Non religious wedding? How did you choose your registrar / celebrant?

Umm maybe I'm not getting this properly but we didn't get a choice we had to phone the office closest to us and we've just booked a registrar to come to our venue

With celebrants I think you can choose, at least that's how it worked for a humanist ceremony I shot.

They are not legally binding though unless in scotland, so you would have to marry at a registry office beforehand if you went the humanist route.

Sorry, should have added that I am from Scotland ... Humanist ceremonies are legal here, so we an choose a celebrant of our choice to come to the venue of our choice.

Ah man I wish England had the same law as Scotland, such a pain not being able to marry in the open outdoors.

^^ THIS! Would LOVE to have been able to actually get married on the beach!

So annoying how restrictive it is in England, me and my partner live next door to our best friends so we spend all our time together, We would have loved from him to perform our ceremony but there is no flexibility at all in England, He cant even do the presentation of us as a married couple at the end!! Grr!!

There are quite a few fairly close by we can choose from. One who did my grandpa's funeral, so will maybe contact her.

I think the rules are similar in Scotland to Sydney, where we got married by a celebrant.

I just googled several & waited for replies. Some local council sites have recommendations/links, as do wedding related sites. I looked through their websites, previous photos of ceremonies & read any personal statements they had. Obviously those that didnt reply at all, I didnt bother trying to contact again. Those that did reply, I asked about cost & availability.

Due to time (& living in London) we didnt get to meet her prior to the wedding. If we could have met, I'd narrow the list down to say 2-3 you like & have a meeting to discuss things with each of them. Then you'd get more of a feel for whether they will conduct a ceremony to suit your personality/needs.

I went on the Humanist website, saw someone whose 'blurb' seemed a good fit for us. We got on like a house on fire on the phone and booked after that. We've had two meetings since and feel we made the right choice. I wish it was a legal ceremony, we're having to do that separately though. Oh dear, two special days and two frocks