00:00I'm Helen Phillips. I am a humanist celebrant, including leading wedding ceremonies here in
00:07Yorkshire. So I am one of hundreds of wedding celebrants that are part of humanist ceremonies
00:15across England and Wales and also in Northern Ireland. It's a fantastic job and I just love
00:21helping couples to create something truly memorable and meaningful for their special day.
00:26Back in July, the government launched a consultation into marriage law reform and it's open until
00:32Thursday, the 24th of September. So we are now into the final few days to get those comments
00:38and insights to the government. It's very overdue, shall we say. The marriage law hasn't really been
00:47touched here in England and Wales for over a hundred years and not since Victorian times.
00:54So it hasn't necessarily kept pace with where society is currently. So it's really great to
01:04see that the government recognises that and that they are going to hopefully bring about change.
01:10Humanist wedding ceremonies have legal recognition already in Scotland. They've had that status since
01:162005. As it stands at the moment, you have to have licensed premises, but the proposals are that that
01:23would move to more of an efficient-based system. So that would mean that, say myself as a humanist
01:30celebrant, I would be able to conduct their legal marriage ceremony wherever they wish it to be.
01:38So it does open up a lot more options. It means that people can marry at home, in their gardens,
01:45in a special and significant place for them. It might be in a particular woodland, it might be on the
01:51beach, in the beer garden of their local pub or restaurant. And I have conducted ceremonies in all of
01:56those places already. The only thing is that it's then not necessarily a legal ceremony for that couple.
02:06So they have to then do the legal paperwork separately. It's an inconvenience, but it's also
02:12a point of inequality for those couples that are wanting to get married in that way. I don't see that
02:18it's going to have a detrimental impact on our existing wedding venues. It also then means that
02:26there's no ambiguity over which is the real wedding, which I think is an important point. Because for some
02:33people, they then have to choose who attends that legal ceremony. As humanist celebrants,
02:39we're really excited at the prospect of gaining legal recognition for our ceremonies and gaining
02:45that equality for couples that wish to have a ceremony that is aligned with their values, led by
02:53someone who shares those values as well. Because it is really a point of equality.
02:59Let's see.
02:59Let's see.
02:59You
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