Civil Ceremony vs Secular Marriage?

hazelZzz

Hiya, Myself and my partner want to get married, we are not religious and want no bells and whistles, so it will most likely be just be us and our 2 witnesses, at a registry office.

along with a Civil Ceremony a Secular Marriage seems to also be a non-religious option but what I understand is that a Secular Marriage is more personalized and ceremony like?
So therefore I believe we would be looking at the Civil Ceremony?

but what I am wondering is, are they both equal?
As in myself and my partner don't want to be "civil partners"- we want to be legally married and have the titles "husband and wife", if we have a Civil Ceremony does that mean we are not technically married but in a civil partnership instead?

So therefore would be looking at a secular marriage?🤔

Thanks!

scarepanda

Marriage is marriage in Ireland. I'm open to correction, but I don't believe opposite sex couples can have a civil partnership in Ireland.

So, if you just want the legal part with no bells and whistles then you are looking at a HSE registrar in a registry office - in and out in 10/15 minutes. You just make contact with your local birth, deaths and marriages office to book the registrar (you can get married in any of these offices around the country, it doesn't have to be your local). Just note that if you're in rural Ireland most offices only have a registry office one day of the month where they will actually carry out the marriage. And no matter how you plan on getting married you still need to give a minimum of 3 months notice to the state.

Your other option for a strictly non religious ceremony is a humanist. They are usually employed to carry out a ceremony, but I'm sure they will do the legal part as well, but it costs more money obviously to hire them.

Atomic Pineapple

A civil ceremony is a secular ceremony. A Humanist ceremony is another non religious option but you need to make sure it is for you, as in you believe in what Humanism stands for. Either way you will end up as husband and wife.

hazelZzz

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

A civil ceremony is a secular ceremony. A Humanist ceremony is another non religious option but you need to make sure it is for you, as in you believe in what Humanism stands for. Either way you will end up as husband and wife.

but if they are the same then why does it ask you to choose between?

It asks you to choose the nature of Ceremony (Options: Civil/Religious/Secular).

We don't want a humanist ceremony anyway, just a registry office type thing

scarepanda

Civil is state (HSE registrar), humanist is secular (anti God/religion), religious is everything else (although some religions will do a non religious ceremony if requested (spiritualists for example)).

Atomic Pineapple

A humanist ceremony or humanism itself is not anti god or religion. Nor is that the meaning of secular.

They ask you to chose simply because the HSE are responsible for a civil ceremony and not for the others, you then chose between the others because the celebrant needs to be registered with one of them.

scarepanda

Atomic Pineapple wrote:

A humanist ceremony or humanism itself is not anti god or religion. Nor is that the meaning of secular.

May be not. But in terms of choosing a secular ceremony they are pretty much the only option in Ireland (that I know of at least). And while they may not be anti God or religion, that was my experience of humanists when I was looking for someone to marry us. It's very difficult to get someone who is middle of the road without any agendas to marry you in this country.

Atomic Pineapple

A civil ceremony is a secular ceremony, secular just means no connection to religious or spiritual matters or bound by religious rules. Humanism is secular in the same way but one of the main points of Humanism is a tolerance for others who hold different beliefs. While Humanists have no belief in the supernatural, this does not make a Humanist anti religion. You can of course not have religious elements in a Humanist ceremony or have a Humanist ceremony if you have religious beliefs because that would defeat the entire point.

The best middle of the road option (if I understand what you mean correctly) is to have a small private civil ceremony and then have a non legal ceremony for a wider audience where you can hire a non affiliated celebrant (Or just get someone you know) to perform a ceremony that contains whatever you want.

GingerLily

Humanist are tolerant of religion but a lot of solomisers don't want to perform marriages when the couple themselves are religious and are only choosing humanist so they can have a Saturday wedding at a non church venue.


You want a civil ceremony OP, you will be legally married, good luck

hazelZzz

GingerLily wrote: »

You want a civil ceremony OP, you will be legally married, good luck

Thank you! That's exactly what I wanted to know :cool:

baby and crumble

Just to clarify, civil partnerships were never available to heterosexual couples in Ireland. So marriage was always marriage for straight folks.

Peregrinus

The terminology does get a bit confusing here.

"Civil" means having to do with the state. A civil ceremony is one celebrated by a state official - i.e. the HSE registrar.

"Secular" means not having anything to do with god/religion/etc. Strictly speaking civil ceremonies are secular - they have no religious content - but if "civil ceremony" and "secular ceremony" are being contrasted, then "secular ceremony" refers to a ceremony conducted by a celebrant who has been nominated by a "secular body" that has been authorised by the state to train, license, etc people to act as wedding celebrants. As of now only one secular body has been authorised - the Humanist Association of Ireland. So "secular ceremony" and "humanist ceremony" are basically the same thing.

Finally, "religious" obviously refers to a ceremony conducted by a celebrant who has been nominated by a church or other religious body. The ceremony itself may have minimal or no religious content - there are some religious bodies willing to conduct religion-free ceremonies for couples who are not religious - but as far as officialdom goes these are still classed as "religious ceremonies" because the celebrant conducting them was nominated by a religious body.

Finally, it's also possible to have a celebration which is not conducted by anybody authorised or recognised by the state to celebrate marriages. That ceremony can take any form you like, and can be as meaningful to you as you like, but from a legal point of view it accomplishes nothing - you are as unmarried after the celebration as you were before. Some couples have a short and low-key civil ceremony to deal with the legal aspect, and a separate non-official celebration which is meaningful to them with their family and friends.

As for civil partnership, as others have said it's of largely historical interest. It was introduced as a kind of marriage-without-the-name for same-sex couples, mainly as a last-ditch effort to hold the line against marriage equality. It was only ever available to same-sex couples. Now that marriage is available to same-sex couples, civil partnership no longer is. Same-sex couples already in a civil partnership have the option of upgrading to business class at no cost, so to speak, and I think many of them have done that, so there are probably not many civil partnerships still around. In time there will be none.

garbeth

Just to update Peregrinus ' post. The civil partnerships to marriage upgrade was not free. You had to pay again it was a reduced fee.