A humanist wedding ceremony

www.sarabeaumontphotography.com

Each humanist ceremony is unique to the couple it is about and should reflect their personality and values. It should be a meaningful moment in your history and can contain any non-religous texts, music or symbolic acts; the options are pretty much endless. Many couples love the freedom that they can create a bespoke ceremony that has no limits, and I am here to help design and bring imaginations to life.

Just as with the content, there are also no rules as to where you can have your ceremony either. Do you want to tie the knot halfway up a mountain, or do you see yourself under an oak tree in the middle of a forest? Does the drawing room of a grand manor house seem the perfect setting for your wedding? Or do you want to get married at home underneath the family gazebo? As long as we can all get there, we can conduct a ceremony there!

The Process

So you know you want a humanist wedding? Perfect! Now you need to find a celebrant to conduct it for you. Choosing the right celebrant is absolutely vital, and I really recommend that you meet up face to face (even over skype) with your celebrant before you take the plunge and book the date with us. Just as every couple is unique in their style and what they want out of their day, so too are celebrants, and it’s so important that you click with your celebrant and trust them to interpret your ideas and wishes into the ideal ceremony for you.

If you decide that I’m ‘the one’ for you after we’ve met (or skyped) and got to know each other better, I will send you a copy of my contract for you to sign and return along with the deposit. I will then countersign and return a copy, confirming my commitment to you and your ceremony, and your wedding date will be booked in my diary.

At this point I will put together some ideas of readings, vows, symbolic acts, or anything else I think might be relevant to you, so that I can get an even better idea of the kinds of things you want to include in your ceremony. This process is pretty fluid and dependant on how you want to work with me, and we can bounce ideas around for as long as it takes to get to the point where I can write you a draft of your ceremony. The great news is that you get to sign off every word spoken (unless you choose to keep your vows to each other a secret), so you can be sure that absolutely everything about your ceremony is as you want it.

Before the big day, I would try to arrange to meet up at least once in order to have a rehearsal and make sure everyone who is included in the ceremony knows where to be and when. Don’t worry about remembering though, I am here to make sure everyone gets to the right place, but it really does help to feel familiar with the layout on the day.

After that…it’s your wedding day!

The legal stuff

The vast majority of couples who choose to have a humanist ceremony, see this as their official wedding. It’s the one where your family and friends will witness your vows and promises to each other, and will see you formally declare yourself as a married couple. However, humanist wedding ceremonies are not currently legally recognised in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (they are in Scotland). So if you want to be legally married in these countries, you will need to organise to obtain a civil marriage or civil partnership certificate too. Many couples book to go to the registry office the morning of their humanist wedding, or a few days or weeks before.

Fees

My fee to conduct wedding ceremonies is £550 and covers everything mentioned above as well as local travel. I would always want to meet a couple (at least via skype) before they choose to book me, at which point I would take a deposit of £100 along with a copy of the contract. The remaining fee is due 1 month before the wedding date itself.

Contact

If you’d like to discuss anything further, or want to arrange a meeting to see if I might be right for your ceremony, please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact details below.

Email- tanith.garcia@humanistceremonies.org.uk

Phone- 0789 136 1743

Facebook- www.facebook.com/tanithgarciaceremonies