Help, mixed families, can ceremony be non religious?

This is what we want to do - have a friend perform the ceremony and have an officiant present just to make it legal...

I'm an atheist (originally hindu) and my fiancee is a non-practicing catholic, she still believes in God, just doesn't do the whole church thing. We are planning on a civil ceremony at a barn - our friend will "officiate" for us - do most of the ceremony, and we will have a registered officiant be present for the legal stuff.

There's a chapel on-site next to the barn. My fiancee has asked if I would spend a few minutes with her in there before the wedding. I am more than happy to oblige, as long as we don't have a religious ceremony itself.

However, we are incorporating some non-religious traditions. We're having a henna party for our close female relatives (more my fiancees idea than mine ) and now I have to think of something Irish/Ukrainian to incorporate into the wedding. Any ideas?

This is exactly what we're doing too.

This is what we did, and that's also what we paid.

We're not religious in the least, so it was the best option for us.

Our officiant was great!

Right? I started looking into some of the private Officiant companies in Vancouver... $300+ for a 30 minute ceremony... WHAT?! Some even like, $600-$800.... Mine, with travel, is going to be $110.

Oh you'll have no problems! Very easy to do! Actually easier in some cases!

I would recommend finding a venue that allows a ceremony area too (to keep the ceremony out of a church) or you can do an outdoor ceremony!

Your officiant if you can find a family member or friend to be one for you and preform your ceremony that is also another easy way to keep non-religious!

I think this is the most common kind of wedding nowadays Definitely shouldn't have to worry about offending too many people. We too will be hiring an officiant to conduct the ceremony with no mention of religion. Just a few things about "to have and to hold and in sickness and in health" but not the "swear to God" part. - Of course you may get a couple people that get offended; I will have my Baba (Ukrainian grandma) telling me that I should have gotten married in a church. This comes with anything you do - the negative and "should have's".

It's called a Civil Ceremony (pretty sure), when it's not religious... meaning it's for law/legal purposes only.

That's what we are doing. Neither of us are religious. So we are hiring an Officiant, we found through the government website. It's only $75 (plus travel expenses), and they will pretty much say whatever you want them to. They usually will not perform any religious items though, as they are non-denominational.

You need to do what you are comfortable with. If you don't have a priest or minister, and aren't getting married in a church, you can focus on making the ceremony about the two of you, and make it what you want.

We are having a non-denominational ceremony, so there will be no prayers or readings, instead we have chosen poems. In my opinion your ceremony should reflect who you are as a couple, so if neither of you practice a religion then you don't need to have a religious ceremony.

That's what we plan on doing. I'm a non-practising Protestant and my FH is a non-practising Mennonite. Most of his family is non-practising as well as my mom's Protestant side. My dad's Catholic (again non-practising) but most of my family on his side is practising Catholics. I was worried about offending them but, they all know I'm not practising and that I'm planning on doing a non-denominational ceremony, where it will be about us and our commitment to each other. It'll be on the shorter side (less than half an hour) as well.

You can totally have a non-religious ceremony. There are plenty of officiants who will perform non-denominational ceremonies or inter-faith ceremonies. My husband and I are atheist/agnostic and we had a non-religious ceremony. We actually had a friend perform it and just had an officiant attend to make it all legal. He wrote some beautiful things for the ceremony about how many things had to come together for all of us to be there in that moment, we said our own vows and then he proclaimed us. It probably took like 20 minutes all said and done. It was really lovely! No one in either of our families is particularly religious so we weren't offending anyone. I think if your family knows that these are your beliefs then they shouldn't be offended if you choose to have a non-religious ceremony.