Picture the scene: a couple exchanging vows on a canal boat, the vicar looking faintly seasick, while somewhere in the background a humanist celebrant wonders why it took the state this long to notice they exist. That slightly absurd vision edges closer to reality this week as the Ministry of Justice publishes its consultation paper Tying the Knot, an attempt to drag weddings law in England and Wales out of the 19th century without quite setting fire to the institution in the process.
The core idea is simple enough on paper. Instead of obsessing over whether the building has been properly registered, the law would train its gaze on the officiant. Get the right person in charge and suddenly pubs, beaches, forests, castles and cruise ships become fair game, provided everyone behaves with a modicum of dignity and the fire exits are up to scratch. Humanist weddings would at last gain legal standing, a concession that feels both overdue and faintly comical given how long non-religious Britons have been pretending the registry office counts as meaningful ritual.
Of course the proposals come wrapped in the usual bureaucratic reassurances. There will be a modernised two-stage preliminaries process, mixing online convenience with in-person checks, all designed to make it harder for predators, forced-marriage merchants and sham operators to ply their trade. Because while loosening the location rules might sound like harmless fun, marriage remains the quiet engine of stable families and, by extension, a halfway coherent society. Mess that up and you are not merely updating administrative forms; you are fiddling with the foundations.
The current framework, stitched together in the 18th and 19th centuries, has been politely called inconsistent, complicated, inefficient, unfair and needlessly restrictive by the Law Commission back in 2022. That is civil-service speak for a right old mess. The government signalled its willingness to reform the system in October 2025, following those recommendations, with the notable exception of leaving Anglican weddings in their own lane. Sensible enough. Some traditions have earned the right not to be treated as just another option on the menu.
Protecting the vulnerable first
What matters most in all this is the insistence on proper safeguards. The consultation explicitly welcomes views from religious bodies, charities supporting victims, and anyone who understands that marriage is not a lifestyle accessory but a public commitment with private consequences. Strengthening the checks against forced marriages especially feels like the non-negotiable bit. You can have your beach wedding, but only if the state has done its due diligence to ensure no one is being marched down the aisle against their will.
The impact assessment attached to the document floats the idea that these changes could boost the number of weddings by around 3 per cent, adding roughly 6,700 ceremonies a year to the 2023 baseline. The weddings industry, apparently worth £14 billion, will no doubt be delighted. Yet one cannot help noticing the slight whiff of treating marriage as an economic lever rather than a social good. Numbers are nice. Continuity of culture and the quiet transmission of values through intact families are nicer still.
