Civil ceremonies without the registry office

Chinafoot

I've always wanted to have the white wedding with the big ceremony and reception surrounded by family and flowers etc etc...however I don't want to have it in a church and I don't want to have it in a registry office either.

I thought I had heard recently that changes were afoot with regard to civil ceremonies having to be carried out in a registry office. I can't find anything on the web at the moment and was just wondering if anyone knew anything about this.

Ideally I'd love an outdoor wedding someday in a beautiful garden and a ceremony without the religious aspect as quite frankly I'd rather not be a hypocrite.

Shabadu

zomgwtf- you & Mori engaged!?

*SQUEE* - I'm so excited I used an interrobang!

squibs

Would love to know as well. Booked into reg office for October, but would rather something outdoors.

iguana

I think there is supposed to be some new legislation coming in next year. I'm not sure exactly what though. But I wouldn't be surprised if the situation became more like the way it is in the UK, rather than the US.

In Britain you can get married outside the registry office, but it has to be in a licensed venue rather than any place you choose. Then certain hotels, bars, historical venues, football grounds etc., apply for the license. You book the venue and the registrar and pay them both. I'm getting married in Bruce Castle (A 16th century castle which is now a museum in a park in North London) next month and it costs £250 for the venue and £250 for the registrar.

Chinafoot

Shabadu wrote:

zomgwtf- you & Mori engaged!?

*SQUEE* - I'm so excited I used an interrobang!

hahah no we're not engaged!

It's just something I was wondering about after my sister's church wedding (I felt like a hypocrite even being bridesmaid)

iguana wrote:

I'm getting married in Bruce Castle (A 16th century castle which is now a museum in a park in North London) next month and it costs £250 for the venue and £250 for the registrar.

Thats not too bad.

SingingCherry

We recently attended a wedding in a church in Wexford, but was originally supposed to be outside, in the gardens of a nearby hotel. The bride and groom both wanted the ceremony outside and have it be a non-religious ceremony, and, from what I was told, this was perfectly legal as long as it was a licensed venue, which they found. The hard part was finding someone from the registry office to do the ceremony. It has to be a person from the county you're getting married in and no one in Wexford was willing to do it. They then decided to have a priest and no priest would do it outside of a church so in the end they settled.

So, while it's legal here to do so, it's hard to find someone to do it.

Gegerty

You could have your legal wedding in the registry and then a non official exchange of vows somewhere else.

Orion

You can only legally get married in three places in Ireland - registry office, Catholic church or Protestant church. All other places require a visit to the registry office. The change in law has been promised for 6 years now so I'm not holding my breath for next year either.

But you can do it a nice way anyway. A workmate of my partner did so recently. They rented out a castle in Wexford somewhere for the wedding. In the morning they went to the registry office and went through the formalities. Then went to the castle and with all their friends and family there, all dressed up for the occasion, had a humanist ceremony. The people who were there said it was a fantastic occasion.

Check out the Irish Humanist website for more details. You don't need to be a member for a humanist celebrant to officiate iirc.

MissQuackers

that's ome of the reasons we are planning a wedding abroad - we are not religious and don't want to be hypocrites by having a church wedding, but want more guests than can be fit into a registry office!
that, and the fact that we hope it'll work out cheaper due to reduced guests numbers...;)