Weddings and Renewal of Vows

Civil Wedding Ceremonies, Renewal of Vows, Handfasting Ceremonies and Civil Partnership Ceremonies have enormous emotional and personal significance. They need to be about you and what you want on your special day.

Wedding ceremonies can be held in gardens, on the beach, in a castle, in a tent, or at the zoo. You can hold your ceremony in the moonlight, at sunrise or sunset, and on any day of the week.
You can scatter rose petals, blow bubbles, have a hand-fasting ceremony, a salt ceremony, or a special Red Rose Ceremony – there is a wide list to choose from. You can involve the whole family, or have a simple micro wedding.
The only limits are your creativity and imagination – dignified, quirky, serious or carnival – everything is planned with you, and elements are added that make the ceremony truly personal and significant.

Can You Legally Marry Me?

Currently only registrars or clergy can conduct legal weddings, in approved venues.

While this may be changing in the future for now, if couples want a celebrant wedding, they have to separate out the legal element. This can be in the registry office for around £50 (https://www.gov.uk/marriages-civil-partnerships/plan-your-ceremony) or in a licenced venue, which is more expensive.

The legal minimum for being married in the UK is to declare that you do not know of any obstacles to the marriage, and that you are asking people to witness the marriage – that’s it.

You DO NOT have to be legally married before you have a Celebrant led ceremony – you can slot this in as and when it’s convenient.
If you are looking for a wonderful, personal ceremony, with all your friends and family in the venue and manner of your choice, then you need a Celebrant.

Hopefully in the future…https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/centuries-old-weddings-laws-to-be-overhauled-under-new-reforms/

How Long Will You Spend With Us?

Registrars are employed by the government to deal with all births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships – their time is limited.

A celebrant can devote all their time and attention to you – we are (usually) self-employed and it’s our time.

Can We Write Our Own Vows?

Many registrar-led ceremonies follow a fixed pattern and have generic wording and vows.
Some offer limited customisation.

A celebrant will write the whole thing specifically for you, working with you.

What Happens In The "Initial Meet and Greet?

With a registrar this is part of a larger process of producing all the legal documentation and proving who you are. The appointment time is limited, and you are
usually given a document with options for you to select from for the ceremony content.

A celebrant can spend as much time with you as you need – initially we chat about what you want, and if you think we “click” and I’m the right celebrant for you, we book another meeting – as many as we need.

Do I get a draft of the ceremony?

Once you have returned your completed form to the registrar you do not see the ceremony content again.

A celebrant will send you the full draft and work with you to polish it and make it perfect. You can change it, add to it, and make it perfect for you.

Second (third, fourth) meeting

A registrar works office hours for local government and doesn’t do additional meetings.

A celebrant will meet you more than once, if you need to, to make sure that you are happy with everything.

Venue Liaison / Visit

Most registrars know the venues and will not visit them with you — they will go off previous weddings they have done (other people’s weddings).

A celebrant will happily take the time to visit with you, meet the wedding co-ordinator and talk through options for personalisation of the venue.

Practise ceremony

We want this to be perfect, so your celebrant will meet up with you, your family, your entourage, and walk through the day so that everyone is confident. At this point any little questions can be ironed out

Officiate ceremony

The registrar that you met on your initial visit may not be the registrar that marries you — sometimes, due to time tabling and work patterns, it is a different person.

With a celebrant, you have been working together for months, and this is the best bit — what all the planning and chats and coffee were about try keeping us away!

Presentation certificate

From 4th May 2021, everything changed. The traditional register is now online. The registrar provides an A4 piece of paper called the ‘Marriage Schedule’, with all information to be entered online later. No marriage certificate is issued on the day, it’s posted out or you have to collect it.

If you would like a framed certificate to sign on the day and to celebrate your commitment to each other, your celebrant can provide one.

Copy of Ceremony

A registrar does not supply a copy of the words that you spoke on your wedding day, the vows you exchanged, the most important part of the whole day.

A celebrant will give you a presentation copy of the full service for you to keep and look back on.

Religious Elements

With a registrar any sort of religious content, such as Bible readings or songs that mention a deity, are prohibited.
Anything specific (A Persian wedding table, a Pagan ceremony involving a sacred circle) will not be allowed.

Your celebrant will work with you to incorporate all those precious elements that are so important to you, and suggest ones that you may not have considered.

Exclusivity

It’s very probable that the registrar conducting your wedding may have one or two other weddings on that day. This leaves little flexibility for timings in your ceremony or wriggle room if there are any problems. You will have a fixed time slot, so if a bridesmaid is stuck in traffic they may miss the ceremony.

With a Celebrant yours will be their only wedding that day, so you have flexibility in how long your ceremony is, and leeway to resolve any unforeseen issues.

Hi Dot

Just wanted to drop you a quick line to say thanks for the fun that we had at our vow renewal.

It was just perfect – the intimate low key ceremony that we wanted, with lots of laughter, especially when our blend of wines tasted awful!

Thank you for listening to us and making sure that everything we wanted happened.

You are a lovely lady and made the day for us.

A & A