\n<p>Many Humanist celebrants (myself included) are also happy to travel abroad to conduct destination weddings\u2014just ask if you&#8217;re planning something further afield.<\/p>\n<p>Humanists UK continues to campaign for legal recognition of Humanist marriages in England and Wales. The High Court ruled in 2020 that the lack of legal recognition discriminates against non-religious people, and since then, there have been ongoing discussions with the government about reform.<\/p>\n<p>You can stay updated or support the campaign here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/humanists.uk\/campaigns\/human-rights-and-equality\/marriage-laws\/\">Why we campaign for legal Humanist marriages \u2013 Humanists UK<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the meantime, you still have full freedom to create a wedding ceremony that\u2019s everything you dreamed of\u2014legal formality or not.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Legal Bit For many couples, their Humanist wedding is the real wedding\u2014the moment where they speak their vows from the heart, in front of their loved ones, in a way that feels truly personal and meaningful. At present, Humanist marriages are legally recognised in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and in Jersey since 2023. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":275,"featured_media":0,"parent":128,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-145","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223,"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/145\/revisions\/223"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanist.org.uk\/blakehutchings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}