Recommend a Humanist celebrant

Shybride2016 · 03-03-2015 5:27pm #1

Hi everyone,

Starting to research our celebrant for our wedding next year and wondering if any of you who had a humanist celebrant could pm me with your experiences and recommendations please?

We've been looking at the website but it's difficult to get a feel for someone from a short biography so would appreciate any advice.

Thanks as always :-)

pooch90 · 03-03-2015 5:34pm

You don't get to pick and choose who you get,you email the Humanist society and they assign whoever is available.

fits · 03-03-2015 5:45pm

pooch90 wrote: »

You don't get to pick and choose who you get,you email the Humanist society and they assign whoever is available.

Eh yeah you do. I contacted our celebrant directly. She was the most local and we just went with a date she had available.

Shybride2016 · 03-03-2015 5:45pm

Oh really? I've just been contacting a few via email and have had a couple of replies so far. They didn't mention contacting a general email address. Now I'm confused!

Shybride2016 · 03-03-2015 5:46pm

fits wrote: »

Eh yeah you do. I contacted our celebrant directly. She was the most local and we just went with a date she had available.

Have you had your wedding yet fits? I've never been to a humanist ceremony and would love to hear what it's like if you wouldn't mind?

fits · 03-03-2015 5:48pm

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Oh really? I've just been contacting a few via email and have had a couple of replies so far. They didn't mention contacting a general email address. Now I'm confused!

You dont have to use a general address. Dont mind that post.

We havent had our ceremony yet but all good so far with bridget carlin.

lazygal · 03-03-2015 6:41pm

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Have you had your wedding yet fits? I've never been to a humanist ceremony and would love to hear what it's like if you wouldn't mind?

We had a humanist wedding a few years ago, and it was a very good experience. We had Brian Whiteside and would recommend him. He really made the ceremony very memorable.

Shybride2016 · 03-03-2015 7:40pm

Delighted to hear that lazygal thanks for the reply. Unfortunately Brian isnt available for our date but great to hear it went well!

stinkle · 04-03-2015 7:33am

We had Billy Hutchinson, who was really wonderful on the day and in the lead-up and is just a lovely person in general. He's Dublin/Leinster.

almorris · 04-03-2015 9:36am

Elaine Morris. Lovely, professional.

A2LUE42 · 04-03-2015 9:50am

almorris wrote: »

Elaine Morris. Lovely, professional.

Tina Storey did our wedding and she was brilliant to deal with.

pooch90 · 04-03-2015 11:08am

fits wrote: »

You dont have to use a general address. Dont mind that post.

We havent had our ceremony yet but all good so far with bridget carlin.

When we booked, that was how you had to do it, maybe they have changed it since.

Sugar Free · 04-03-2015 11:26am

As a general comment and not aimed at any one person - perhaps it would be worthwhile creating a sticky for the general process involved in organising a humanist or civil ceremony.

There often seems to be confusion around the differences between the two and the criteria that must be met. E.g. (though I too could be wrong!) that civil ceremonies can't be held outdoors generally or that they can only be performed Monday to Friday.

A simple, experience based stickied thread may help.
Just a thought.

rainbow kirby · 04-03-2015 12:06pm

A2LUE42 wrote: »

Tina Storey did our wedding and she was brilliant to deal with.

She's doing ours in May. Limited choices for Limerick due to the fact that there are quite a few of them who have geographical restrictions (Dublin area only or Cork/Kerry only).

irlrobins · 04-03-2015 3:41pm

Emma Sides performed our ceremony. Extremely helpful in assisting us in deciding the content of the ceremony, advising what elements would work and what wouldn't, timings etc. Very easy going and personable. We got a lot of compliments about our ceremony afterwards and how Emma performed it. Couldn't have been happier really.

fjon · 04-03-2015 5:31pm

I would probably answer "whoever you can get". There is a huge demand for humanist celebrants now, and even if your wedding is next year you may find it hard to find someone. If you are having a Saturday wedding, or are in the greater Dublin area, it's going to be even more difficult.
We have someone booked for this year, and only got this because she's a "new" celebrant. Otherwise we would not have been able to get anyone.

westernlass · 04-03-2015 7:34pm

We have Eithne Dempsey booked. I love her. She was so nice when we met. She also said she would ask everyone not to post on social media and for us to not have to be the bad guys.

