Solemniser

aquinn101

Help!!

I need a solemniser for my wedding next July!

I am from Belfast, Northern Ireland and am getting married in Wineport Lodge, Athlone.

The HSE solemniser for Athlone is fully booked that day and I really want an HSE solemniser - can I use one from the surrounding counties?

if so how do I get in contact with them

Any help is appreciated!

Black_Knight

No experience myself, but there's a list of solemnisers on the welfare.ie site.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/getting_married/civil_marriage_ceremony.html

Excel sheet of them here

Not sure can you just pick up the phone and ring around.

Milly33

I think to be honest that they have to appoint one to you. You cannot just pick one.. Did ye not check with them before arranging all or just go outside the HSE

dori_dormer

I'm not sure if this is still true but I thought they were each only allowed do one out of office ceremony each month, which drastically reduces the likelihood of gettign one, especially on July which is a top wedding month. 7 months before hand is cutting it close . Most people book them 18months beforehand!

Milly33

Must be a rumour maybe, I know our lady was saying they were so busy now travelling around for ceremonies.. No wonder they are so booked out though if that was the case

An Bhanríon

Your best bet is to ring one of the HSE registrar's offices, if you haven't done so already. As you can see the office is the address and phone number given on the excel sheet for all the HSE registrars, i.e. you can't contact them individually. So if you have been talking to Athlone, you might as well ring them back and ask them what the situation is.

If it isn't possible to get one of the HSE registrars for your wedding day, as you can see there are lots of others on the list. Most are religious. You could ask your venue if they are familiar with any of the non-HSE registrars and could try contacting them. The list is very very long and has very few details about each registrar. I say this because I know a couple who got the name of a local Baptist preacher from their hotel. He did a lovely wedding ceremony. They didn't have enough time to get a HSE registrar or humanist and couldn't get married in the Catholic church, so this was their only option. The other option is to get married officially on another date when a HSE registrar is available, e.g. Tuesday morning at 10.30, and then have somebody else perform another marriage ceremony in front of family and friends. There are many people who perform such ceremonies, who aren't on the register of solemnisers, but do lovely wedding ceremonies. A quick google and you should find them.

Princess Peach

Ask your venue for some suggestions. The hse office in our area is only part-time and don't do ceremonies every day of the week and weren't available our chosen dates, but one of the venues we were looking at suggested someone from the list above. While he is a member of a religious organisation, we spoke to him and he is very flexible as to how much or how little religion we want in the ceremony, so worked out great for us in the end.

Gatica

it's likely more than 1 a month at most of the registration offices. It differs by office, some will only do 1 a week, like on a Friday. They also only do it during office hours, like 1 or 3pm. Some will do couple of times a week, like a Wednesday and a Friday... In any case, it's not probably as frequently as they ought to do it, considering the demand.
Go to the registrar in the county/closest to where you're getting married and enquire about getting a HSE solemniser. It doesn't have to the one from the office where you register your intent, unless of course you're getting married locally.