Non-Religious Ceremony?

My FH and I are not religious and are having a fairly basic ceremony. I think we might have one prayer at the beginning, but that's it. We have an officiant performing the ceremony - a friend of my FH. Whoever performs your ceremony should be able to tailor the wording to what you're comfortable with. Congrats and good luck!

I haven't gotten married yet but we're planning a totally non-religious ceremony. My FH's uncle is a judge and he will be marrying us. We are not even doing the unity candle or sand ceremony. He will have us repeat certain things to each other, here is what we'll have him tell us to say:

I (name), take you (name) to be my (husband/wife), my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.

Then we will each be writing our own vows privately and sharing them with each other. Exchange rings, seal with a kiss and it's all done, time to celebrate! I am not concerned at all with how people will see it, it should be meaningful to US and it will be.

Congratulations!

It is not uncommon for couples to have a Civil ceremony. There are plenty of options when it comes to special services. Unity cup, Unity Candle, Blending of the sand, etc. Although Unity Candle and Unity Cup services are a more religious service they can be written in a civil form. Where as the Blending of the Sand is a more neutral service. There are several books about weddings out there that offer great insight. Most Wedding Officiants that are not connected to a church will perform Civil ceremonies. Another option would be a Justice of the Peace. Check with your local Probate Court Office for more details. I wish you both the very best and be well!!

I think its fine to have anon religious ceremony! WE are having an in between ceremony I am religious and so is my side of the family but my FH and his side are not. We talked alot about it and we are having a preacher do our ceremony, he will say one prayer and he is talking about the meaning of marriage but not in areligious way. I think its up to you and your FH and if youa rent religious why would you tie it in to your marriage? I think it will be great to have a more "civil" ceremony.

We are having a non-religious ceremony. My grandfather is going to be the officiant (I hope I am going to go visit him and ask next month) as he is an amazing speaker and a huge part of my life. We will be having a "sand ceremony" Also we are currently in the market for a nice poem to add to the ceremony. Good luck!

I feel the same way you do and have decided not to have a religous ceremony. I found that the county we are marrying in actually publishes a list of what they call "civil celebrants" who can preform ceremonies and that there is a maximum rate they are legally allowed to charge. Definetly look it up where ever you live. Or, do a search of the vendors on here. The officiant I am using said she has standard language for the ceremony that we can tailor.

If you choose not to do something religious...think of doing something that may be customary to your culture. For example African Americans jump the broom or the Irish may have a handfasting portion of the ceremony. Hope that helps.

When my husband and i were planning our ceremony we ran into a few hiccups. We were both baptized catholic but in the recent years we had not been devoted, but out of tradition we were planning to marry in church. So when we were looking for a church we had a lot of trouble. First the churches we called, they would not marry us because we were not members, and we still wanted to marry there we had to pay a lot more.

Finally we found one that would take us without being a member or paying more, but after a couple of meetings with the coordinators and ready to put a deposit down, then they told us that they could not marry us on our wedding date because that week was holy week or something was going on, so we said forget it. So we just had an officiant come to the ceremony site and married in front of all of our guest. We still did the unity candle, the lazo, the ring exchange and bows and it was beautiful and stress free. the ceremony was a the same place where the reception was.

My FH and I will also be having a non-religious ceremony. We wont want any prayers and we're thinking of including a hand ceremony instead of a unity candle. I'm madly in love with this idea and have been *mildly obsessed* since I read it in a Bridal Buds blog. Here's the link, check it out! It is just so meaningful and sweet and because I think everyone's wedding should be unique to the couple it would be so easy to change the wording used to incorporate things that were important to you.

http://www.bridalbuds.com/2009/03/personalizing-the-ceremony/

Hope that helped!

My husband and i are about unreligious as we come i mean at our wedding we were married by a women and we had a unity candle thats the only religious thing we had. i also instead of i do i said oh hell yeah. when i get nervous my brain and mouth disconnect and thing just come out so oh hell yeah just came out. the mister laughed and said i guess that means yes.

Thanks everyone! I like the idea of mixing the sand. Plus you have a wonderful keepsake.

Your request is very common & if you are as honest as you are here an officiant should have no problem providing the services you desire. Two weeks before your wedding you should sit down with your officiant & have them read the ceremony to you word for word simply for your comfort level. Make adjustments as need as many times as needed. This is your wedding day & you need not worry about what's going to be said or how your guests might react to it.

Hope this helped!

I too am having a non-religious ceremony. I like the idea of the unity candle, so I'll be having that. And I googled poems to be read during the readings instead of having stuff read out of the Bible. My two are The Art of Marriage by Wilferd A. Peterson and From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. They are both very beautiful and I think that if you found some poems, I chose 3rd person ones since I want the officiant to read them, that really speak to you, then you could use those instead of Bible readings.

I'm with you guys. My FH and I do not have any religious ties. He grew up going to church every week with his parents, but never really got into it.

We together chose to ask my two cousins to perform a ceremony prior to the reception.

I personally don't care how our "legal" wedding takes place. I don't mind going to the courthouse, etc. My future mother in law I believe is less than thrilled about our choice. She knows we have not settled on the legal part and talked to their minister who does non-denominational ceremonies. To try and smooth things a little I have asked them to set up a meeting for me and my FH to at least talk to their minister. As long as he is okay with marrying us without me being baptized etc. We will likely go that route to try and make the inlaws a little happy.

I typed in Non-Religious Ceremonies and found some interesting things online. I'm running out of characters, but I feel it is okay to use some more traditional things about unity w/o religion