Graphic with small illustrations on a grey background. Wedding rings, two glasses of fizz clinking, a three tiered cake, bagpipes, music note, knife and fork and envelope with wedding invite inside.

Celebrating 20 years of legal humanist weddings!

Gemma Sinclair, Ceremonies Development Officer

February 13, 2025

This year marks Humanist Society Scotland’s 20th year of conducting 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 and was personal and meaningful to them.

Humanist weddings have been legal in Scotland since 2005, and equal marriage since 2014, thanks to campaigning led by Humanist Society Scotland and other like-minded charities and organisations. It’s hard to believe that in most countries humanist marriage is still not legal – even in other parts of the UK. We are proud we were able to help make these changes happen in our own country.

Our network of over 130 celebrants continues to deliver personal humanist ceremonies across Scotland. As we celebrate this milestone and look back at what we’ve achieved, below is a short timeline, highlighting some key moments.

Illustration showing group of individuals at a garden party. There is Saltire patterned bunting above them and they all smile and dance. Some drinking fizz, wearing party hats. Streamers and balloons surround them.

1989

We have been supporting humanists since 1989. Even before humanist weddings were legal in Scotland we have been helping our community to have meaningful ceremonies that reflected their beliefs. Our celebrants started delivering ceremonies in the 1990s and we haven’t looked back since!

2005

Our campaign work paid off and humanist marriage became legal in Scotland! The changes to the law meant twelve non-religious humanist celebrants were given the same “belief” status under the marriage law as Kirk ministers or priests. During this year we delivered 82 legal humanist weddings.

2010

The popularity of humanist weddings continued to grow with people seeing how personal and special they are. From under 100 ceremonies in 2005, five years on we had delivered over 2,000 legal humanist weddings.

2014

After more hard work, collaboration and campaign work with other charities and organisations, same sex marriage became legal in Scotland! It was an honour to be able to deliver the first same sex ceremony for couple Joe and Malx, on the stroke of midnight 31st December 2014. Since then over 10,000 same sex couples have married in Scotland. It has been a privilege to help many more same sex couples celebrate their love. We remain proud supporters of equality and continue to support LGBT+ people, including through our ongoing campaign work to end conversion practices.

2017

On 14^th February 2017, Humanist Society Scotland was prescribed into marriage law. This means our celebrants are permanently authorised to conduct legal humanist wedding ceremonies. We remain the first and only belief body to have this status.

2019

Humanism continued to grow across Scotland, and humanist ceremonies grew with it. In 2019, the National Records of Scotland recorded more humanist marriages than Christian marriages in Scotland for the first time.

2022

National Records of Scotland reports that more humanist weddings were conducted in 2022 (9,140) than faith and other belief-based marriages of all kinds combined (8,072).

2025

To date, Humanist Society Scotland has delivered over 50,000 legal wedding ceremonies. Over the past 20 years we’ve married couples all over Scotland… by lochs, in gardens, living rooms, castles, hotels, beaches, garages and more. You name it, our celebrants have done it! We remain committed to delivering unique, personal ceremonies for even more couples and supporting the humanist community in Scotland.

Celebrate with us – summer ceilidh

We’re hosting a celebration ceilidh at the Assembly ROXY in Edinburgh on the weekend of World Humanist Day, Friday 20^th June 2025. This event is open to all Humanist Society Scotland members, supporters, and anyone who shares our vision and values. Join us for an evening of dancing and music from Da Hooley Ceilidh Band!

Book tickets

A man and a woman enjoy ceilidh dancing, their hands a clasped and the couple are caught mid-burl. Both smile, and a bystander claps.

Get involved

#HumanistMarriageIs20

We’ll be sharing lots more activity to celebrate our 20th anniversary throughout the year. Keep up to date by following us on our socials. Do you have any highlights you’d like to share with us? Perhaps some photos from your own Humanist Society Scotland wedding? Use the hashtag and tag us in to share what humanist marriage means to you!