Marilyn Jackson - Humanist Celebrant

08/07/2025

It's a wonderful time of year for a naming ceremony!☀️

Celebrate a child joining your family in a way that’s full of love, laughter, and meaning with a naming ceremony led by a highly trained humanist celebrant. 💛

A delightful, non-religious way to gather your community together, a humanist naming ceremony allows you to share your hopes and dreams for your child’s future, and officially introduce them to your family and friends.

There can be personal promises to the child, funny stories, happy tears, and it can then be followed by a party!🍓

06/07/2025

Two firsts yesterday – my first ceremony at The Old Dr Bells Baths (super venue) and my first Civil Partnership …. Sara and Tommaso met in 2018 while studying at Pisa University and have now made their home in Edinburgh, bringing family and friends from Spain, France, Austria and Luxembourg together to celebrate with a very personal and unique ceremony.

They lit two candles to symbolise their separate lives before their formal union as a couple, also representing the light they have brought into each other’s lives; the reading was an extract from “The Beatrice Letters” by Lemony Snicket, which Sara believed, as a bookish 10-year-old to be the most romantic declaration of love ever written; they exchanged very special family rings; and made their vows in a handfasting of tartan ribbons.

Here is the reading, which I adore and hope another couple asks me to read!

I will love you no matter how many mistakes I make when trying to reduce fractions, and no matter how difficult it is to memorize the periodic table (…). I will love you as the pesto loves the fetuccini and as the horseradish loves the miyagi, as the tempura loves the ikura and the pepperoni loves the pizza(...) I will love you as the doctor loves his sickest patient and a lake loves its thirstiest swimmer. I will love you as a child loves to overhear the conversations of its parents. I will love you as a taxi loves the muddy splash of a puddle and as a library loves the patient tick of a clock. I will love you as a drawer loves a secret compartment, and as a secret compartment loves a secret, and as a secret loves to make a person gasp, and as a gasping person loves a glass of brandy to calm their nerves, and as a glass of brandy loves to shatter on the floor, and as the noise of glass shattering loves to make someone else gasp, and as someone else gasping loves a nearby desk to lean against, even if leaning against it presses a lever that loves to open a drawer and reveal a secret compartment. I will love you until all such compartments are discovered and opened, and until all the secrets have gone gasping into the world. I will love you until all the codes and hearts have been broken and until every anagram and egg has been unscrambled. I will love you until every fire is extinguished and until every home is rebuilt form the handsomest and most susceptible of woods(...) I will love you as we grow older, which has just happened, and has happened again, and will continue to happen as the spinning hands of every clock and the flipping pages of every calendar mark the passage of time, except for the clocks that people have forgotten to wind and the calendars that people have forgotten to place in a highly visible area. That is how I will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way.

And here is to your happy ever after, Sara and Tomasso!

Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies
The Old Dr Bells Baths

22/06/2025

It all began with a swipe right on Tinder. Gabrielle and Mark met in London in 2015 and over the next seven tears built their lives together. Early on in their relationship they discovered they shared a big dream: living in Australia – and in 2022 they moved to Melbourne. They have travelled more widely than any other couple I’ve met and came to Edinburgh to marry yesterday, at the Cheval Grand.
Readings were one written and read by Groomsman Fraser and “An Incomplete List of Relationship Goals” by Molly Burford chosen and read by Maid of Honour Mhairi. Gabrielle and Mark made their legal declarations in a handfasting of yellow and lilac ribbons and ended the ceremony by drinking from a quaich to symbolise their commitment to share all that the future may bring.
Warmest wishes to Gabrielle and Mark - enjoy your fabulous honeymoon and live happily ever after!

Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies
Cheval The Edinburgh Grand

18/06/2025

14/06/2025

It rained almost non-stop today, but fortunately there was enough of a gap between showers for Fernanda and Gary to have photos taken in the small garden opposite their venue, Orocco Pier (one of my favourite venues)
It was not a legal marriage, as they had eloped to Copenhagen in early 2019, but a renewal of vows in front of their family and friends – many of whom had travelled a long way to join them, from Spain, Germany and Brazil.
A quote from Fernanda’s favourite author, Jane Austen, reflected their romantic story – this was spoken by the character Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility: “It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy; it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.”
The rings were delivered by their wee dog Ted; they had a handfasting with beautiful cords made by Fernanda; and they drank from a quaich to symbolise the life they will continue to share together.
Piper Steven played outside to welcome guests, piped Fernanda and her father down the aisle and the happy couple back up.
To Fernanda and Gary, five years married already, may you have many many more happy years together!

Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies
Orocco Pier - South Queensferry
Scotia Pipers & Discos

14/06/2025

Humanists UK’s Chief Executive Andrew Copson has been awarded an OBE for ‘services to the non-religious’ in the UK national honours announced today. This is the first time an award has been made for services to the non-religious, who now represent a majority of the UK’s population. Andrew Co...

12/06/2025

We are delighted that humanist MSP Elena Whitham has lodged a motion at Holyrood recognising 20 years of legal humanist weddings in Scotland!

Since 2005 our celebrants have delivered over 50,000 legal humanist wedding ceremonies. That’s over 100,000 people who have been able to marry in a way that reflects their love, beliefs and values.

Elena's motion proposes:

“That the Parliament marks 20 years of legal humanist marriage in Scotland…recognises that Humanist Society Scotland has over 18,000 active members, and that, since legal recognition, its 133 celebrants have married over 100,000 people in Scotland, including some of the first same-sex civil partnerships and marriages; commends what it sees as the valuable contribution made by Humanist Society Scotland celebrants in delivering personalised and meaningful ceremonies in line with couples’ values and beliefs…”

Read more on our website under "latest news"

Find out more about our campaigns work over at Humanist Society Scotland

📸 Our celebrant Ross the Humanist on his own wedding day with husband Efrain. Taken by the wonderful Jo + Liam

28/05/2025

How lovely! One of my weddings from last year, Naomi and Daniel, has been featured in We Fell in Love! Here is the link:
https://www.wefellinlove.co.uk/2025/05/summerhall-wedding-edinburgh/

Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies

Naomi + Daniel's elegant Summerhall wedding in Edinburgh was a chic city affair full of colour!

25/05/2025

Although rain threatened, it stayed sunny for Mary and Stephen at Borthwick Castle yesterday.
Their parents lit red and white candles, for Lancashire and Yorkshire, and Mary and Stephen lit a pink one to represent their union, lovely symbolism! The readings were “The Ent and the Ent Wife” by J.R. Tolkien and “Wild Awake” by Hilary T. Smith and they exchanged their promises in a handfasting. Music was mostly played by Claire Love – Abba’s “Dancing Queen” for Mary’s entrance and Bonnie Tyler’s “Turnaround” for signing the marriage schedule – and the newlywed Goodmans exited to George Harrison’s “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You”.

Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies
Borthwick Castle
Insta - Cellobylove

19/05/2025

It was a real pleasure to marry Deidre and Dougie yesterday at the SNP Club Rooms in Edinburgh. They met way back just after new year 1996, so were able have their daughters as their witnesses!
Dougie’s mother read an extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernièrs; they exchanged their vows in a handfasting of two tartans; and shared their first drink as a married couple from a treasured quaich.
Most of the music was on the clarsach from Rosaidh, daughter of a family friend, with the entrance music being their special song “You Belong to Me”.
Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies
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12/05/2025

A gorgeous day for a gorgeous couple - at the stunning Drumtochty Castle on Saturday for the wedding of Hannah and Richard. I was relieved their ceremony was indoors otherwise everyone would have been in sunglasses, but the weather was perfect for champagne and canapes outside afterwards.
The readings were - an extract from “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish” by Douglas Adams, read by Richard’s mother Fiona; the poem “You are the bubbles” by Rachel Bright, read by Hannah’s mother Claire; and “Let there be spaces in your togetherness” by Kahlil Gibran, read by Hannah’s grandfather Barrie.
Hannah and Richard made their legal declarations and promises to each other in a handfasting (with yellow honeycomb and Murray tartan ribbons) and celebrated their nuptials by sharing a drink from their quaich, the Scottish loving cup, which had a wee bee engraved inside!
Among the guests were Nicola and Alistair who I married in July 2018, with their delightful 5 month old daughter, lovely to see them again!
Society Scotland Ceremonies
Castle

01/03/2025

A pleasant afternoon at the beautiful Melville Castle with David Niven, meeting some nice wedding couples .... and the Castle looked after us well with coffee, delicious canapes (especially my favourite, haggis bon bons!) and a sparkling elderflower drink (as we were driving!)
David The Humanist Celebrant
Melville Castle Hotel
Humanist Society Scotland Ceremonies