I'm really looking forward to having her

lainycool · 06-03-2015 12:23am

We had Emma Sides here too and she was just great, She made our day so special!

snoopy29 · 06-03-2015 10:29am

We had Susie Kennedy and she was a lovely woman to talk with and she performed a beautiful ceremony. We were all in tears at the end of it, including her!

Shybride2016 · 06-03-2015 11:05am

Thanks for all the replies everyone. All sorted now, having spoken to Emma Sides this morning I'm delighted that she's available as she sounds so lovely and exactly what we want for our ceremony.

I will say to anyone interested in having a Humanist celebrant to get booking asap as they are booking up fast for next year already.

Thanks again for all your help & advice. I'd be lost without this forum!

Skittlebrau · 06-03-2015 7:12pm

westernlass wrote: »

We have Eithne Dempsey booked. I love her. She was so nice when we met. She also said she would ask everyone not to post on social media and for us to not have to be the bad guys.

I'm really looking forward to having her

+1 for Eithne. Lovely and easy to deal with. Only downside is she's a Man Utd fan ☺

westernlass · 07-03-2015 1:09pm

Skittlebrau wrote: »

+1 for Eithne. Lovely and easy to deal with. Only downside is she's a Man Utd fan ☺

Ha ha that's a plus for us. My fiancée will be delighted

Cainer · 12-03-2015 6:22pm

We had Emma Sides too, she was wonderful from beginning to end so you're very lucky she was available. Good luck with your wedding!

fannymagee · 24-03-2015 2:48pm

Can a Humanist celebrant legally solemnise, or do you do that part seperately?

snoopy29 · 24-03-2015 2:50pm

Humanist ceremonies are legal in Ireland so now separate legalities to take care of.

fannymagee · 24-03-2015 2:55pm

snoopy29 wrote: »

Humanist ceremonies are legal in Ireland so now separate legalities to take care of.

Ah brilliant, great to see the scope of options widening so much!

I'll be able to legally solemnise from July 2016. Bring it on!! ;-)

kmmh58 · 28-03-2015 10:12pm

Sorry to hijack your post OP. We intend to marry in September 2016, tonight I started to contact people for Humanist ceremony. It feels a little extreme so far in advance but we shall push on

fannymagee wrote: »

Ah brilliant, great to see the scope of options widening so much!

I'll be able to legally solemnise from July 2016. Bring it on!! ;-)

how do you become a solemniser?

andreac · 28-03-2015 10:14pm

kmmh58 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack your post OP. We intend to marry in September 2016, tonight I started to contact people for Humanist ceremony. It feels a little extreme so far in advance but we shall push on

how do you become a solemniser?

You will be lucky to get one even this far ahead. I contacted several celebrants about 3 weeks for August 2016 and only one available. That was Billy Hutchinson who we are meeting in a couple of weeks, so Def get contacting asap!!

kmmh58 · 28-03-2015 10:36pm

andreac wrote: »

You will be lucky to get one even this far ahead. I contacted several celebrants about 3 weeks for August 2016 and only one available. That was Billy Hutchinson who we are meeting in a couple of weeks, so Def get contacting asap!!

I only contacted 2 people, should I contact more?

Shybride2016 · 28-03-2015 10:49pm

kmmh58 wrote: »

I only contacted 2 people, should I contact more?

Hiya,

I would contact as many as possible if I was you. We're getting married on a Saturday in April next year and out of 8 we contacted only three were available on our date.

Best of luck with your search!

andreac · 28-03-2015 11:26pm

kmmh58 wrote: »

I only contacted 2 people, should I contact more?

