Civil Ceremony
A civil registrar ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the UK, this person is normally called a registrar. In American jurisdictions, civil registrar ceremonies may be performed by town, city and county clerks, judges and justices of the peace, or others possessing legal authority to officiate a marriage.
In the UK, a civil registrar ceremony cannot include hymns, religious readings or prayers, and the marriage must take place at a registered or licensed venue to be legally valid. Many private premises are licensed to hold civil ceremonies. As well as each party to the marriage signing the register, signatures of two witnesses are also required.
In most American jurisdictions, civil registrar ceremonies are subject to the same requirements as religious ceremonies, including venue reservation fees, marriage license fees, and age restrictions. The ceremony may take place in many places, including courthouses, parks, gardens, banquet halls, hotels, and other approved venues. Many venues may also accommodate the reception. Like non-civil ceremonies, the formality and style of the ceremony depend entirely on the tastes of the couple.
Read more about Civil Ceremony: Scotland : Civil Registrar Ceremonies & Civil Ceremonies, Australia
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or ceremony:
“The Count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead-drunk in the street, carried to the duke’s house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke’s bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane, owes its popularity to the fact that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason and finds himself a true prince.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)