Humanist Ceremony

We had one as we fell in love with our venue and then realised it was owned by the church and therefore unlicenced.
Our very close friends & family attended our secret registry office ceremony in the morning, the groom went straight to our venue and I went home to change into my proper wedding dress, having worn a BM dress to the RO. We'd asked one of the best men, with a confident speaking voice, to conduct our ceremony and wrote it ourselves, with his help, using the christian wedding ceremony a a guide, removing all religious wording. It went so well that many of our guests thought it was real as we exchanged vows & rings in front of them.
Any questions, please ask.

quote:Originally posted by Champagne
We had one as we fell in love with our venue and then realised it was owned by the church and therefore unlicenced.
Our very close friends & family attended our secret registry office ceremony in the morning, the groom went straight to our venue and I went home to change into my proper wedding dress, having worn a BM dress to the RO. We'd asked one of the best men, with a confident speaking voice, to conduct our ceremony and wrote it ourselves, with his help, using the christian wedding ceremony a a guide, removing all religious wording. It went so well that many of our guests thought it was real as we exchanged vows & rings in front of them.
Any questions, please ask.

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? Thanks for the reply.

Sounds like a lovely wedding - exactly what we want.

quote:Originally posted by wonderstuff

quote:Originally posted by Champagne
We had one as we fell in love with our venue and then realised it was owned by the church and therefore unlicenced.
Our very close friends & family attended our secret registry office ceremony in the morning, the groom went straight to our venue and I went home to change into my proper wedding dress, having worn a BM dress to the RO. We'd asked one of the best men, with a confident speaking voice, to conduct our ceremony and wrote it ourselves, with his help, using the christian wedding ceremony a a guide, removing all religious wording. It went so well that many of our guests thought it was real as we exchanged vows & rings in front of them.
Any questions, please ask.

id="quote">

? Thanks for the reply.

Sounds like a lovely wedding - exactly what we want.

id="quote">
Wonderstuff, I have a book on Humanist ceremonies by the British Humanist Association that I was going to RAHK. Would you like it? If so, send me a PM.

Hi, we did think about having a humanist wedding, but decided on this:
Getting 'hitched' day before at registry office for legal bit etc
Having full 'do', including ceremony etc, I did get a quote for a humanist person to conduct this but they wanted £300!, so we have hired a master of ceremonies to do this for us, ie excellent speaker, has done ceremonies before and he is only charging £120.
(reasons for doing it this way - didn't want a church wedding, and both wedding venue (licenced) and registry office are both too small for the number of guests that will be coming to the daytime. Wedding not until next August, but I'm soooo excited, really wish it was this August!!! x

From what I can gather, humanist ceremonies are not religious ceremonies, but they aren't legal.

Correct me if I'm wrong?

This might help

http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=1175

MrsK, they are legal in Scotland, but not in England unfortunately. I really love the idea of doing this as it completely fits in with life view, but would need to persuade other half.

I had a civil ceremony officiated by a registrar in a Scottish castle (so legally binding)but we wrote our own vows to the other, which were incorporated into the ceremony. Would this be a consideration for you?

quote:Originally posted by deliciousdevilwoman
I had a civil ceremony officiated by a registrar in a Scottish castle (so legally binding)but we wrote our own vows to the other, which were incorporated into the ceremony. Would this be a consideration for you?

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That sounds really romantic.

We're already having a civil ceremony the day before (which has been booked for ages) but have planned to have another ceremony and a reception. Will probably stick with family friend but have got in touch with a humanist officiant.

quote:Originally posted by wonderstuff

quote:Originally posted by deliciousdevilwoman
I had a civil ceremony officiated by a registrar in a Scottish castle (so legally binding)but we wrote our own vows to the other, which were incorporated into the ceremony. Would this be a consideration for you?

id="quote">

That sounds really romantic.

We're already having a civil ceremony the day before (which has been booked for ages) but have planned to have another ceremony and a reception. Will probably stick with family friend but have got in touch with a humanist officiant.

id="quote">


It was very intimate, and I get misty eyed everytime I watch the ceremony part on the wedding dvd! I decided on the Scottish castle as I thought it seemed romantic and I wanted a civil ceremony (but not in a registrar office)and to also incorporate my own vows. Initially I did look into a Humanist wedding, but for me, I didn't want two ceremonies. I am of the kill too birds with one stone, mindset! ?

I do think it's lovely though that your close family friend can be involved. Makes it soo much more personal. Similarly, we had my best friend (who was also a witness) MIL and Best man do readings.

Im having a humanist ceremony, im not religous at all so thought this wold be the best idea, also i think its alot more personal.

This is what I am doing next August and I am so excited - i can't wait to get writing the ceremony and making it all about us. I'm not religious at all so didn't want a church/religious ceremony - we also wanted everything in one place so we are having all of the ceremony/recption in my parents' garden in Surrey. Vey excited and want it to be one year away - then we will be able to get planning properly!

N
x

quote:Originally posted by Nicole B
This is what I am doing next August and I am so excited - i can't wait to get writing the ceremony and making it all about us. I'm not religious at all so didn't want a church/religious ceremony - we also wanted everything in one place so we are having all of the ceremony/recption in my parents' garden in Surrey. Vey excited and want it to be one year away - then we will be able to get planning properly!

N
x

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It will fly by. We've got less than four months now. We've written our vows which I really enjoyed doing.

Also having the ceremony and reception at my mum's house. Ceremony will be in the garden. Are you having a seperate civil ceremony? We're having a secret one the day before to make it all legal ?

We are having a 'celebrant'. I don't think she is a humanist - but she is a professional conductor of ceremonies! She used to be a regsitrar, but decided to become a celbrant instead because she didn't like the consitrictiveness of registrar-conducted marriages.

We will nip to the registry office at 10am on the day, and have the most basic ceremony we can - I think we need to say 6 words each? Probably in jeans, and with just two witnessess. We originally wanted a slightly more formal reg office thing, but then started to feel it would take away from the main ceremony as being our real marriage.

We are looking at it as the celebrant conducted ceremony will be when we make the commitment to each other in front of friends and family, exchange rings etc, and celebrate our marriage. The bit in the registry office is basically just signing the book (which you have to go off and do seperately for legalisation even in a chirch wedding).

The ceremony will be in my dad's beautiful walled garden. Our celebrant was quite excited when she saw it. It has a raised patio/terrace bit above the grass where the ceremony will be conducted, and a large lawned area where guests can sit. It is very private due to being walled, and there are gorgeous big wide flint and brick steps up the side of the lawn to the terrace which will make a lovely 'aisle'. My step mother is even going to 're-do' the garden specially (we have a year, so plenty of time for plantings etc),so we can pretty much choose what flowers we want growing there!

We can have whatever readings/music/vows we want, and will also probably have a candle lighting ceremony (members from both famililies light candles on a candelabra thing). We are not going to write our own vows (though we could if we want) - we will have fairly standard but non religious ones, which we can adapt/alter as we like.

I am so excited!!