Recommend a Humanist celebrant

Shybride2016

Hi everyone,

Starting to research our celebrant for our wedding next year and wondering if any of you who had a humanist celebrant could pm me with your experiences and recommendations please?

We've been looking at the website but it's difficult to get a feel for someone from a short biography so would appreciate any advice.

Thanks as always :-)

pooch90

You don't get to pick and choose who you get,you email the Humanist society and they assign whoever is available.

fits

pooch90 wrote: »

You don't get to pick and choose who you get,you email the Humanist society and they assign whoever is available.

Eh yeah you do. I contacted our celebrant directly. She was the most local and we just went with a date she had available.

Shybride2016

Oh really? I've just been contacting a few via email and have had a couple of replies so far. They didn't mention contacting a general email address. Now I'm confused!

Shybride2016

fits wrote: »

Eh yeah you do. I contacted our celebrant directly. She was the most local and we just went with a date she had available.

Have you had your wedding yet fits? I've never been to a humanist ceremony and would love to hear what it's like if you wouldn't mind?

fits

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Oh really? I've just been contacting a few via email and have had a couple of replies so far. They didn't mention contacting a general email address. Now I'm confused!

You dont have to use a general address. Dont mind that post.

We havent had our ceremony yet but all good so far with bridget carlin.

lazygal

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Have you had your wedding yet fits? I've never been to a humanist ceremony and would love to hear what it's like if you wouldn't mind?

We had a humanist wedding a few years ago, and it was a very good experience. We had Brian Whiteside and would recommend him. He really made the ceremony very memorable.

Shybride2016

Delighted to hear that lazygal thanks for the reply. Unfortunately Brian isnt available for our date but great to hear it went well!

stinkle

We had Billy Hutchinson, who was really wonderful on the day and in the lead-up and is just a lovely person in general. He's Dublin/Leinster.

almorris

Elaine Morris. Lovely, professional.

A2LUE42

almorris wrote: »

Elaine Morris. Lovely, professional.

Tina Storey did our wedding and she was brilliant to deal with.

pooch90

fits wrote: »

You dont have to use a general address. Dont mind that post.

We havent had our ceremony yet but all good so far with bridget carlin.

When we booked, that was how you had to do it, maybe they have changed it since.

Sugar Free

As a general comment and not aimed at any one person - perhaps it would be worthwhile creating a sticky for the general process involved in organising a humanist or civil ceremony.

There often seems to be confusion around the differences between the two and the criteria that must be met. E.g. (though I too could be wrong!) that civil ceremonies can't be held outdoors generally or that they can only be performed Monday to Friday.

A simple, experience based stickied thread may help.
Just a thought.

rainbow kirby

A2LUE42 wrote: »

Tina Storey did our wedding and she was brilliant to deal with.

She's doing ours in May. Limited choices for Limerick due to the fact that there are quite a few of them who have geographical restrictions (Dublin area only or Cork/Kerry only).

irlrobins

Emma Sides performed our ceremony. Extremely helpful in assisting us in deciding the content of the ceremony, advising what elements would work and what wouldn't, timings etc. Very easy going and personable. We got a lot of compliments about our ceremony afterwards and how Emma performed it. Couldn't have been happier really.

fjon

I would probably answer "whoever you can get". There is a huge demand for humanist celebrants now, and even if your wedding is next year you may find it hard to find someone. If you are having a Saturday wedding, or are in the greater Dublin area, it's going to be even more difficult.
We have someone booked for this year, and only got this because she's a "new" celebrant. Otherwise we would not have been able to get anyone.

westernlass

We have Eithne Dempsey booked. I love her. She was so nice when we met. She also said she would ask everyone not to post on social media and for us to not have to be the bad guys.

I'm really looking forward to having her

lainycool

We had Emma Sides here too and she was just great, She made our day so special!

snoopy29

We had Susie Kennedy and she was a lovely woman to talk with and she performed a beautiful ceremony. We were all in tears at the end of it, including her!

Shybride2016

Thanks for all the replies everyone. All sorted now, having spoken to Emma Sides this morning I'm delighted that she's available as she sounds so lovely and exactly what we want for our ceremony.

I will say to anyone interested in having a Humanist celebrant to get booking asap as they are booking up fast for next year already.

Thanks again for all your help & advice. I'd be lost without this forum!

Skittlebrau

westernlass wrote: »

We have Eithne Dempsey booked. I love her. She was so nice when we met. She also said she would ask everyone not to post on social media and for us to not have to be the bad guys.

I'm really looking forward to having her

+1 for Eithne. Lovely and easy to deal with. Only downside is she's a Man Utd fan ☺

westernlass

Skittlebrau wrote: »

+1 for Eithne. Lovely and easy to deal with. Only downside is she's a Man Utd fan ☺

Ha ha that's a plus for us. My fiancée will be delighted

Cainer

We had Emma Sides too, she was wonderful from beginning to end so you're very lucky she was available. Good luck with your wedding!

fannymagee

Can a Humanist celebrant legally solemnise, or do you do that part seperately?

snoopy29

Humanist ceremonies are legal in Ireland so now separate legalities to take care of.

fannymagee

snoopy29 wrote: »

Humanist ceremonies are legal in Ireland so now separate legalities to take care of.

