Alternative to church wedding

250882

Neither myself or my Fiance want a church wedding but we have attended a marriage in a registry office and found it too rushed and business like (the couple had made special provisions but the registrar was only interrested in getting to her lunch and made no effort to incorporate them)

Are there any alternatives? we still want a special service but just dont want it to have any religious baggage.

gagalina

i suppose it depends what registrar you get... Ours is from Waterford and she's really lovely.

We're getting hitched in a hotel and we can have music, reading and a candle ceremony if we want.

She said it would be max about 30 minutes, but with above additions it should be a bit more pleasurable than a standard registry office wedding.

ash_18x

maybe ring around a few of the registry offices to find a nice registrar! we are having a civil marriage this september in a hotel and the registrar has been so nice and helpful and even suggests reading poems and the likes to make it special and memorable for us.
our registrar is from waterford too!!

seamus

Most people I know who've done this have gotten married privately in the registry office and then organised a ceremony of their own in a hotel or wherever. Hotels are usually more than happy to accomodate and you get to choose your own celebrant who *will* be interested in the ceremony.

gagalina

does her first name start with "M" and her surname with "L" (Not sure if I can put her full name up here).

If it is, she really is lovely - she's gonna marry us in August.

eve

Friends of mine decided they didn't want to do the 'whole church thing'. So they had a registry office ceremony on the Friday with family and a few very close friends. But they decided not to exchange rings at the ceremony. They then had a simple ceremony at the reception venue where they did exchange rings on the Sunday with nearly 200 guests and had the wedding reception afterwards. The got a friend to lead the reception ceremony and they decided what they wanted in it

ash_18x

gagalina wrote: »

does her first name start with "M" and her surname with "L" (Not sure if I can put her full name up here).

If it is, she really is lovely - she's gonna marry us in August.

ya, that would be her! she dealt with my brother and sister in law when they got married last year though she didnt officiate at theirs, it was a different lady though she was really nice too!

lostexpectation

you can have the ceremony at a hotel now.

Grawns

I got married on the 1st of March in the unitarian church in Stephens Green. I'm atheist (and also very anti the catholic church lark) and he's a sort of baptist, ( believes in god and heaven). It was a beautiful service in a beautiful location, I had an organist, a soprano, I walked up the isle which I'd never imagined doing. It was brilliant. It was vaguely religous to tie in with his beliefs.

Can't recommend it highly enough ( My sister got married in a registry office and it was ****e)

I also looked into the humanists but they are not allowed to legally wed you so we'd have had to do the registry also.

mickger

ash_18x wrote: »

ya, that would be her! she dealt with my brother and sister in law when they got married last year though she didnt officiate at theirs, it was a different lady though she was really nice too!

How long does the ceremony last? Is it just a case of i do and i do and thats it? The same lady is doing my ceremony at the end of the month.

Sizzler

Shortage of "solemnisers" I believe. Can you go and train to be one, could do nixers