Ideas for a nonreligious wedding

It's interesting:
"I remember the last wedding I went to. It was in the function room of the Tate Gallery. The groom got plastered and ended up with red wine, gravy ..."

Weddings are often thought of as being religious ceremonies held in a church. In 2009, it was estimated that approximately 2.3 million weddings took place in the United States but about 47 percent were not held in a church, according to the Bridal Association of America website. There are several ideas you can use to have a nonreligious wedding.

1. Location

   • Rather than have your wedding in a church, you can have a nonreligious wedding in a location that has significance for you and your partner. Have your wedding in an open field, a cliff or a rose garden that is special to you or that appeals to you. Or save money by having the ceremony and the reception in the same venue. If you want a quiet ceremony, consider having it at home in your back yard.

   Music

   • There are many religious hymns and songs that are commonly used in a wedding ceremony. But if you are looking to have a nonreligious ceremony, you can feature any kind of music you like. Have the bride choose the music that she will walk down the aisle to, and the bride and groom can choose the song that they will leave the ceremony with. If there are songs that have significance for the couple, work them into the ceremony to add music to the event.

   Vows

   • In a religious ceremony, the vows are read from a book of scripture or a book of writings that are sacred to that religion. When you have a nonreligious ceremony, the bride and groom can write their own vows and create a greater sense of personal significance for the ceremony. In a nonreligious ceremony, you can bypass the celebrant and have the bride and groom read their vows to each other.

   Readings

   • In a religious wedding, the ceremony is sometimes punctuated with readings from religious text. You can still have moments where significant readings are done in your nonreligious wedding, but replace the religious text with articles that have a more personal appeal to the bride and groom. You can use poems that members of the bridal party had written, or you can ask various members of the bridal party and the families to come up and say something about the bride and groom.

Source: www.ehow.com

Tags: bride groom, nonreligious wedding, have nonreligious, nonreligious ceremony, bridal party