Recommend a Humanist celebrant

pwurple · 09-04-2015 5:04pm

Deleted User wrote: »

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).

HSE civil registrars are also available.... I think that's a decent option if you want to avoid the "What is a humanist" sales pitch at your wedding.

lazygal · 09-04-2015 5:08pm

pwurple wrote: »

HSE civil registrars are also available.... I think that's a decent option if you want to avoid the "What is a humanist" sales pitch at your wedding.

Maybe you could post details of your priest who did an offsite not quite Catholic but ok for atheist Christians or Catholicsmarriage service? It could help Cork based couples out I'm sure.

stinkle · 10-04-2015 4:40am

pwurple wrote: »

HSE civil registrars are also available.... I think that's a decent option if you want to avoid the "What is a humanist" sales pitch at your wedding.

Our celebrant gave us the option of including a paragraph about Humanism in our ceremony or not. It seems to be completely up to the couple if they choose to include it.

brandnewaward · 10-04-2015 5:04am

ours is 500 incl travel , having said that , she has a bit of work designing the ceremony , and also the pamphlets , which the future mrs brandnewaward and i decided on the elvish theme along with music from lord of the rings

lazygal · 10-04-2015 7:13am

stinkle wrote: »

Our celebrant gave us the option of including a paragraph about Humanism in our ceremony or not. It seems to be completely up to the couple if they choose to include it.

Ours too. No selling of anything at our wedding. I have been to church weddings where a celebrant made a point of emphasizing the religious denomination though.

willow tree · 10-04-2015 9:37pm

What kind of deposits were you asked for. One asked us for €200 & the one we booked only asked us for €50.

Shybride2016 · 10-04-2015 9:58pm

willow tree wrote: »

What kind of deposits were you asked for. One asked us for €200 & the one we booked only asked us for €50.

Hiya,

We paid €100 deposit and our celebrant is charging €450 total.

Faith · 10-04-2015 10:53pm

Our humanist celebrant charges E450. He has to travel for 90 minutes, but that's because he lives very rurally. We're getting married in the city centre and there's no travel charge. He also hasn't charged a deposit, as he's happy to be paid in full on the day.

westernlass · 11-04-2015 2:09pm

We are paying deposits to everyone as it suited us. 200e we have paid to the ministers but I'm not sure what she wanted

stargazer 68 · 16-04-2015 12:34pm

Slightly off topic but didnt want a new thread. Does the Humanist/Celebrant get invited to the dinner? Or is that another 'if you want to' thing?

lazygal · 16-04-2015 12:48pm

Ours stayed for a drink afterwards but didn't want to stay for dinner. I know someone else who had the same celebrant and didn't ask him to dinner at all. Its one of those up to yourself things but I don't think most would want or expect to be asked.

almorris · 16-04-2015 1:12pm

lazygal wrote: »

Ours stayed for a drink afterwards but didn't want to stay for dinner. I know someone else who had the same celebrant and didn't ask him to dinner at all. Its one of those up to yourself things but I don't think most would want or expect to be asked.

There usually gone by that time so I cant really see the need.

andreac · 16-04-2015 1:17pm

Dovies wrote: »

Slightly off topic but didnt want a new thread. Does the Humanist/Celebrant get invited to the dinner? Or is that another 'if you want to' thing?

Good question actually and i never thought about it.

I think its a lot of hanging around for them especially when they know no one at all. They might have a cuppa and the pre-reception food after the ceremony.

rainbow kirby · 16-04-2015 1:21pm

Dovies wrote: »

Slightly off topic but didnt want a new thread. Does the Humanist/Celebrant get invited to the dinner? Or is that another 'if you want to' thing?

We asked ours and she said that she would prefer to just leave after the ceremony. She lives close to our venue anyway so it then becomes an incredibly easy job.

stargazer 68 · 16-04-2015 3:38pm

Well I will ask her and see! Lots of little stuff to think about never mind the bigger things!

fits · 16-04-2015 4:20pm

Not a fear we are asking our celebrant to the meal. Our seats are scarce enough already! Tbh its not like she's doing us a favour, we are paying her to do the job. She'd be welcome to a drink and refreshments of course.

stinkle · 16-04-2015 5:12pm

I asked ours and he said he never attends the meal but did stay for the drinks reception and was chatting away to everyone - it wasn't like he ran out the door as soon as we were married! I imagine they're all so busy these days that they don't want to be spending extra time at these events anyway

Lizzie71 · 17-04-2015 1:37pm

Can anyone recommend a name of a humanist that they have seen in action?

ionapaul · 17-04-2015 3:56pm

We were married by Billy Hutchinson in September 2013 - he did a great job, we were very happy with everything. Gonna see him in a few weekends marrying one of my colleagues!

Lizzie71 · 17-04-2015 4:09pm

Thanks so much Paul for the reply, can you tell me is there a way one can see them in action as I have heard some say the personality is just not there with some celebrants?

andreac · 17-04-2015 4:27pm

ionapaul wrote: »

We were married by Billy Hutchinson in September 2013 - he did a great job, we were very happy with everything. Gonna see him in a few weekends marrying one of my colleagues!

