The wedding industry is huge and it's easy to get lost, bewildered and turned off the whole idea. It's perhaps understandable that some people get terribly pious about this and start sniffing that it's not the Day that matters so much as your lives together afterwards. There's truth in this, of course, but that doesn't make it wrong or frivolous to devote substantial amounts of time and energy - as well as cash - to having your day the way you want it.
Of course, the one aspect of ceremony planning that makes most people anxious is the potential cost of staging the perfect event. A glance through some bridal mags is enough to terrify anyone on less than an investment banker's income into feeling that their day must either be delayed until all their elderly relatives have popped off, or be distinctly second-rate, but this isn't true at all.
A good reason for arranging your ceremony to suit your own tastes is that you'll stop feeling any obligation to spend more than you can afford on conventional trappings that aren't really necessary: There's no legal compulsion to shell out for sugared almonds in beribboned net bags if you don't know anyone who actually likes them.
If you choose to celebrate your match somewhere that is not licensed for the sale of alcohol, you can do a run across the Channel and stock up at reasonable prices, for instance. Or, if most of your guests would prefer a pint of real ale to champagne cocktails, why not get a couple of barrels of beer to serve? You can have fun hunting down bargain outfits from vintage clothing dealers, or get married stark naked if you fancy. It's your day, after all.
You could also, for instance, choose to get hitched on a weekday, when venue hire is less expensive (and they are gladder of the business) or pick a location that is important to you but not actually high on the list of local wedding venues. This is particularly true of humanist ceremonies, as they are not yet legally binding in England, so humanist celebrants are under no restrictions as to where a ceremony can or cannot be performed. Those who are having a legally binding wedding or civil partnership usually arrange to register their marriage shortly before the humanist ceremony they have arranged.
A wedding, commitment ceremony or civil partnership is first and foremost about the wishes of the people who are going to make a public declaration of their love for each other. The perfect ceremony should be perfectly tailored to the personalities, hopes, dreams and circumstances of the relevant people, and this is where humanist celebrants, in particular, are often best suited to help those who want something out of the ordinary.
Civil ceremonies conducted by a registrar can feel a little too municipal for some, though there is now a much wider choice of possible locations in which to marry. Whether a religious ceremony can accommodate unconventional preferences in terms of clothing, music or timing would be a matter for the relevant religious officiant to decide, and it's perhaps not unfair to say that some of them are more adaptable than others. Humanist ceremonies are created by the celebrant in collaboration with the client, and offer a wonderfully wide range of possibilities for an event that is both memorable and meaningful to you, your loved ones, your families and your friends, be it a gothic wedding, a medieval-themed renewal of vows, a BDSM collaring or a fairy-tale of a civil partnership. So whether you want a sunrise celebration on a cliff top, a Halloween union in the crypt of a castle, or an intense and intimate ceremony in your own front room...

Do it Your Way.

To book a ceremony or discuss your requirements further, call 07814 353 260 or email lovelifecelebrate@gmail.com