Writing to your MP to canvas their support for independent celebrants in wedding law reform can be extremely effective because:
- It signals to your MP that they have constituents/potential voters who are affected by the issue.
- It gives you the opportunity to state your case and enables your MP to advocate for you more effectively.
We suggest avoiding the use of template letters as MPs can spot these a mile off and they’re likely to go straight in the junk folder! However, this document offers a starting template for you to amend and add to.
In addition, here are our top tips for success:
- First, find your MP’s name, party and contact details here: Find your MP – MPs and Lords – UK Parliament
- This page will explain the best way to get in touch with your MP, which is usually by email. They may also offer appointment slots or drop-in surgeries where you can go and meet with them in person and put forward your case, which can be much more effective.
- When emailing/writing to your MP, ensure you include your full address, including postcode, at the top. MPs can only respond to their own constituents, so if you don’t include this your message won’t get read.
- Get straight to the point, be succinct and try to keep your letter to one and a half sides sides of A4 (or email equivalent).
- Be professional and positive, not critical. It is vital that MPs understand the unique service we offer when compared to registrars, clergy and humanists, but they will be more likely to engage if we come with a positive, collaborative outlook.
- Make it clear that this change would affect you as a working celebrant, but also all their constituents who will marry in the future.
- Have a clear ask – don’t confuse your core message by not asking for something specific or by asking for too many different things at once. In your first email, the ask could be as simple as requesting a meeting.
- If you don’t hear back from your MP within 3 weeks, follow up. Sometimes it takes more than one letter for your MP to understand the issue.
To make things easy, we’ve drafted an email below that you can use as a starting point, but please do adapt this to suit your own style, voice and views – it is vital that your MP sees the heart behind the campaign and hears about your own unique experiences.
Your name
Your address, including postcode
Your email and phone number
Date
Dear ____ MP,
I write to you as your constituent and a working independent celebrant in (county name). You may wish to add something more personal here.
As you may have heard, in October 2025 the Ministry of Justice confirmed its intention to reform the Marriage Act 1949 in line with the recommendations made by the Law Commission, with a view to undertaking a public consultation on the details in early 2026. You can read the letter here: Weddings: Letter from MoJ – Law Commission
In this letter, the MoJ confirms that marriage law will be reformed to accommodate an ‘officiant-based’ system, and that they will seek to remove the difference in the treatment of humanists as part of this. However, a key focus of the consultation will be the question of “whether independent celebrants should be allowed to conduct legally binding weddings”.
The outcome of this consultation will have an enormous effect on my livelihood and on all marrying couples within your constituency, so we very much need your support.
The current situation is that couples must complete the legal aspects of their marriage at the register office, and work separately with a celebrant such as me to create and lead a personalised ceremony. This not only adds an extra layer of cost and inconvenience to the couple, it also violates their basic right to have freedom of choice over the content of their marriage ceremony. A reformed law that includes independent celebrants would remedy this by allowing couples to combine the legal and celebratory aspects of their wedding within one bespoke ceremony.
There is already a significant number of trained, insured and accredited independent celebrants operating in England and Wales (most recent data puts this at around 3000-4000). But it should be noted that not all celebrants are the same. There is a common misconception that all celebrants are Humanist, when in fact the majority are classed as Independent. This means that we can be inclusive of all beliefs and outlooks, not just ones that fit into a designated category. It also means we can accommodate the needs of mixed-faith couples, celebrating both elements of their beliefs and cultures within their ceremony.
Independent celebrants outnumber humanist celebrants by 10:1 according to academic research conducted in 2020, and this alone demonstrates that we simply cannot be overlooked within this process.
Having worked as an independent celebrant for X years (or substitute with when you trained or how many weddings you have conducted), I know first-hand the unique value we bring to wedding ceremonies. We offer an inclusive service that no other type of officiant can match, because our couples are not required to align themselves with a specific religion or belief system in order to have a personalised, meaningful ceremony.
It is therefore vitally important that independent celebrants are included within wedding law reform, both for the sake of our livelihoods and the rights of the countless number of couples who will choose to marry in the future.
Within the Law Commission’s proposed model, we ask for the reformed law to include independent celebrants in a similar style to other major jurisdictions, such as the Channel Islands, Australia, the US and Canada. We do not want to see a repeat of what has happened in Scotland and Northern Ireland, where only humanist celebrants were included and a great many couples are still being prevented from holding a meaningful marriage ceremony.
I’m sure you will want to read more about the details and evidence behind this proposed reform, so you can read the full report or summary report of the Law Commission’s recommendations here: Weddings – Law Commission
I realise how busy you must be, but with the consultation scheduled for early 2026, time is of the essence. So I would love the chance to speak to you about the work I do as an independent celebrant and discuss ways that we can both contribute to the consultation.
I would be really grateful if you could contact me to arrange a suitable time and place for us to meet. (You may wish to change this ‘call to action’ to something else if you have already booked an appointment or plan to attend a surgery.)
Yours sincerely,
Your name and signature