Born and brought up in Ayrshire, just a few miles from where Robert (Rabbie) Burns himself was born, I became a fan of his poetry from an early age, and can vividly remember as a wee girl, being taken to visit the Brig O Doon in Alloway… the setting for the poem Tam O’Shanter, where my dad would sit us down on the bridge and animatedly recite the story of Tam as he tried to flee the witches and warlocks in “Alloway’s Old Haunted Kirk”. And then he would tell us that if we closed our eyes and listened carefully, we might be able to hear the ghost of Tam’s horse Meg, galloping over the cobbled stones as she and Tam tried to escape capture. Of course, I was convinced I heard them every time! These early stories inspired a fascination with his poems, which led to me competing in various Burns contests and becoming Ayrshire Junior Burns Poetry Champion 3 years in a row.
In 1992, after having my two children, I joined the Scottish Ambulance Service, where I worked my way up from Care Assistant to Ambulance Technician, to Paramedic, until in 1999 I became Scotland’s first female Helicopter medic. In 2004, I left the Ambulance Service for pastures new, and after completing a 4 year Psychology degree at the University of Glasgow, followed by a Postgraduate qualification in Mental Health Recovery, I began my Coaching & Professional Speaking business.
In 2015, while working as a lecturer in Edinburgh, I was asked by friends to conduct their beautiful forest wedding in Dumfries & Galloway and it was such a wonderful experience that I made the decision to retrain and become a full-time Celebrant, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I absolutely love it! And as they say in Scotland… “You can take the lassie out of Ayrshire but you can’t take Ayrshire out of the lassie” and so as you might have noticed, there’s a wee bit of Scottishness running through my work!
In late 2017, I began a 2-year spiritual training programme with the Interfaith Foundation, and in July 2019, I was ordained as an Interfaith Minister, which might sound a bit pious, but it’s not meant to be. To “minister” just means “to serve”, and as an Interfaith Minister I conduct ceremonies for people of all faiths and none. But what do I believe? First, let me tell you what I DON’T believe. I don’t believe in a God who has form. I don’t believe in a God who sits on a cloud taking notes for later. I don’t believe in a God who wilfully allows people to suffer. I don’t believe in a God who tells people it’s wrong to fall in love with someone of the same gender. I don’t believe in literal resurrections or virgin births. I don’t believe in the eternal fires of hell. I don’t believe any of the holy scriptures are divine. I don’t believe ministers (or any other type of clergy) are able to have any more of a direct relationship with God than any other person. In short, I don’t
believe in any of the man-made ideas of God that have been the cause of so much
pain and suffering in the world.
But I do believe in magic & mystery. I believe in parking angels and faeries, witches and wizards, and I definitely believe in UFOs and Jedi Knights! I believe in something beyond this world that we don’t have words for… a feeling of something bigger than us that we just can’t explain. A presence that exists within and around us that we don’t have the language to describe, but that pulls us in and allows us to see the world, and humanity at its very best. If you want to call it God, I’m absolutely okay with that. But I’m also okay if you call it Love, Spirit, the Diving, the Universe, Mother Earth, the Sacred, or if you’re a Star Wars fan, The Force.
I also believe that promising your life to another is a sacred commitment between two people and that they should be allowed to enter into this commitment in the presence of God, Grace, Peace, Love or whatever word a couple wants to give to the idea that they are being witnessed by a higher power when exchanging their vows with each other. More than anything in this world, I believe in Love.
When I’m not ministering, I enjoy spending time in the beautiful village of Abernethy in Perthshire, and can usually be found with my adorable grandsons Lochie & Finlay.
We can’t believe it has been just over a week since the wedding. What a wedding it was!! Steve and I strongly believe that you made the wedding so special (other than us two of course haha). It set the tone for the rest of the day and everyone left the room filled with love. and smiles on their faces We could not be happier. Thank you so much!. Everyone kept raving about you. Below are just some of the comments we heard, and we will get a raving review over to you as soon as we can. ‘Has to be said, best wedding I have ever been to’ ‘The celebrant was utterly amazing’ ‘The ceremony was perfectly orchestrated’ ‘It has to have been the happiest event ever’ ‘The happiest, most laid-back wedding I have ever been to’ ‘The best wedding ever…and we’ve been to quite a few’ ‘A truly inclusive wedding, we all felt part of your special day’ ‘Lindy is just incredible’ ‘It’s got me thinking about weddings. Me and my partner were not really up for a wedding, but seeing how you can tailor the ceremony and make it your own has made me think twice’ ‘Seeing all the lovely Scottish traditions was amazing and educational’ Love from Steve & Craig or … The Watts-McDonalds!!!!