Definitely. I contacted 7 or 8 I think and only One was free. Thank god as I was starting to panic.

pablo102 · 30-03-2015 10:07pm

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

brandnewaward · 30-03-2015 10:08pm

try bridgit carlin , she aint available 10th june next year though;)

andreac · 30-03-2015 10:19pm

pablo102 wrote: »

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

Similar to a civil I think really. You can have it as you want and add things to it as far as I know.

westernlass · 31-03-2015 1:06pm

pablo102 wrote: »

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

There's lots on wedding websites if you have a browse around the blogs

Peregrinus · 01-04-2015 7:42am

kmmh58 wrote: »

how do you become a solemniser?

Assuming you want to become a humanist solemniser, you become a member of the Humanist Association of Ireland, you get selected, trained and accredited by them as a solemniser of weddings, they nominate you to the Registrar General as a solemniser, he enters your name in the Register of Solemnisers, and you're good to go. You have to be over 18, and generally thought to be a fit and proper person to solemnise marriages.

almorris · 02-04-2015 12:55pm

pablo102 wrote: »

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

Main thing is you need to work a lot faster as the ceremony's only last 30 mins max.

Trix · 07-04-2015 12:33pm

hey all.

how much did your humanists charge you?

andreac · 07-04-2015 1:00pm

Trix wrote: »

hey all.

how much did your humanists charge you?

Well the one i am meeting this month said his charge is €450.

rainbow kirby · 07-04-2015 1:38pm

andreac wrote: »

Well the one i am meeting this month said his charge is €450.

Same for us.

fits · 07-04-2015 1:46pm

We were quoted 550. With over an hour travel time. Are we being overcharged?

rainbow kirby · 07-04-2015 2:00pm

The travel time could be a factor - we have a celebrant from Limerick city for a Limerick city wedding.

Shybride2016 · 07-04-2015 2:06pm

We're paying €475 for ours .

Trix · 07-04-2015 2:14pm

thanks everyone. waiting to hear back how much our one is charging. probably should have been first thing I asked but they're hard to book at short notice.

tread_softly · 07-04-2015 3:07pm

Ours was €450 also

Sugar Free · 07-04-2015 5:39pm

A friends' humanist celebrant was 450E. Based in Dublin and travelling to the wedding in a neighbouring county.

westernlass · 08-04-2015 10:12pm

Ours is 600euro with two hours travel

almorris · 09-04-2015 9:49am

There are other celebrants out there who are not associated to anyone in that they work for themselves. Romy McAuley is excellent.

stargazer 68 · 09-04-2015 11:26am

Ours is 500 and that includes travel, meetings and writing the ceremony etc

09-04-2015 3:00pm

Sugar Free wrote: »

As a general comment and not aimed at any one person - perhaps it would be worthwhile creating a sticky for the general process involved in organising a humanist or civil ceremony.

There often seems to be confusion around the differences between the two and the criteria that must be met. E.g. (though I too could be wrong!) that civil ceremonies can't be held outdoors generally or that they can only be performed Monday to Friday.

A simple, experience based stickied thread may help.
Just a thought.

I think that would be very helpful. People don't realise there are only 20 Humanist celebrants in the country (1 celebrant for every @ 8,000 people of "No religion" according to the last census, compared to 1 for every 800 or so Catholics).

Fits' approach of finding the celebrant they wanted and organising the date around them is probably the best way to go.

almorris wrote: »

There are other celebrants out there who are not associated to anyone in that they work for themselves. Romy McAuley is excellent.

Do you mean someone who is not a registered solemniser but will "perform" the ceremony?

fannymagee · 09-04-2015 4:49pm

There are also 12 Interfaith Ministers in Ireland, who can legally solemnise in the same way Humanists do- with the exception that they also offer non-secular ceremonies (good for people who want a more traditional style ceremony, and also the Jedi/Pastafarians amongst us) ;-)

Recommend a Humanist celebrant

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