Civil Ceremony in hotel

AnnieB82

Hi everyone, I'm new here although I've been reading this board for a while. My fiance and I intend to marry in 2010. I wanted to have my civil ceremony at Trim Castle hotel followed by a reception. When I rang the registry they said that they only perform ceremonies on weekdays, and that this applies to the whole country. We would like our wedding/reception to be on a Saturday. Has anyone else had an issue with this? Also do you think it would be stupid to turn up in a beautiful wedding dress for a reception only (assuming the actual marriage ceremony had been held on some weekday prior)?
Thanks for any ideas/ opinions...

seamus

Yep, the registrars will only work during the week. If you can find a solemniser who doesn't work for the government and is willing to do the ceremony on a weekend, then you're laughing.

You also have to consider that there are certain rules about getting officially married in the hotel - the hotel has to be licenced for legal marriages, which basically means that the HSE goes out and does an inspection of the premises and issues a cert. Afaik, this is quite expensive and you have to deal with the HSE, unfortunately.

My brother got married two weeks ago - they did the civil thing in the registry office (just him and his wife and the two witnesses) and then had a proper ceremony, suits and dresses and all, on the Saturday. It's not stupid in the slightest, as one of the biggest parts of the whole thing is declaring the commitment in front of your friends and family.
They had a humanist ceremony (http://www.humanism.ie/cere.html) which was fantastic, far superior to any church ceremony I've been at.

Plenty of people are doing this now, so it won't be seen as anything odd. Your guests don't even need to know that you went to the registry office.

username123

I think its a great idea to have the actual civil ceremony as a quiet event and then the reception the next day or a couple of days later etc... with you guys dressed up to the nines.

Nothing stupid about it at all - in fact what I think is nicest about it is that you get married (on say a thursday) in the registry office, with close family and friends maybe and then go off for quiet meal/drinks and romantic evening to yourselves as newly married couple and enjoy the time together.

Then Saturday comes and you get all dollied up to celebrate with everyone.

Go for it - sounds like a brilliant idea.

growler

seamus wrote: »

Yep, the registrars will only work during the week. If you can find a solemniser who doesn't work for the government and is willing to do the ceremony on a weekend, then you're laughing.

You also have to consider that there are certain rules about getting officially married in the hotel - the hotel has to be licenced for legal marriages, which basically means that the HSE goes out and does an inspection of the premises and issues a cert. Afaik, this is quite expensive and you have to deal with the HSE, unfortunately.

My brother got married two weeks ago - they did the civil thing in the registry office (just him and his wife and the two witnesses) and then had a proper ceremony, suits and dresses and all, on the Saturday. It's not stupid in the slightest, as one of the biggest parts of the whole thing is declaring the commitment in front of your friends and family.
They had a humanist ceremony (http://www.humanism.ie/cere.html) which was fantastic, far superior to any church ceremony I've been at.

Plenty of people are doing this now, so it won't be seen as anything odd. Your guests don't even need to know that you went to the registry office.

exactly what i did , worked a treat and everyone said it was the best ceremony they had been at, only issue is my wife now thinks we should have two anniversaries

AnnieB82

Thanks for the advice - I read about the Humanist ceremony and it's exactly what I'm after. A registry office wedding alone is too cold and sterile for me. I had thought it would be impossible to get the warmth of the church but minus the religous bit. I'd say I'll definitely go with that. It would allow us to legally marry even weeks in advance in order to avoid stress in the run up to the celebrations. One thing I did notice- it's hard work to get in touch with HSE - thankfully we have 2 years to organise!

Sizzler

OP bare in mind also that if you live in Meath there might only be 1 -2 registrars so get your date in with them now.

The hotel thing is tricky and has loads of 'nuances', e.g. the registrar has to have their own parking space, their own room to get ready in, a notice has to be put outside the room an hour before hand so somone can object ! You get the idea.

Your best bet would be to do the 10 min special in the registry office and then have some sort of ceremony back at the hotel or in the grounds

seamus

AnnieB82 wrote: »

A registry office wedding alone is too cold and sterile for me.

Even if you bring all of your guests to the registry office, it'll be pretty cold. The place that it's done in, is like a boardroom/lecture theatre, not very intimate like a wedding should be.

One thing I did notice- it's hard work to get in touch with HSE - thankfully we have 2 years to organise!

tell me about it. I've managed to get a hold of them once. They say their opening hours are till 4.30, but it seems to be pot luck as to whether they've decided to go home early or just couldn't be bothered answering the phone.