Alternative Non Traditional Civil Wedding Dublin

Tilly123

We are looking for somewhere to get married/ have our Civil Ceremony near The Shelbourne Hotel. We are having our reception in The Shelbourne. We want the ceremony somewhere near but not in the same place as the reception. The Unitarian Church charges €750 which we think is madness for 35 minutes!! or so. We are having a small, non traditional civil wedding for many reasons and cost is one so why pay that much for a few minutes. We tried The Merrion but you have to have the reception there too. St. Ann's on Dawson St says one of us has to be Anglican... I know madness when it's a Civil Ceremony and only one person has to be Anglican. City Hall is out cos it's way too public as in hoards of tourists passing through- no thanks

Has anyone any suggestions for us? Were getting worried now

LashingLady

The Humanist Assocation will facilitate a wedding anywhere indoors or outdoors. Maybe get on to them and see if they have any suggestions.

http://www.humanism.ie/website/ceremonies/wedding-ceremonies

The drawback however is that their ceremonies do not hold any legal status so you would have to do the formality yourself at the Registry Office. I know a few people who had to do this before a foreign wedding as they had not sorted out teh legals in the country they were going to. They just arranged to go on a weekday and dressed in regular clothes and tried not to treat it as something special so that the actual wedding day would be special. They didn't even tell their guests that they were actually already married when they had their church ceremony abroad.

Tilly123

Thanks Lashing Lady,

We had a quick think about that and thought no. We don't want to be lying to ourselves or our guests. We've been together a long time and it's only once we want to get legally married.
Thanks for the thought though, just not us

sweetie

Isn't there a place on lower grand canal st (opp the treasury building) that does civil weddings?

Borderfox

I know the Unitarian is pricey but any wedding I have worked at in there has always had a very personal feel to it, much more so than even a church wedding.

smelltheglove

The reigstry office is just up the road but unfrtunately not the most attractive place in the world. Maybe contact the registry office and ask for a list of venues that have been certified close by and call them one by one. Not just any venue can hold a civil ceremony they need to be approved first.

trad

There's a couple of barges on the Canal might be suitable. Definately differnt.

Tilly123

Thanks all....think I'll ask for that list from Reg Office.

Place opposite Treasury was Reg building but moved to Joyce House now near Pearse St. Don't want to get married in a Reg office, yuck. Sorry but barge in that bracket too Defo different though

I also tried the University Church on Stephens Green. Preist nicely said we'd have to have whole Catholic ceremony, they don't allow just Civil.

At the minute it's either bowing down to the feckin church or paying the Unitarians a fortune- Nice to know it's nice inside etc though Also tried Bewleys in Ballsbridge- €2500 for Thomas Priory Hall! €254 for The Merrion Room which hold 20ppl. It's really ugly, it's a board room. They say it's much nicer set up for a Civil Ceremony. I don't know how but will investigate.

Bare with me I know I'm sounding really picky but I love this man very much. We've been waiting for this for a long long time and were hell bent that because it's not the norm it will be our version of perfect

Tilly123

Borderfox- Complete curiosity.... What did you work at in the church?

Ginny

We're getting married in the Unitarian church, it works for us because the registrars only work Monday to Friday 9-5 in the civil offices.
If you're having a reception somewhere they should have a room available for the ceremony, and the unitarian celebrants would travel and marry you in the venue, the registrars do this too but again only Monday to Friday 9-5.

TBH we've no issue with the €750, the church is funded by its parishioners alone and only has one service a week, plus the celebrants are normal people, the main celebrants are both women and absolutely lovely.
They've been nothing but welcoming to us, their ethos is basically acceptance of everyone and they believe in evolution and pray for research in science, one of their beautiful stained glassed windows is dedicated to scientists. Its a refreshing change from the dealings we've had with the Catholic Church.
As for the ceremony, its completely up to us, we can include or exclude anything we want and make it completely personal to us.
The church is stunning also, which helps, they have a service on Sunday mornings at 11 with tea and coffee afterwards, you should pop in and see what you think.

smelltheglove

Tilly123 wrote: »

Borderfox- Complete curiosity.... What did you work at in the church?

Border is a wedding photographer, and a very good one too;)

OP, my brothers brother in law is a solmeniser and if I recall correctly he did say that you can apply to have somewhere approved for the ceremony so you could ask about the Shelbourne.

I have covered a few weddings in board rooms turned into civil ceremony rooms, they can be nice but at the end of the day they are still board rooms, if the option is there to have somewhere nicer then Id go for somewhere nicer. For example I covered on in Liffey Valley house a few years back and the room was stunning. I know its too far from you but just an example.

Also Fallon & Byrne restaurant have a lovely function room, not sure if they have been approved before but you could enquire, they are just off Grafton Street and the room is stunning.

Borderfox

I wasnt too keen on the Thomas Prior hall in Bewleys

namurt

Maybe this isn't near enough but how about Haughton House at Dublin Zoo. We got married there last August and it was brilliant. A really amazing setting and great for photos.

geoffraffe

smelltheglove wrote: »

OP, my brothers brother in law is a solmeniser and if I recall correctly he did say that you can apply to have somewhere approved for the ceremony so you could ask about the Shelbourne.

Do you know if your brother's brother in law does ceremonies on Saturdays. We're hoping to get married on a Saturday and much like the OP we're looking to get married in a place that's not the registry office. Finding it very hard to find anywhere so far.

Who would have known that getting married would be so difficult if you are not catholic?

Nead21

all the of the hotels/houses i've visited so far have been approved to host a civil ceremony, and most of these have been approved to have the ceremony on saturdays too

amdublin

Why not the registry office?

You are very near it.

geoffraffe

The registry office doesn't open on Saturdays and a lot of hotels will only host the ceremony if you are having the reception there. We're not gong for a hotel reception as we're having it in a restaurant, hence the trouble.