Lindy was just brilliant, there was the perfect mix of traditional and fun in our ceremony, Lindy included all the best part of us as a couple, our quirks, our promises in marriage to each other and lots of sentimental aspects all alongside the serious side of getting married! Lindy was very thorough and just a pleasure to work with, she captured the very essence of us and made our ceremony lighthearted and enjoyable just like we wanted. 10/10 would recommend Lindy to all!
Lindy recently conducted our small intimate wedding ceremony in Glasgow. Lindy was amazing ! As soon as we had the zoom meeting we knew that we had found our perfect Celebrant. We loved her sense of humour and quirkiness and felt that she totally got what we wanted for our ceremony. The actual ceremony was just as we had wanted relaxed, personal, intimate , funny yet very meaningful. We had our dog McGregor as our ringbearer and included several rituals handfasting, the oathing stone, the quaich and Jumping over the Broom and each was fabulously woven into our ceremony. We absolutely loved it and many of our guests said that Lindy had been fantastic and that it had been the best ceremony they had ever witnessed ! We would not hesitate to highly recommend Lindy !
Lindy, we can’t thank you enough for the absolutely beautiful ceremony you gave us yesterday! You are a wonderful story teller and know exactly when to create laughter and also bring reverence to the important moments of the ceremony! My nieces creating the Caim while Mark’s sister sang will be a moment that lives on in me forever. Thank you so much xx
We had an amazing wedding day. You set the scene delivering a fabulous ceremony. Our guests all commented on how amazing it was. I’m sure none of them expected to be in tears of laughter about Christmas films. Tomorrow is the day the Christmas films begin, as soon as Halloween is out the way. Wish me luck for the next 2 months!
When selecting someone to marry us, we were greeted by a plethora of choices. We wanted someone relaxed, that would be able to bring some humour, but also keep the right level of emotion for the occasion. We are so glad we found you, as you were perfect.
Many thanks
Love
Mr & Mrs Lambie
We had the most incredible ceremony in July, all thanks to Lindy! Lindy was so helpful and really took the time to get to know us and our goals for the ceremony in the months leading up to our day. Lindy developed the most wonderful ceremony itinerary that really felt like my husband and I. The whole ceremony felt really magical and authentic, especially because we wanted something more laidback but also heartfelt. Our family and friends told us that it was the most wonderful wedding ceremony they have attended, and especially loved the rituals that we incorporated. We cannot recommend Lindy highly enough!
“We are so glad to have had Lindy be our celebrant for our uniquely special day. She made it so intimate and exactly to our taste keeping it both light-hearted and meaningful. Lindy goes above and beyond from the big (trialling new ceremony rituals with us) to the small (painting her nails to match our wedding flowers). We have full confidence that Lindy would make it as special for you as she did for us.”|
To watch a video of the wedding, visit: https://youtu.be/EX712EHZI_g
Dear Lindy,
We want to say a MASSSSSSSIVE thank you! We absolutely loved, loved, loved everything about the ceremony and everyone commented on how personal and engaging the service was. We would have never thought about personal vows or promises but with your prompting we now have very sentimental words that we will cherish throughout our marriage. I have been holding Graeme to the Diet Coke promise already 😉
My morning was a bit manic and I would have loved to speak to you in a calmer environment but you helped steady both our nerves once in the ceremony room. I remembered from your Zoom meetings that you wanted us to focus just on us and it worked! Your help from our initial enquiry zoom to the actual day has been invaluable and we really appreciated all the 2023 couple meetings.
Our guests keep raving about the ceremony which is all down to you! Thank you for making our ceremony so personal and special. You definitely have a little bit of magic in you. We’ll hopefully be in touch on the future about a wee naming ceremony….
With love,
Eleanor & Graeme
1000 times 1000 stars! Lindy is an amazing person! She officiated our ceremony at Glenapp Castle and it was perfect! Even better than we anticipated, her words spoken and the love we felt as she presided over the ceremony cannot be matched. One of the rarest things is to find your true calling and that is just what Lindy has done! A true gem in this world. Cannot say enough to recommend her!
Lindy was 10/10 from start to finish. She made us feel very comfortable throughout the whole experience and her timely email reminders kept us on track through the whole experience.
The ceremony was exactly what we wanted. We asked for it to be light hearted and she certainly delivered, without losing the reason why we were there. All the guests commented after how wonderful Lindy was afterwards.
We loved the addition of the caim, which we would never have thought of without Lindy and her flexibility on the day to finish our ceremony outside was so much appreciated.
It was the best day of our lives and Lindy played a huge part in that. We can’t thank her enough.
Becky and Emma.
Hi Lindy,
Thanks so so much for truly the most PERFECT ceremony! We had such a wonderful day and your ceremony, your energy, your creativity and sincerity have started our marriage off on the most perfect path. The ceremony was so meaningful and captured perfectly how we feel about each other. We were both deeply touched and we will never forget how wonderful the ceremony and you were.
