Hi, I'm Laura - Wedding Celebrant in Moray & the Scottish Highlands

I've been a celebrant since 2012, and I can honestly say I still love it. I have conducted thousands of ceremonies over the years, met an extraordinary mix of people and heard more stories than I could ever count - and no two ceremonies have ever been quite the same.

I’m naturally quite relaxed, I love a good blether and I’m not terribly fond of unnecessary formality. I want couples to feel comfortable with me, because if I’m going to stand beside you while you get married, I think it helps if I feel like someone you can actually get on with and have a laugh with, rather than a stranger who has just turned up to read a standard script.

Before becoming a celebrant, I spent ten years as a funeral director. It might seem a slightly unusual route into weddings, but it taught me an enormous amount about people, families and the importance of getting the words right when something really matters.

These days I’m based just outside Elgin in Moray and conduct legal weddings and civil partnerships with Open Beliefs Scotland across Moray, Speyside, the Highlands, Aberdeenshire and throughout Scotland.

A wee bit about me

At home, I live just outside Elgin in the Moray countryside with my family and our collection of dogs, cats, chickens and goldfish. I love animals, cups of tea, biscuits and a bit of peace and quiet, although the last one is fairly ambitious in our house.

When I’m not marrying people, I’m usually at home with the family and animals, working on ceremonies, drinking tea or coming up with another project that seemed like an excellent idea at the time.

I love to laugh and I’m very rarely serious for longer than absolutely necessary. I’m chatty, down to earth and I’ve got a pretty good sense of humour – but there’s one thing I’m quite firm about when it comes to weddings.

Your ceremony isn’t about me.

I’m not there to put on a show, compete for attention or see how many laughs I can get from your guests. There can absolutely be humour – and usually plenty of it – but it should come naturally from you, your story and whatever happens on the day. I don’t arrive armed with the same jokes and one-liners to roll out at every wedding.

I want your guests to laugh because something is genuinely funny, cry because something has caught them unexpectedly, and come away feeling as though what they’ve just watched could only have belonged to the two of you.

That doesn’t mean things have to be terribly serious. Quite the opposite. Children wander about. Dogs bark at exactly the wrong moment. Rings temporarily disappear. The Scottish weather does whatever it likes. Someone says something they didn’t mean to say and everybody loses it. That’s all part of it.

You don’t need me to be the star of your wedding. That’s your job. Mine is to make sure your ceremony sounds like you, runs as it should and that you actually enjoy it.

So what can we actually do?

Apart from the legal bits – and I’ll make sure those are exactly where they need to be – there really isn’t a rule book for the rest of your ceremony.

You might want it short and simple, or you might want to tell your whole story. You can write your own vows, say absolutely nothing you haven’t already seen, involve your children, bring the dog, have a handfasting, share a quaich, include a prayer or reading, remember someone who should have been there, or do none of those things at all.

I’m agnostic and an open-belief celebrant, which simply means your beliefs are the ones that matter in your ceremony, not mine. Religious, non-religious, somewhere in between or not something you’ve ever particularly thought about – that’s absolutely fine with me.

I’m legally authorised with Open Beliefs Scotland to conduct marriages and civil partnerships anywhere in Scotland, so I can do the legal bit too. You don’t need to nip off to the registrar beforehand and then pretend the next bit is the real wedding.

We’ll work out what feels right for the two of you and leave out anything that doesn’t. It really can be as simple as that.

If you think I might be your kind of celebrant, come and have a chat.

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