We caught up with Roxy Hayde of Roxy Celebrates Love (www.roxycelebrateslove.com) over the weekend. Roxy is a certified wedding celebrant based in both Brighton and London and is accredited by Humanists UK. Specializing in Humanist weddings, Roxy facilitates non-religious ceremonies that enable couples to craft personalized wedding experiences reflective of their individual values, traditions, and personalities.
When Roxy Hayde got married, she like many, was unaware of humanist weddings. Although Roxy loved her wedding ceremony, she felt the focus was on the legal aspect of marriage rather than the personal connection between her and her husband. This experience inspired her to train as a celebrant to help give couples the freedom to create imaginative weddings.
Since starting her career, Roxy has delivered weddings from East Sussex to Las Vegas and has incorporated memorable rituals such as ring warming and shots before walking down the aisle! In a recent interview, Roxy Hayde discussed the process of celebrant weddings.
How did you fall into celebrant weddings?
“At the start of COVID lockdown, when all of my work had stopped, I thought, maybe this is the window for me to train finally. So, I did the training via Humanist’s UK, which, luckily, had moved online, and then I launched this business, which coincided with a time when loads of people’s weddings were postponed due to COVID. Or they’d had to compromise, and they got married with like ten people in a room socially distanced, and decided they wanted a second celebration.”
How many years have you been a humanist celebrant?
“Since 2021. I’ve had a lot of traction from day one, and I’ve married well over a hundred couples and been a part of some amazing weddings. I’ve been all over the world marrying people and have done weddings in places like Ibiza, the south of France, and Lake Como. I’ve been involved in some really quirky, cool, and interesting weddings, which has been brilliant.”
How do you get the business?
“My Instagram is quite popular; I get a lot of traction through that. If not that, then people find me online. And I am a preferred supplier at quite a few different wedding venues, so people find me via that route as well. Their venue might recommend me because I’ve worked with other couples with them. Or other wedding suppliers will see me in action and recommend me to their couples.”
What are the differences between a traditional wedding and a humanist wedding?
“You have three standard ways of getting married in England currently. It’s either in the church or in a registry office. The latter is very formulaic, and the registrar has to say the same words in every ceremony. There is very little personalisation there. Celebrant weddings are the unique third way. The ceremony is all about the couple, their story together, who they are as people, how they met, and what they love about each other. I tell the story of them in the ceremony. It’s fun and engaging, and they get to include all their friends and family. So many people leave and go, ‘Oh my god, I want that’ or ‘Wow, that was the best ceremony’ because it’s so unique.”
You get to know the couple beforehand. What’s that process like?
“Before we arranged to work together, I’ll do a chemistry call with them to see if we get on. They are entrusting me to tell their story, so, there has to be a good vibe. If that goes well, I’ll send them a questionnaire to get them thinking in these terms. Then we’ll have a planning meeting together, which is a couple of hours of me grilling them, asking them all about each other, their relationship, what they mean to each other, and getting lots of anecdotes and stories from throughout their relationship. Then I go away and write them a totally bespoke wedding script. The great thing about humanist ceremonies is that you can include whatever you want.”
What’s the legal process of humanist celebrant ceremonies like?
“Currently, you have to do the legal bit separately at the registry office. Humanist weddings have been legally recognised in Scotland and Northern Ireland for years. It’s gone to the High Court in the UK, and the law is changing in England and Wales so that humanist weddings will be legally recognised, hopefully sometime in the coming few years. But who knows, I think the Tory government have probably got bigger fish to fry at the moment than marriage reform!” Interview done with Nick Staunton- Edited by Nadia Abbas
R O X Y H A Y D E
@roxycelebrateslove
Humanists UK Accredited Celebrant –
