Help with organising own ceremony for a field!

Hi Laura

Welcome to Hitched. Do you mean someone to conduct a ceremony like a Celebrant?

Which area are you in????

Welcome to the forum btw...

Peter

Anyone can conduct your ceremony for you. our best friends are conducting our handfasting as we are all pagans.

it has now become very popular to have a humanist ceremony with a dedicated officiant. this isn't at all necessary or required, and doesn't make it any more legal, but there are many good celebrants listed here https://humanism.org.uk/ceremonies/find-a-wedding-celebrant/ x

I think you need a registered celebrant - there will be some in your area if you google it.

Not if they are already legally married (or will get legally married afterwards)- you can have anyone you like do it for you. An actual celebrant such as from the humanist society will set you back about £400- about the cost of hiring out a registrar to come to your venue.

Our friend did exactly what you are proposing, she had a lovely lady from the humanist society conduct their outdoor ceremony, it was really great, we sat on hay bales.

Some spiritualists will also do the celebrant role as will pagan societies, it entirely depends on what you are looking for.

If you're planning to legally marry elsewhere then you can literally use whoever you like to conduct the ceremony. We're having my OHs dad do ours, but you do have the option to hire a celebrant as has been mentioned. Prices vary- some of the ones we looked at ranged up to £600, with most between £200-£400.

In the end we preferred to have someone we knew. Which area of the country are you in and we may have some recommendations for you ?

An Independent celebrant is a great option as they will write and perform your ceremony making it as traditional or non traditional as you want it to be.

it can be personalised and can include additional elements such as a Handfasting, unity candle, rose ceremony and more.

i am conducting a few in fields myself next year, so please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Karina

www.fb.com/simplyceremoniesuk

Wow thanks for all the quick replies everyone!

I had no idea they were called a celebrant so thats why I was so stuck in findin g the right thing.

I have one family member who may do it for us but I need to check he feels comfortable with this.

We dont want anything too cliche maybe funny and sweet. We need to work out what our options are and whats right for us.

Otherwise it might be more stress free to hire a celebrant. Didnt really want to pay more than £200 though. I am in East Sussex area.

Thanks again for all the responses they have been super helpful.

Laura

We had a marquee christening and used a celebrant. It was wonderful - the benefit of having her over a family member was that she added an "informal formality" if that kind of makes sense. It was a beautiful, personal, short ceremony with family members coming up to read a poem or little sister coming up to present a drawing to baby.

I recognise that this is celebrating your marriage rather than a christening but I think that it would work beautifully! Good luck!!!

We did the same except we sneaked off in the morning to do the paperwork at the registry office. We had a lovely lady from the British Humanist Association conduct ours, she also gave us some guidance on content though we pretty much wrote the whole thing from scratch. Everyone above is correct in saying that anyone can conduct the ceremony though as your legal bits are taken care of elsewhere. I've also photographed a wedding where the bride's brother acted as celebrant and another where a family friend did it. Love the idea, so personal!

Good luck

Hi congrats Laura

Am looking for a field in Sussex are you getting married there? If so where is it? my venue has let me down... TIA

Hey what you want is an independent celebrant, if you give them a google in your area there should be plenty about and usually you can pretty much personalise your ceremony any way you like although they might have a certain style to it.

Try the Knepp castle estate. Gorgeous land, toilets included plus a log cabin and kitchen facilities and very reasonably priced! It was our first choice originally, but we ended up falling in love with somewhere else.

Hi Sam&Louise

thanks very much I came across Knepp yesterday and they are on my list to contact...

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