non religious weddings?

Question

planning to get married next summer (!). Neither me or my partner are religious, just wondering about how you can get married without any religious mentionings, or venues. We are thinking of a registry office, but wondering where else is possible?

Answer 1

You can hire a non-religious officiant. (If you go to http://www.theknot.com/wp_cities.shtml and select your region and then "Officiants and Premarital Counseling", it should give you a list of officiants in your area. Choose one that says they offer civil ceremonies. I am sure there are directories of wedding officiants elsewhere as well.)

There are all sort of beautiful non-religious wedding venues -- Victorian estates, country clubs, beaches, botanical gardens. Many religious couples actually choose to get married in a lot of these places because they can be more beautiful or romantic than a church building.

Answer 2

Ill be in the same boat soon enough. You don't have to be married by a priest or in a church, even just look in the phone book and there will be a huge list of celebrants, who wont all be religious, and chances are that if they are they are conducting YOUR wedding and may be quite happy to leave out the usual religious blessings and things.
As for venues, there are millions of places; vineyards, gardens, halls (can do some pretty awesome things with decorations and it will be a blank canvas to work with), Marquee, Hotel conference center...your options are endless.
Good luck.

Answer 3

Check out local golf course and country clubs, we are getting married at a golf course where we live that has a beautiful and unique ceremony area, then a more typical area for the reception, and they dont have any religious affilitation. Maybe also a beach/outdoor wedding since it will be summertime? Once you find a non-religious location you will be able to find an officiant who will marry you without any religious metionings, even though he/she may be a minister (or not)Good luck to you!

Answer 4

You can get married anywhere as long as the person is certified to marry people. Get married on a ship, at the beach, at a park, an office, a reception hall, a restaurant, your house, the list long with only your imagination holding it up.

Good luck and congratulations.

Answer 5

Being a minister, myself and a wedding pro, I'd suggest looking around on the net for an officiant. Especially non-denominational, explain what your looking for. I have personally done non-religious weddings at the request of the bride and groom.
Most non-denom ministers should be willing to help out. I'd suggest places like onewed.com, wedplan.com, etc.
You may have to pay a little more for them, but you should get a little more options then with a courthouse wedding.

Answer 6

To be married you only need to be certified by the state/province. So you two can offically do that before or after teh actual wedding. I would say get it done before and the day of the event have someone bring you two together and say your vows of life to each other.
You can have this event anywhere - at a nice resort at a hall a private dining room - depends on your size of people.

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 7

you can get married anywhere that you can set up for a gathering. there's a public park that my daughter wants to use, they have room to set up chairs by a picnic pavillion so that's where they'd have the reception, too.

i considered a beach wedding the first time i was engaged in California.

there's a gazebo at a local city park they use for weddings, then they have a reception hall right there, too. there are MANY non-religious options. my sister got married this summer at a county park that had an area set up for weddings, and use their function hall for the reception, it was beautiful!

Answer 8

I just found a marriage celebrant in the phone book that was near by. Look in the yellow pages under celebrants. They are people legally ordained to marry you. They go where ever you want them to and will marry you legally. You can write your own vows or they will have a range for you to choose from. make it as non religious as you want.
That is what we are doing.

Answer 9

I think a country inn or bed and breakfast is a lovely spot to marry. I also favor the beach, a mountainous area, or other place of natural beauty, but I like the outdoors.

Answer 10

My husband and I aren't religious. We held our wedding at a bed and breakfast.
We used this book to make our ceremony meaningful for us by mixing and matching. We did have a blessing at the end, but without any mention of God. Also, instead of doing a unity candle or readings, we did a hand ceremony.

Book:
http://www.lovenotesweddings.com/manual.htm

Hand Ceremony:
http://www2.potsdam.edu/dineen46/Wedding/HandCeremnony.html