Essential Advice For Choosing Your Celebrant in Ireland

Your Celebrant has one of the biggest responsibilities of your wedding day.   If you have chosen wisely, you will have a beautiful ceremony that your guests will be talking about for years to come, and for all the right reasons.  

One challenge facing couples who wish to be married in Ireland with a non-church ceremony – is finding the right advice about their ceremony options.

The Marriage Act provides for three types of Celebrants who can conduct legal marriages in Ireland:

• Civil:  An employee of the HSE Civil Registration Office (Civil Celebrant)
• Secular:  A Celebrant who belongs to an organisation with Secular beliefs, including those who belong to a Religion with a defined set of rules and beliefs, but without any belief in God or Spirituality. (non-Theistic)
• Religious: A broad category which includes type a) Celebrants who belong to an Organised Religion, such as Priests, Pastors of a Church, Rabbi’s etc. but which also includes type b) non-Denominational Celebrants who don’t belong to a specific Religion but have a Spiritual purpose for community benefit.

In Ireland there is also a 4th type of Celebrant, a lay Celebrant who doesn’t belong to a Secular or Religious organisation.  Anyone can become a lay Celebrant without any specific or detailed training.  There are even “quickie” weekend trainings available and also online courses for anyone to very quickly become a lay Celebrant. 

The Marriage Act prohibits lay Celebrants from becoming Registered as Solemnisers because there is a huge responsibility in Solemnising Marriages.   It is therefore essential that the training of Registered Solemnisers must remain in the strict control of the Government.

With so many lay Celebrants now in Ireland, there are also many myths circulating about Marriage Solemnisers.  Now it’s time to fact-check those myths!

1. If you choose a Celebrant who is a member of a Secular or Religious body, the design of your wedding ceremony will be restricted to their rules. FALSE
   
2. You just won’t find a Registered Solemniser available, because there are not enough Registered Solemnisers in Ireland. FALSE
   
3. You won’t find a Solemniser available because they are all booked ahead for 2 years,  FALSE
4. The only way to be married in Ireland with a ceremony designed your way, is to choose a Celebrant to create your  non-legal wedding ceremony to your wishes and requirements, and “do your legals” with HSE and your witnesses on a different day.  FALSE
5. The only way you can be legally married outdoors, in a forest, by the cliffs, or by the sea, is to “do your legals” with the HSE on a different day, and engage a lay Celebrant to conduct a non-legal wedding ceremony at your outdoor location.  FALSE
   

I am duly authorised and Registered to Solemnise Marriages in Ireland.  I will help you to design, create & conduct a unique & personalised marriage ceremony of any style to suit your needs.  This can be a fully legal marriage ceremony, non-legal symbolic wedding ceremony, funeral or any other family ceremony of your needs.

Through my helpful advice and ideas gained from over 30 years of experience in my homeland Australia, I will inspire you to discover your own unique ceremony style no matter what that might be.

Do you wish to have a civil ceremony Australian style, a humanist style non-religious ceremony, Spiritual ceremony, with or without a Religous feel or a mixed faith ceremony – or any combination in between?   Your ceremony will be individually crafted to suit your own wishes and requirements all the way – limited only by your imagination.

Please don’t hesitate to give me a call to find out how easy it is to have the unique & personalised marriage ceremony of your dreams.