As far as we can tell, all the registered solemnisers who are not attached to the registry office (HSE) are attached to a religion of some sort.

We have no problem finding a venue to host the ceremony, as there are plenty of options in Dublin. The trouble is finding a person who can legally perform the ceremony. As was mentioned earlier in the posts, we don't fancy doing the ceremony twice.

snickerpuss

OP, I saw this the other day and thought of you.

It's a list of 10 'almost secret' Dublin City Centre Wedding Venues from Irish wedding blog OneFabDay - Cool & Secret Dublin City Centre Wedding Venues

siroche

smelltheglove wrote: »

OP, my brothers brother in law is a solmeniser and if I recall correctly he did say that you can apply to have somewhere approved for the ceremony so you could ask about the Shelbourne.

I'd also be interested to see if there is a solmeniser who is not affiliated with a religion who would perform a wedding on a Saturday. I rang the Registry office and they did say that there were no civil solmeniser outside the HSE and that's a Monday to Friday only deal. Insane that you can't have a civil ceremony on the most popular wedding day! We are looking for the exact same thing, a civil ceremony on a Saturday near St. Stephen's Green. Unitarian church seems interesting but not ideal - and the cost is just one element. Does anyone know of ANY solmenisers who will do a civil only ceremony in Dublin on a Saturday? I think that's the crux of this whole thread.

mocmo

I have been through all of this recently, you cannot have a civil ceremony on a Saturday, the only way to get legally married on a Saturday is to do it in a church of some kind. Legal solemnisers are affiliated with the HSE and they don't work Saturdays :rolleyes: But you can have a legal ceremony in lots of alternative venues from Monday to Friday.

I looked into all sorts of alternatives, even the Spiritualist Union of Ireland who do have a minister who can carry out a legal marriage (Tom Colton if you are interested)...but they are really a church of sorts and weren't for me. We are ending up doing the legal bit one day and having a Humanist ceremony at our reception venue the following day as we couldn't even get an available registrar for our date....it's not easy!!

siroche

Thanks for the info & clarification - it was certainly looking like that was the case with the civil Monday to Friday deal. I think we're also going to look for a humanist ceremony on the day. How did it go with the humanists? Probably like yourself I didn't want to bring any religion into it and the humanist approach sounds right up our street.

mocmo

Well we aren't getting married until August but we have met our Humanist minister and are really happy with her. They have a very friendly and relaxed approach to the whole thing, while also maintaining the sense of a solemn / important occasion. I have been to two Humanist weddings and they were both really lovely...I actually never even realised that they weren't 'real'....in the legal sense. It took me a while to get my head around doing the two things separately, I kind of thought the Humanist wedding wouldn't be real if you know what I mean....but then I figured, in the traditional church wedding it is supposedly the vows and ceremony that are important meaningful part (if you are religious), with the legal signing of the register done afterwards. That's not to say that the register isn't important, but in terms of your feelings for the other person and getting up and making that commitment in front of others, the ceremony just needs to suit you and mean something to you. I hope that makes sense!!:D

siroche

You're bang on there. It is a pity that the state haven't given the humanists legal power to wed considering the Spiritualists (Tarot cards, psychics, etc.) can. Hopefully that'll change but as we're also set for an August wedding I guess we have to look at a legal event beforehand. Really appreciate the info.

prettygurrly

i think if i had to...i would do the signing bit on a day after the event..i would want to be doing the whole saying i do before I signed a piece of paper. after all, in a church you say all your vows etc. but you're not actually married till you sign the register. if you were struck down by lightning just after you say I do...you're not technically married. i think that's how i would approach a humanist ceremony...like the prelude you do in the church before you sign the bit of paper round the back...just that the signing day will be a couple of days after...

Kooli

We did a registry office wedding with immediate family only on the Friday, followed by a humanist ceremony at the venue on the Saturday, and it was PERFECT!

The humanist ceremony is so brilliant - while it was a shame it wasn't legally binding, we actually found that we loved the intimacy of the private civil ceremony with just family on the Friday (it was about 5 minutes long, but really nice, and we went for dinner afterwards). We wouldn't have expected to enjoy that day as much. But we still think of the humanist ceremony on the Saturday as our wedding day, and that will be the anniversay we celebrate.

As for doing the official bit a couple of days after the humanist ceremony, I wouldn't have liked to do it that way. Firstly, because we thought of the Saturday as our official wedding day, I would have hated to not be 'officially' married afterwards. Also, the fact that we had the legal bit over and done with made the ceremony much more relaxing (no nerves about 'will he/she show up?' etc.!!).

beegirl

Kooli wrote: »

We did a registry office wedding with immediate family only on the Friday, followed by a humanist ceremony at the venue on the Saturday, and it was PERFECT!

The humanist ceremony is so brilliant - while it was a shame it wasn't legally binding, we actually found that we loved the intimacy of the private civil ceremony with just family on the Friday (it was about 5 minutes long, but really nice, and we went for dinner afterwards). We wouldn't have expected to enjoy that day as much. But we still think of the humanist ceremony on the Saturday as our wedding day, and that will be the anniversay we celebrate.

As for doing the official bit a couple of days after the humanist ceremony, I wouldn't have liked to do it that way. Firstly, because we thought of the Saturday as our official wedding day, I would have hated to not be 'officially' married afterwards. Also, the fact that we had the legal bit over and done with made the ceremony much more relaxing (no nerves about 'will he/she show up?' etc.!!).

I could have written that myself, we were the exact same as that, did the legal stuff the day before - it really took the pressure off, like you said! Plus the next date the civil registrar could give us after the date of our humanist ceremony was nearly two weeks later, which would have been really weird, we would have been back from our honeymoon and all before we got legally married