We really appreciate all the effort you put in! From the very first meeting where we were interviewing you to see if we were a match you made such a wonderful impression and we knew we would be in safe hands and trusted you to create our perfect ceremony. Your passion is clear and it made such an impact on us, we felt so connected with each other and with our spirituality during our ceremony, it was truly so perfect I tear up every time I think about it!
Thank you for making such perfect suggestions, the caim meant so much to us and our niece’s and thank you for encorporating everything we wanted so perfectly
We can’t thank you enough, we really had the most perfect day and can’t wait to turn it into a wonderful marriage
Much love and many thanks,
Mr Hugo and Mrs Erin Bridge ❤️
We’ve been married for nearly 4 months and we’ve only just got around to doing a review for this absolute Legend!! Sorry!!
Rev Lindy, wow what could we say about this lady & our journey that could possibly do her justice?? Well we’re going to try…
We had the pleasure of working with Lindy for about 11 months. At the start we didn’t have an idea about the type of ‘Aye Do’ we were after but we needn’t have worried. By the time we came round to say the words for real we had the most perfect ceremony, more perfect than we could’ve ever imagined..
We noticed almost immediately that we had struck gold with Lindy. She taught us that the sky was the limit and nothing was out of our reach.
We tuned in for helpful Zoom sessions, meeting other couples, discussing ideas getting helpful tips and introducing us to the world of Scottish rituals.. We knew instantly that we wanted our day to be about our Scottish heritage.. A few of which we incorporated in our unique ceremony.
Meeting this wonderful, bright and funny woman was fantastic. She made us feel totally at ease and reaffirmed that we had made the right choice to have her officiate over our special day.
Lindy had a genuine interest in our personal journey, how we met, our good times, laughs, quirks, the lot.. She is a funny, down to earth and compassionate person who has a true gift in what she does.
Nothing is too much trouble and she was happy to change things (even at the last minute) to ensure we were 100% happy with our ceremony.
On our big day Lindy put us at ease. She made us laugh. All our guests loved her and they all remarked of her brilliance and our ceremony was the best they’d ever been to.. She even added in her own surprise at the end.. As it was the day of the King’s Coronation she came out with her own crown to mark the occasion!! One of our guests went home and booked Lindy to officiate over her vow renewal in 2025. Lindy really set the tone for the whole wedding which carried through until we went to bed the next morning!
If you need someone to conduct a ceremony of any kind you won’t find anyone more suitable than Lindy!
Lindy, thank you so much for being you and giving our marriage the best beginning.. You will always have a special place in our hearts ❤️
We started out as strangers… But now we have a true friend in Rev Lindy 🩷🩷
Our special ‘Big Gay Waddin’
Lots of Love Lorna & Kim xxx — with Lorna Hughes.
Firstly we would give Lindy 10 stars if it would let us. We chose Lindy on the strength of a You Tube video. Once we had seen this and spoke to her on a zoom meeting we knew she was the only one we would want to be our celebrant. From day one Lindy just ‘got us” . Nothing was ever an issue, she accommodated us at every turn. We live in the Northern Isles, and she made herself available to meet any time we were on the mainland. There were regular zoom meetings with her and other brides and grooms, discussing lots of aspects of the wedding which were very useful. The day and the ceremony was perfect. All our guests raved about how good she was. Lindy made the day perfect. The ceremony was us to a tee. Lindy did so much work preparing a perfect service. We feel she went above and beyond what anyone else would have done. We started our journey seeking our a celebrant and ended it with a true friend. We say to anyone looking for a celebrant, stop looking and book Lindy. It will be the best decision you will make.
Lindy conducted our wedding ceremony this year on a beach in the north of Scotland. Neither of us had a clue about what went into planning a wedding ceremony when we started our search. All we knew was that we wanted it to be meaningful and be able to say the things we couldn’t have said with a humanist celebrant (a wee spiritual element that reflected what marriage meant to us). From the start, we immediately liked Lindy – she was super friendly and we could tell she loved ceremonies and rituals and she was right on board with all of our ideas. The planning element was always so much fun and added to the excitement of the build up to the wedding. On the actual day, she helped organise us (we were super nervous) and made sure everything went smoothly. She really is just a true pro at what she does – we would recommend her to everyone! Thank you so much Lindy ❤️ Mr and Mrs James
Thank you so much for performing such an incredible and special ceremony for both of us on Saturday – we have had non-stop compliments from all of our guests from all over the world on what a different and personal kind of ceremony it was that they have never encountered before – we only wish we had time to do more of it!
so thank you again for making our ceremony exactly how we imagined it and for being so patient with us both – would highly recommend especially if you are looking for a more personal and memorable ceremony
ALl the best,
Neha and Ricky – Boturich Castle, June 2023
What can we say aboot oor Lindy…. From the moment we 1st met her we knew she ùnderstood exactly what we wanted & she was exactly what we needed. Lindy made it all about us with ease, the professionalism she showed during our ceremony was very much on show, but she still made everyone in the room feel special and just as important, this has been mentioned by many of our guests. She made us all Laugh, greet & even pause to gather thoughts, Lindy is truelly one of a kind. Myself & Gayle cannot thank her enough.
