How does a Civil Wedding Ceremony work??

Kildare

Morning all!! This may be a very silly question but I have never been to a civil wedding ceremony so I don't know how they work

Our original plan was to have a church wedding next summer, mainly because its what we know as opposed to being very religious. However, the church we were going to be married in is now having its floor replaced and will be closed. So we've decided to have a civil ceremony as we have booked a beautiful licensed venue for the reception anyway.

Here's where I need help, I've goggled to try and find out what the full ceremony wording is and how long it lasts etc. and all I've been able to find is the legal wording (a few short lines) and that it lasts 15 minutes which seems way too short!

Can anyone point me to a website with all the answers or perhaps tell me what your ceremony plans are so I have an idea?? Thank you!

kezzballs

This site is quite helpful
http://www.weddingguideuk.com/articles/legal/englandwales.asp

I think you can make it as long as you want it to be.

We will be having a civil ceremony in our Baptist Church (as it is not classed as Church of England) and the ceremony will last about an hour.
We will have bible readings, prayers and lots of songs!

Some registrars will not allow reference to Christianity or God so you'll have to be careful.

minerva_windsong

My sister had a civil ceremony (in a hotel) and it can be as much or as little like a church wedding as you want it to be. She had entrance music, exit music, bridesmaids, ring bearers, readings, wore a wedding dress, was given away by my dad etc, and the ceremony lasted about an hour in total. As far as I'm aware as long as you say the legal words and there are no religious references in your music or readings then you can do what you want.

I think the local authority where you want to get married will have set words, normally three versions going from short and sweet to quite elaborate, and you may be able to write your own vows as well. Most council websites have a page with details or contact information (normally titled something like 'Births, deaths and marriages' and then follow the links).

Hope that helps!

dizziblonde

We got married in the registry office - had a booket sent to us with the choice of vows mentioned where we highlighted the ones we wanted, had space for us to add readings and music of our choice to make it as long/short as we wanted. Email the registrar in the area it's in and they'll happily give you advice - the one I was dealing with was absolutely lovely!

kr15snw

Hey dear, it varies from office to office. But I think I have a copy of the choice of vows sheet they gave us?

Basically there are 2 ceremonies you can chose between. One is the shorter one which is about 20 minutes long and just has the ceremony. The second one has longer vows and talking bits and you can add readings and music. This one is about 45 minute longs.

Now as we're getting married in Australia we only have to say one line: 'do you take this man to be your husband' the rest we can make up as we go

RainbowDrops

The ceremony length itself isn't much different.
What makes a church wedding longer is the rest of the service - hymns, prayers, bible readings etc.
But you can add readings, songs / instrumentals etc to a civil ceremony if you like, as everyone else has mentioned.

Kildare

Thank you all for putting me at ease - glad to hear it won't be over and done with too quickly. :j


I think I've just been worrying as I found the legal wording online that you have to include, but not all the talking bits. It's good to hear that we have the choice of length. The registrar said that when we book (we're not a year to the day yet) they send out a pack but I was just getting a bit worried as I don't know what to expect. We're still planning bridesmaids and readings etc. but I think we'll skip singing...

faerie_girl

dizziblonde wrote: »

We got married in the registry office - had a booket sent to us with the choice of vows mentioned where we highlighted the ones we wanted, had space for us to add readings and music of our choice to make it as long/short as we wanted. Email the registrar in the area it's in and they'll happily give you advice - the one I was dealing with was absolutely lovely!

This is the same as us. We have a booklet with choices for each section to choose from. Some are shorter/longer, tradtional/contemporary. We can have a reading but it has to be chosen from the booklet, there's about 15 to choose from.

We can choose up to 3 pieces of music, one for walking in, one for signing the register, and I assume one for walking out (but I need to email them and check)

I think the ceremony will last about 20minutes. Our room sits up to 43 (inluding B&G) but we are only inviting 16 guests. The 'isle' is very short and wil take about 10 seconds to walk slowly down lol. I am going to drag it out by having my bridesmaid going first.

All local authorities are different. Our local registry office only has the one wedding room but some have a few with different styles and sizes.

If you want to get married at a venue you have more flexibility to add to have more readings, live singer, bands etc.
Talk to your registar when you give notice, they will always try and do things how you want but maybe be restricted due to legal things, the local authorities own policies etc.

HTH and congratulations x

BeckyArch

We're getting married in a hotel, and the registra who will be doing the ceremony sent us a big booklet with a choice of three ceremonies of varying lengths, a big long list of readins to choose from and questions about what else we wanted in the ceremony. We chose to have no readings, but am getting a classical guitarist to play the music (rather than a cd), we are having bridesmaids and exchange of rings. I think without readings, and with the cermony we chouse it will be about 30mins, which is perfect for us. I think we chose a mid-length ceremony. Obviously if you chose the longest one and had readings it would take longer!

MrsKett

We had a civil ceremony, and it took around half an hour. When we went to the registrar to give notivce, we were given 3 choices of words that ranged from the very short legal requirement, to much more traditional.

We also had 2 readings, one before the vows and one after. There was also the option of an additional reading done by the registrar, but we decided against this.

This is the details from my local council of one of the ceremony plans which should give you a rough idea

http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/section.asp?catid=7163&docid=29842

but the best thing to do is make an appointment to speak to a registrar from the council you intend to hold your ceremony, and they will most likely give you a booklet with all the options you can choose from.

frannyann

I don't have a clue, I am turning up and saying 'I do' in the right places and hoping for the best for the rest