Booking a HSE solemniser for a wedding

pconn062

Hi there, was hoping someone could help me here. We are looking to have a civil ceremony next year, and for family reasons the ceremony needs to be on a Thursday. The problem is in our location (Drogheda is the closest venue), they only do weddings on a Tuesday, which seems odd. We don't mind booking our own venue, and we are trying to find someone to do the ceremony on a Thursday. We have looked at a humanist celebrant but they seems to be very expensive, €450-500. So we were wondering is it possible to book someone from the HSE registered solemniser list to do the service outside of their normal days?
Do they only perform weddings at the HSE approved venue, or can they be booked to do "outside" work as well?

This is probably a stupid question but this is all new to us and booking a civil ceremony in Ireland is quite complicated!

Thanks.

Preset No.3

Try this guy. Such a wonderful man and makes everything seem so easy.


http://humanism.ie/2014/01/billy-hutchinson/

Senna

The HSE registrar has said they only do weddings on a Tuesday??? Are you sure they said that, or maybe did they say the only have the Tuesday free of the week you were enquiring?

Princess Peach

My hse office only does them Thursday and Friday. It's the births, deaths and marriages department so they only do the weddings part-time. They were booked for the week we wanted. The lady on the phone said try the list of solimnisers, and if we were really stuck call her back and they might see what they could do on the Wednesday (we found someone else in the meantime).

So could be worth asking again, if you can find someone else.

pconn062

Senna wrote: »

The HSE registrar has said they only do weddings on a Tuesday??? Are you sure they said that, or maybe did they say the only have the Tuesday free of the week you were enquiring?

Yup in our area, they only do them 1 days a week, believe me I was amazed as well. Our wedding is not until next July and they won't let us book a date until August so it's definitely not a case of being fully booked.

Another issue is we need to have our date secure ASAP as a family member requires respite care for the ceremony and it needs to be requested well in advance (over a year). So waiting until August to book the date is not ideal. Another reason we were going to book our own venue and solemniser.

pconn062

Preset No.3 wrote: »

Try this guy. Such a wonderful man and makes everything seem so easy.


http://humanism.ie/2014/01/billy-hutchinson/

We've had a few suggestions of humanist celebrants but the few we've inquired about are just proving too expensive, as I said, €450-500 seems like a lot for a 30 minute ceremony (I realise they meet with you in advance but still).

Toots

How much would it cost for a HSE celebrant? I'd have thought it'd have been roughly the same.

pconn062

Toots wrote: »

How much would it cost for a HSE celebrant? I'd have thought it'd have been roughly the same.

The prices I have seen online seem to range more from €150-200. The venue we are using is actually the venue the HSE use, it's just a hotel in Drogheda so they won't have far to travel.

Senna

Does another HSE registrar also cover that area? In my area the registrars overlap, there's one about 15 miles away that will also cover our town.

Milly33

Would ye consider lets say getting officially married the Tuesday before hand or the Tuesday after just ye head in and sign the papers and then have someone either family or a speaker preform the ceremony on the day... Saves a lot of money

pconn062

Milly33 wrote: »

Would ye consider lets say getting officially married the Tuesday before hand or the Tuesday after just ye head in and sign the papers and then have someone either family or a speaker preform the ceremony on the day... Saves a lot of money

To be honest, I would. However logistically the Thursday would work better for us for people taking time off work and so on. Plus there is not a hope in hell any of my or my girlfriends family would speak at a ceremony! :pac:

May just need to bite the bullet and book one of the humanist guys. I hear they are great, we were just slightly put off by the price.

pconn062

Senna wrote: »

Does another HSE registrar also cover that area? In my area the registrars overlap, there's one about 15 miles away that will also cover our town.

I'm not sure to be honest, but could be something worth looking into. We have tried both the Dundalk and Drogheda offices, and the Drogheda venue is much nicer, hence why we went for that one.

Senna

Yeah you should check that out, all the HSE registrars I know perform ceremonies Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays only. I know their short staffed everywhere but Tuesdays only is a bit ridiculous.

There are celebrants who cannot perform the legal aspects but will do the ceremony, obviously at a cheaper rate than a humanist celebrant, they might be an option if you go for the official marriage on the Tuesday and the celebration on the Thursday.

Milly33

Oh I think their prices are crazy so they are I don't care what they are doing for it...And it is for them, I thought maybe some of it went towards something but it doesn't.. Madness altogether

You see if lets say ye just done the ceremony bit like going to the registry office to sign the papers and have the standard ceremony (this is covered in their fee) ye could just go with yer two witnesses, no fuss made as such. Ye go in say the lines and sign..

So no one else has to be there.. Then do the big day the Thursday. Ye have lots of options with speakers. Could ask the local priest if ye know one to say a few words, monk (it would work like a blessing), they aren't officially marrying ye... Could get onto the local toast speakers group ask someone from there to do it... lots of other options just depends what ye would go for