We had an amazing vow renewal experience with Lindy Irving of Aye Do Ceremonies. Lindy created an unforgettable day for my wife and family. She took the time to get to know our story and weaved our history and loved ones into the ceremony with poems by Robert Burns and a personalized one she created just for us. She helped me pull off a great surprise for my wife which added ot the fun. She included our family, Scottish traditions and spiritual elements into the ceremony which made it even more memorable. We could not have wished for a better ceremony and I highly recommend Lindy Irving and Aye Do Ceremonies.
Hi Lindy,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Truth be told, we’ve been struggling to put into words how incredible our ceremony was!
When we first started wedding planning, we knew we didn’t want a religious ceremony and after doing some research, we realised that our beliefs and values didn’t align with those of a humanist ceremony either. That’s when we came across your profile as an interfaith minister and straight away we knew we’d found what we had been looking for.
Right from our first virtual meeting via zoom, we knew you had to be the one to officiate our wedding. We got such positive, calming vibes from talking to you and just knew you were the person who would make our ceremony extra special.
With your help and guidance through regular zoom catch ups, the monthly aye do couples meetings, along with the mairiage jottin and couples questionnaires, we were able to tailor our ceremony to suit our style, beliefs and values and make it so personal to us.
When we got the first draft of our ceremony through, we couldn’t actually read it for crying (happy tears!). You’d captured the mood and tone we were looking for perfectly, it was so meaningful and heartfelt with the right amount of humour. You ensured to include the history associated with our wedding venue and told our story as a couple better than we could have ever imagined.
On the day, our ceremony exceeded all expectations. We had opted for a small, intimate wedding with our nearest and dearest and you could certainly feel the love. You kept everyone engaged throughout the whole ceremony and made sure everything ran smoothly, even when the weather started to turn towards the end.
We choose to incorporate a few Scottish traditions during our ceremony and these were made even better through your knowledge and passion which shone through on the day, with a few guests even saying they had found it educational! You put so much thought and meaning into each aspect of the ceremony and it makes us even more proud to be Scottish and able to incorporate such ancient rituals, steeped in history and tradition, into our wedding day.
All of our guests spoke so highly of you on the day and continue to rave about our ceremony with many saying it was the best wedding they have ever been to!
So we just wanted to say thank you again from the bottom of our hearts. We will be forever grateful that it was you guiding us into this new chapter of our lives as husband and wife and we have no doubt that our paths will cross again 🙂
Lots of love,
Chris & Lindsey Linton
Lindy, thank you so much for helping make our special day so incredibly special! You were an absolute joy to plan the wedding ceremony with. You are so easy to get on with, and the way you took us through everything made us feel confident that we were in a very safe pair of hands. You made it very easy for us to make choices on what would work best for us.
Your style and humour hit the perfect note for our wedding ceremony, making everyone feel so at ease right from the start. You hit just the right balance of humour and fun! The elements of Scottish tradition you incorporated into the ceremony was very special to us. It was meaningful and poignant throughout. We will never forget any of it, and perhaps especially how you featured our flower girls, and nieces as a special part of the ceremony, with the Scottish ‘flower’ circle around us. Your magical touches, genuine kindness, professionalism and style helped make our wedding so very special!
We chose Lindy as our celebrant, as we wanted something different from the usual type of wedding ceremony. Lindy was able to deliver a wedding ceremony that was laid back, fun but also incorporating some tasteful and personal touches to make it a day to remember.
Lindy supported us all the way on the journey to the ceremony, which turned out to be much longer than expected due to COVID. The wedding ceremony planning allowed us to really think about what we wanted for the day, and allowed us to work with Lindy to create a personalised ceremony that fitted in with our themes and objectives for the day.
Our guests all loved the ceremony and Lindy kept them engaged and involved throughout. Many guests commented about how different the ceremony was and how much they loved being involved. All in, we can’t recommend Lindy highly enough who truly delivered a uniquely crafted personalised ceremony with bags of energy, fun and meaning. Just what we were looking for and more!!
What one piece of advice would you give to couples to help them have an amazing Ceremony?
Think about what would make the day special for you and your guests, and speak to Lindy to get some ideas on little touches that will make the ceremony both unique and fun. Don’t feel too limited by conventions and remember it is your day. Make sure your guests have a good time, and their laughing and smiley faces will make the day feel really special for you both.