Ah brilliant, great to see the scope of options widening so much!

I'll be able to legally solemnise from July 2016. Bring it on!! ;-)

kmmh58

Sorry to hijack your post OP. We intend to marry in September 2016, tonight I started to contact people for Humanist ceremony. It feels a little extreme so far in advance but we shall push on

fannymagee wrote: »

Ah brilliant, great to see the scope of options widening so much!

I'll be able to legally solemnise from July 2016. Bring it on!! ;-)

how do you become a solemniser?

andreac

kmmh58 wrote: »

Sorry to hijack your post OP. We intend to marry in September 2016, tonight I started to contact people for Humanist ceremony. It feels a little extreme so far in advance but we shall push on



how do you become a solemniser?

You will be lucky to get one even this far ahead. I contacted several celebrants about 3 weeks for August 2016 and only one available. That was Billy Hutchinson who we are meeting in a couple of weeks, so Def get contacting asap!!

kmmh58

andreac wrote: »

You will be lucky to get one even this far ahead. I contacted several celebrants about 3 weeks for August 2016 and only one available. That was Billy Hutchinson who we are meeting in a couple of weeks, so Def get contacting asap!!

I only contacted 2 people, should I contact more?

Shybride2016

kmmh58 wrote: »

I only contacted 2 people, should I contact more?

Hiya,

I would contact as many as possible if I was you. We're getting married on a Saturday in April next year and out of 8 we contacted only three were available on our date.

Best of luck with your search!

andreac

kmmh58 wrote: »

I only contacted 2 people, should I contact more?

Definitely. I contacted 7 or 8 I think and only One was free. Thank god as I was starting to panic.

pablo102

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

brandnewaward

try bridgit carlin , she aint available 10th june next year though;)

andreac

pablo102 wrote: »

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

Similar to a civil I think really. You can have it as you want and add things to it as far as I know.

westernlass

pablo102 wrote: »

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

There's lots on wedding websites if you have a browse around the blogs

Peregrinus

kmmh58 wrote: »

how do you become a solemniser?

Assuming you want to become a humanist solemniser, you become a member of the Humanist Association of Ireland, you get selected, trained and accredited by them as a solemniser of weddings, they nominate you to the Registrar General as a solemniser, he enters your name in the Register of Solemnisers, and you're good to go. You have to be over 18, and generally thought to be a fit and proper person to solemnise marriages.

almorris

pablo102 wrote: »

I wonder how the ceremony itself look like?
I'm asking from the wedding photographer point of view.

Main thing is you need to work a lot faster as the ceremony's only last 30 mins max.

Trix

hey all.

how much did your humanists charge you?

andreac

Trix wrote: »

hey all.

how much did your humanists charge you?

Well the one i am meeting this month said his charge is €450.

rainbow kirby

andreac wrote: »

Well the one i am meeting this month said his charge is €450.

Same for us.

fits

We were quoted 550. With over an hour travel time. Are we being overcharged?

rainbow kirby

The travel time could be a factor - we have a celebrant from Limerick city for a Limerick city wedding.

Shybride2016

We're paying €475 for ours .

Trix

thanks everyone. waiting to hear back how much our one is charging. probably should have been first thing I asked but they're hard to book at short notice.

tread_softly

Ours was €450 also

Sugar Free

A friends' humanist celebrant was 450E. Based in Dublin and travelling to the wedding in a neighbouring county.

westernlass

Ours is 600euro with two hours travel

almorris

There are other celebrants out there who are not associated to anyone in that they work for themselves. Romy McAuley is excellent.

stargazer 68

Ours is 500 and that includes travel, meetings and writing the ceremony etc

Sugar Free

Sugar Free wrote: »

As a general comment and not aimed at any one person - perhaps it would be worthwhile creating a sticky for the general process involved in organising a humanist or civil ceremony.

There often seems to be confusion around the differences between the two and the criteria that must be met. E.g. (though I too could be wrong!) that civil ceremonies can't be held outdoors generally or that they can only be performed Monday to Friday.

A simple, experience based stickied thread may help.
Just a thought.

I think that would be very helpful. People don't realise there are only 20 Humanist celebrants in the country (1 celebrant for every @ 8,000 people of "No religion" according to the last census, compared to 1 for every 800 or so Catholics).

Fits' approach of finding the celebrant they wanted and organising the date around them is probably the best way to go.

almorris wrote: »

There are other celebrants out there who are not associated to anyone in that they work for themselves. Romy McAuley is excellent.

Do you mean someone who is not a registered solemniser but will "perform" the ceremony?

fannymagee

There are also 12 Interfaith Ministers in Ireland, who can legally solemnise in the same way Humanists do- with the exception that they also offer non-secular ceremonies (good for people who want a more traditional style ceremony, and also the Jedi/Pastafarians amongst us) ;-)