Great to know as we have Billy booked for ours. We are meeting him for the first time in 2 weeks

andreac · 17-04-2015 4:28pm

Lizzie71 wrote: »

Thanks so much Paul for the reply, can you tell me is there a way one can see them in action as I have heard some say the personality is just not there with some celebrants?

Could you not organise a meeting with them yourself and see how you get on?

You dont have to confirm with them there and then im sure.

But i would suggest to start contacting them asap as i contacted 7/8 celebrants back in March for August next year and Billy was the only one free for our date (a Friday), so they are very busy.

ionapaul · 17-04-2015 4:29pm

Hmm, we didn't video our ceremony (lots of pictures though!) but I can say that Billy had the perfect personality for our tastes; he was sincere, engaged, defo didn't push any agenda (though we did join the Humanist Association of Ireland beforehand, which I had no problem with) and handled a nephew falling off his chair, onto the ground and crying loudly with ease and humour. I do think that being sincere is probably the most important thing people should look for here, hate being at weddings where you can tell the celebrant doesn't particularly care; this is admittedly very rare though.

Lizzie71 · 17-04-2015 5:18pm

We are not marrying til 2017 but want to be prepared 😉 I think we are also looking for someone who will make ceremony personal and fun

andreac · 06-05-2015 3:49pm

Well we met our celebrant last night for the first time, Billy Hutchinson and all i can say is that im so glad he was free for our date as he is such a lovely man. We were with him for over an hour and he was explaining everything and having a great chat, so we both really felt at ease and comfortable with him.

I would highly recommend him if people haven't already contacted him.

Lizzie71 · 07-05-2015 8:22pm

You just made my day we have our appointment with him later this month so best bring my cheque book 😀

brandnewaward · 08-05-2015 7:21am

anyone use bridgit carlin? we have her booked but if anyone had feedback on how the actual ceremony went?......

corglass · 13-05-2015 8:50am

Any more recommendations guys?

salad_man · 02-01-2020 8:34pm

Not sure if there is a more recent forum on this...

Looking for recent recommendations on Humanist Celebrants close / near to Dublin

thanks

Shybride2016 · 02-01-2020 11:14pm

salad_man wrote: »

Not sure if there is a more recent forum on this...

Looking for recent recommendations on Humanist Celebrants close / near to Dublin

thanks

Can highly recommend our celebrant Emma Sides. She’s based in Dublin but does travel. We were also at a friend’s wedding last year and she was the celebrant there too. She’s so lovely and really works with you to make sure you get the ceremony you both want.

lainycool · 03-01-2020 12:21am

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Can highly recommend our celebrant Emma Sides. She’s based in Dublin but does travel. We were also at a friend’s wedding last year and she was the celebrant there too. She’s so lovely and really works with you to make sure you get the ceremony you both want.

Emma was our celebrant 6 years ago and she was amazing! She really listens to you and delivers such a beautiful ceremony!

Thundercats Ho · 07-01-2020 5:56pm

We got married last year, and Joe Armstrong was our celebrant. He's from Meath, but will travel. Highly recommended.

maximoose · 07-01-2020 5:58pm

https://www.humanism.ie/2018/05/keane-harley-dublin/

Married us in October, an absolute gent and guests loved him

woodchuck · 07-01-2020 6:34pm

We've chosen Siobhan Walls:
https://www.humanism.ie/2014/11/siobhan-walls-dublin/

We haven't met her in person yet, but she was lovely over the phone and very helpful with all of our questions (of which there were many!). She talked us through some of the rituals etc, so we have a lot to think about before meeting her to pin down the details. She has her own website too with a video of a wedding she has done, so we got a good feel of her style from that. We also found a lot of positive reviews about her from other couples online, including the HIGM facebook page.

She was also extremely punctual - we arranged a phone call for 8pm one night and she rang on the dot. This was very important to us as there was another celebrant we were planning to use and she arranged to meet us in person for a chat, but she stood us up (she was profusely apologetic afterwards, but still).

woodchuck · 07-01-2020 6:36pm

Shybride2016 wrote: »

Can highly recommend our celebrant Emma Sides. She’s based in Dublin but does travel. We were also at a friend’s wedding last year and she was the celebrant there too. She’s so lovely and really works with you to make sure you get the ceremony you both want.

She was booked for our date, but we have heard great things about her too. One of my friends is using her for her wedding in March.

jellybear · 11-01-2020 2:53am

Can highly recommend Philip Byers. He did our ceremony and was an absolute gent. Guests loved him too. He performed a lovely, personal ceremony for us.

daffodill50 · 15-02-2020 10:53pm

Anyone able to reccomend a humanist for a Donegal wedding?

Joey99 · 10-04-2022 4:56pm

+1 for Philip Byers from me. He managed my father's funeral in 2017 and I was at a wedding last week at which he officiated. He handled both events with grace and panache and is absolutely charming, intelligent and witty (in a nice way).

yourdeadwright · 26-05-2022 9:56am

We had Emer Dillion do our wedding two weeks ago and she was absolutely brilliant

A dream to work with from start to finish and just so helpful ,

She made it very personal but also has a great wit to her , I couldn't recommend her enough

Recommend a Humanist celebrant

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