The Humanist Wedding Ceremony

More About Humanist Weddings

The wedding day is one of the most important of life's milestones. You are asking your families and friends to share your happiness and witness your expression of commitment to each other. It needs to be celebrated in a way which is true to your ideals and aspirations, and which will provide strength and inspiration for the rest of your lives, as well as many happy memories.

More and more couples find themselves wanting a more inspiring alternative and a Humanist wedding is just such an occasion……

Humanist weddings are non-religious but are available to all who genuinely want to make a serious commitment to share their lives, whatever their beliefs or backgrounds.

The Ceremony Location

The ceremony can take place in any setting, indoors or outdoors. It will often be in a hotel or country house, or it could be in a beautiful garden or vineyard, on a hill top, in a bluebell wood or by the sea. Ceremonies at home have a particularly intimate and special atmosphere and sometimes couples like to choose a venue that has some special or sentimental significance for them. If you would like some ideas as to where your wedding can take place, then do please contact me.

The Words

The words expressed are carefully thought through. There is a wealth of poetry about love and the family, and some of these might be included, together with more formal sentences to express your commitment. You may like to say something yourselves, or ask a relative or friend either to speak or to contribute with some music.

As well as having its serious parts, the occasion can also reflect your sense of humour, thereby having moments that everyone can warmly relate to. Above all it should be a happy occasion that is inclusive of everyone present.

Clearly, humanist marriage ceremonies are different; they are written especially for the couple or occasionally by the bride and groom themselves. They allow couples in love to express themselves fully - the essence of this being the sincerity and freedom it offers them to have a unique, heart warming and memorable experience that aptly marks their love and commimtment to spend the rest of their lives together.

Legal Matters

The Humanist Wedding Ceremony is not legally binding in England and Wales, though it is in Scotland and many other parts of the world.

In England, given the present state of the law, it is in two parts:

1. The legal requirements of marriage take place before a registrar. Often couples will want to regard this part of the proceedings as separate and distinct from the humanist ceremony. At the register office, they may wish to have the most simple of ceremonies, perhaps with only a couple of friends to act as witnesses; they will quite often not exchange rings and will to some extent regard this as a legal technicality – ‘the paperwork’ if you like.

2. The Humanist wedding ceremony and celebrations take place wherever the couple wish and can take whatever form they choose; here rings can be exchanged and all the joy that one would want to inject into such a happy occasion can be expressed.

Planning

It’s of course wise to begin to make plans well in advance of the wedding day, if possible, in order to be sure that your choice of time and place suits everyone, and to allow for thorough preparation.

As a celebrant, I would be happy to advise you at our initial meeting, on the structure and possible content of the ceremony and because I have in excess of fifteen years of experience at my fingertips, I can outline some of the different ways in which we can tap into tradition, or invent our own new ways of doing things to perhaps reflect unusual family circumstances.

I am very aware that the kind of wedding ceremony you choose must, first of all, be right for you, and so the initial discussion is always exploratory and in no way obligates you.