Civil ceremonies are on the rise and there's a growing trend towards doing your 'I do's' your own way.  With the Sunday Times reporting that 70% of weddings in the Dublin City Council area last year were civil ceremonies, Sean O'Rourke was joined by Celina Murphy, Deputy Editor of wedding website One Fab Day and Interfaith Minister Rev. Karen Dempsey to find out more.  Celina told Sean about what she hears from her readers on this topic.

“They really want a more personal wedding ceremony and they want their ceremony to feel natural for them and for their guests, so if they're not attending church every Sunday it doesn't necessarily feel natural for them to stand up in a church for their ceremony.  Also a lot of our couples want creativity.  They want the freedom to put whatever secular music or whatever poetry they want into their ceremony which the church can't always allow for.”

Karen told Sean that people want their weddings and marriages to feel authentic and if they're not frequent church goers, then they can design a ceremony that feels more natural to them.  That doesn't mean though that the concept of God is left out of the ceremony.

"Part of my conversation initially with the couple would very often include, you know, how do you feel about the word 'God', would you like to include that.  If we're including the word 'God', is it for you as a couple, is it for your wider family and I would always discuss with them as well, you know, what do they mean by 'God', 'God' as a word has so many different contexts but very often the touchstone can be, if we use the word 'God' or 'love'.  They are pretty much interchangeable a lot of the time.  God in the ceremony or love in the ceremony or whatever way is meaningful for them themselves."

With a civil ceremony, the sky is the limit when it comes to expressing yourself, as both Karen and Celina know well.  Celina said,

"When it comes to ceremony people really do let their imagination run wild.  A friend of a friend is having a drag queen officiate or celebrate her wedding and she's going to be dressed as Liza Minnelli…  We've had brides walk up the aisle with llamas or alpacas on a leash, people can quote rap lyrics, they can really get as creative with it as they want, we've seen all kinds of wacky things but they're personal and important to the couple which is the most important part."

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