Civil & Humanist ceremonies

DebDynamite

Hi all

My partner and I have decided to opt for a civil service. Ideally we would like to have it on a Saturday, but as registrars only work Monday-Friday, this is not so appealing.

I've read about humanist weddings but as they are not legal, we would have to do the legal bit either on the Friday or the Monday after. If we were to go down that road, I feel hat would take away from the actual ceremony as we'd already be married on our "wedding day" if we did legalities on a Friday, or if we waited until Monday, we wouldn't actually be married until then, making the whole "wedding day" a bit of a farce, imo

May I say what a disgrace that you cannot have a civil cervice on a weekend in Ireland. Is there a reason, they cannot have registrars working on a weekend? Or is this another grip the Catholic Chruch over the state, where they don't want to make civil ceremonies any more attractive?

Does anyone know if there is any plans in the future to have civil ceremonies carried out on a Saturday or Sunday in Ireland?

January

I just don't think they have the hang of weddings outside of business hours really...

Zaph

DebDynamite wrote: »

May I say what a disgrace that you cannot have a civil cervice on a weekend in Ireland. Is there a reason, they cannot have registrars working on a weekend? Or is this another grip the Catholic Chruch over the state, where they don't want to make civil ceremonies any more attractive?

Nothing to do with the Catholic Church this time, but rather down to the fact that the HSE department dealing with marriage registrations only works Monday to Friday.

DebDynamite wrote: »

Does anyone know if there is any plans in the future to have civil ceremonies carried out on a Saturday or Sunday in Ireland?

There is currently a bill going through the Dáil which will give legal status to weddings carried out by the humanist society (and others once they satisfy certain criteria). They conduct ceremonies at the weekend, so they'll be all you need once the bill has been passed.

tatli_lokma

currently the reason that registrars don't work weekends is because of the overtime rates they would be due. If the HSE tried to change hours so that registrars worked on shifts of say Mon-Fri, Tues-Sat, Wed-Sun there would probably be holy war from the unions.

I agree that its inconvenient, because although even humanist weddings may soon get the go ahead, many people don't want any sort of religious/spiritual element to their wedding (such as athiests), and for those people only a civil ceremony fits the bill.

Sleepy

A humanist wedding is an atheist wedding Little Ted. The prime belief of humanism is that morality needn't be derived from any deity...

The Spiritualist Union of Ireland who are registered as a pagan religion will perform whatever kind of marriage you want, wherever you want and on a Saturday. I don't share any of their religious beliefs but this is fine with them: they believe myself and my partner are entitled to be legally married however we see fit and will carry out that marriage for us for a fee. Details on http://www.tomcolton.com/ (no affiliation but using them ourselves as Humanists aren't yet legal and may not be by February when we want to get married).

tatli_lokma

Sleepy wrote: »

A humanist wedding is an atheist wedding Little Ted. The prime belief of humanism is that morality needn't be derived from any deity...

Good to know.... I just thought athiests also object to humanist weddings as a cousin of mine is very strongly athiest and this was his reason for rejecting a humanist ceremony as well (his wife to be thought it would be a good compromise, but he veto'd it, so now they are only having a simple registry office ceremony), so I thought there was a spiritual element to it because of his reaction.

DebDynamite

Little Ted wrote: »

Good to know.... I just thought athiests also object to humanist weddings as a cousin of mine is very strongly athiest and this was his reason for rejecting a humanist ceremony as well (his wife to be thought it would be a good compromise, but he veto'd it, so now they are only having a simple registry office ceremony), so I thought there was a spiritual element to it because of his reaction.

I thought so too. They have their own Church on Stephen's Green, what's it used for then?

Sleepy

That's the Unitarian Church. Totally different organisation to the Humanists.

DebDynamite

Sleepy wrote: »

That's the Unitarian Church. Totally different organisation to the Humanists.

Ah yes, sorry

bang_bang_rosie

Tom coltan can do civil ceremonies on Saturdays. He does spiritualist weddings.

maevetherave

Hi, we were shocked to find out we couldn't have a civil wedding on a Saturday but then we found Tom Colton (no affiliation whatever) and have booked him for our wedding in September. Haven't worked out the details of the ceremony yet but he seems very open and accommodating!

SmilingLurker

DebDynamite wrote: »

Does anyone know if there is any plans in the future to have civil ceremonies carried out on a Saturday or Sunday in Ireland?

No, currently there are no plans, and I think it is disgraceful. I would have been willing to pay for a celebrant on another day. Also, you will find that most time slots are booked up (at least in Dublin) and the quality of the rooms in the registry offices leave a lot to be desired.

Yes, they are trying to get a law through at the moment that would allow the HAI (Humanist Association of Ireland). (it is the top page article on their website at the moment - http://www.humanism.ie/ )

Myself and my wife got married in a civil ceremony and had a humanist ceremony the following week. (Both of us are non believers) Brian Whiteside was our celebrant. I would recommend it, good luck on your day.

Glitter

SmilingLurker wrote: »

Myself and my wife got married in a civil ceremony and had a humanist ceremony the following week. (Both of us are non believers) Brian Whiteside was our celebrant. I would recommend it, good luck on your day.

Brian's doing myself and my partner's ceremony in November, glad to hear the recommendation!

clint_silver

FYI: I played at a wedding 3 weeks ago in the waterside hotel in donabate on a Sunday of all days. That was a non-religious wedding. They had the ceremony in the hotel that day.

Did another one last Friday in the same venue. great nights.

Irish Wedding D

Tom Colton is fantastic... very professional and an excellent orator. He has a very subtle sense of humour which is important for me while being respectful to job he has to do at the same time.

Ruairi Finnegan
www.irishweddingdj.com