Hey ladies,
Bit of background, the Humanist Society Scotland are able to provide celebrants that are legally allowed to perform wedding ceremonies to members in Scotland. They also offer 'fake' ceremonies to couples that have done the legal bit elsewhere. However, this is unusual in Scotland where Humanist ceremonies are legally binding (and can take place anywhere) but common in England where they are not legally binding.
Even before I got engaged, I already knew who I wanted as the celebrant of my wedding. I saw a lady called Juliet Wilson perform legal humanist ceremonies a couple of times and she was amazing! She was the poster girl for the Humanist Society Scotland, and one of their most requested celebrants. I really wanted her.
Once we picked a venue I emailed her via her website but got no reply. I tried again, then I tried to search for her through the Humanist Society website but she was gone??? I emailed them and they told me she had left the society. I was disappointed at first, but found another lady who FI and I really clicked with so we booked her.
Last night I stumbled across a newspaper article which gave the real reason she has disappeared.
Apparently, she was conducting a blessing for a couple that had been married in New York with 2 friends as witnesses. They did not want their guests and parents to know, so asked that the ceremony was as close as possible to the real thing.
On the day, they 'blindsided' her by producing a marriage licence that the groom had downloaded from the internet, and asked that she sign it. She said she was put in a very uncomfortable position. She chose to sign it, as it was obviously fake, and she did not want to ruin their day. But she made the wrong choice. She said at the time she was really nervous as the parents were very closeby, and was worried they would notice it wasn't real.
After the ceremony, rather than picking up the fake marriage licence, the couple stupidly left it in the venue, where it ended up in the Office of Registrars. The next thing that happened was that Juliet was investigated by the police for fraud, she was suspended from the society, lost her job, and her career and reputation was ruined.
Juliet said that ironically under the previous guidance from the society, she would not have been allowed to perform this 'ceremony' as the couple had requested it. The old rules were that the celebrants were not allowed to mislead the guests in any way that this was a legally binding ceremony. Then the society later changed the rules to allow blessings to appear as so they were the real thing, and said that the couple had a choice as to let their guests believe this was a real ceremony.
All I can say is, what a shit state of affairs. The next time a couple thinks that 'no harm was done' by having a fake redo, should read the articles below.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/humanist-investigated-police-after-fake-3814021#eB2hUXZJ2rxSOytH.97 http://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20140719/textview