Help - Solemniser

bp

Ahhh, have booked the venue and paid the deposit etc for Sept 30th 2011, but got a call from the Civil Registary office on Friday and there is no one free/ available to do the ceremoney - does anyone know of any solemnisers in the Meath/ Dublin area?

thanks a million

smelltheglove

I know its strange the way they work it, a relation of mine does civil ceremonies but I think I recall him saying about one a day or something. If you want to pm me details I can ask him can he look into it for you.

seamus

Full list of legal Irish Solemnisers here:
http://www.groireland.ie/MonthlySolemniserSpreadsheet-January.xls

Unfortunately the vast majority are religious - all of the non-religious ones are civil servants because I don't think it's possible for an unaffiliated person to become a legal solemniser. :rolleyes:

If you don't want a religious solemniser, then perhaps one of the other civil registry offices can help? You don't have to use a solemniser from your local/district registy office. Alternatively the closest thing may be a Buddhist or Unitarian solemniser as they tend to be, "Take all comers" about ceremonies.

Outside of that you could opt for a low-key civil marriage in the registry office beforehand and have a ceremony on the 30th without the legal part.

Sofiztikated

Hey bp.

You're in the same boat as myself, albeit a week in the difference!

What we decided to do was to do the registry office thing on the Thursday, and then on the Friday, have the "ceremony" with a good friend doing the waffle.

There's going to be ourselves plus 2 on the Thursday, and we're not telling anyone so that the whole "Its not a real wedding" thing doesn't crop up.

OFD

I think Sofiztikated's idea is a good idea.

if you do need a solemniser who isn't too "religious" there is a guy called Tom whom I met at the Wedding Fair in Citywest and he does "spiritual" ceremonies which are legal, and to be honest what he described was like the solemniser Dara something did at my friends (non-legal) wedding (she did the registry office ceremony the day before)

http://spiritualistunion.com/?page_id=166

bp

thanks guy - I understand the process a bit better...there are a number of districts e.g. if the wedding is being held in Meath it is in the Louth district, Kildare and a few others are in Dublin district etc.

They do a one wedding a day policy at 3pm, but if there is an emergency they can do one at 1.30 for special circumstances.

We are considering just having the official thing the day before and then just having a fake one the next day and have a parent or someone do it just to make it special.

Yeah there are very few non-regligious people out there....mainly the civil servants and to become a solemiser you need to be of a regligious order or a staff member of the civil registar. They have plenty of registary spots open so that may the route forward.

thanks again for the replys, I really appreciate them

Gatica

bp, I know it's been a long long time... I was curious if you managed to get someone for your ceremony coming up this September.
I was searching the forums on what people did for a civil ceremony if they couldn't get a HSE registrar, and this is probably the most topical thread I found.... (albeit rather old)

I also need a rant about the really ridiculously out-dated views and arrangements for registrars in this country. How can there be only 1 registrar for a whole county in some places in this day and age?! That would mean there could only be one civil wedding taking place a week-day in the whole of the county!
We haven't booked a venue for the wedding yet, but I've been calling local registrars and it seems nigh impossible to get one free even a year in advance. I'm thinking now of going the "spiritualist" route, even though I wanna keep all religious aspects out as we've several different religious backgrounds in our families (and don't wanna offend anyone).

fuddy1

Gatica i'm in exactly the same boat as yrself. Its a nightmare trying to find a legal solemniser who's willing to do a non-religious ceremony. Want something more than a registrar and having option to get married on a weekend would be nice too! I looked into spiritualist route but it wasnt for us. Would be interested in any info you get. Its a shame humanist ceremonies are not legal here!

Gatica

glad to report we have now booked a solemniser from the spiritualist union

We talked to him already and he said he can do a completely non-denominational ceremony, so won't even have to tell any relatives what organisation he belongs to (may cause offence to die-hard religious people).

Pinky-Mwah

Wow - thank G-d for this post... I was getting dizzy reading about Registars & Solemnisers.

I was starting to panic but after reading this threat I called Tom & looks like we're in business!

I've probably done this arse ways but at least I know who to call once we look at dates & venues

Gatica

glad to hear it...
Really, the HSE rules wrt marriage are ridiculous! mon-fri only, only 1 registrar per county in a number of counties, then in some counties they also restrict to wed and fri only and only at 3pm, or apparently mayo are gonna start doing mon-thurs only.... hello, what about all the people who can't go to mid-week weddings?!