Atheist Wedding

[Nepenthe]

In the dream, did your doxie give you away?

 

[invisible chzbrgr]

have one of you buddies (like Joey) become a minister online and then marry you. That would be fun.

Good idea! Link is above in my post. hehehe

 

[Alceste]

That reminds me, a good friend of mine had his brother get ordained to perform the ceremony in a big tent behind his friend's country house. There was camping, a treasure hunt, a feast and a square dance. The groom picked up the bride in a tractor (a nod to the Quebecois habitant tradition of picking her up in a horse and carriage). The whole thing was secular, but because she is a Christian, she said a long prayer asking her god to bless the ceremony and the marriage. That was nice since it was so heartfelt - especially compared to the muttering, blasée, boring, standard schpiel a minister / priest usually provides at a church wedding. Everybody got teary. All in all, an excellent wedding.

 

[GiGi Lindsey]

For all you atheists/non-believers out there, have any of you ever been married? If so, what was it like? If not, do you have any ideas how an atheist might hold a wedding? I ask because my girlfriend and I are both atheists, and we definately have a connection with each other, and, while I am still too young for marriage, I have always pondered what I would do for a wedding ceremony. Technically, we could just go down to the courthouse and draw up the paperwork, but being the romantic type that I am, that isn't good enough. Most of my family are devout roman catholics, and would be outright offended if I had absolutely no mention of god, but I would really be hard pressed to find a minister that would keep religion and theology low key. Does anyone out there know of any atheist "ministers" that would perform a wedding? Or am I just ganna have to suck it up and deal with the whole "god brings these two together" bullcrap?

The First Church of Atheism has a list of Atheist ministers. I signed up and got ordained in 30 seconds. I've never done a wedding, or anything else as an ordained minister, but I bet you can find someone who has. Good Luck and Congats!
(I can't post a link yet. Its just the name and .com)

 

[yourhopeboundheart]

anyone can be ordained online, and not to any particular religious institution. my suggestion would be to find someone who you both agree had a serious impact on your lives and your relationship, who can be trusted to respect your beliefs without undermining you and just have them marry you. i think it's only four weeks for your license to come in the mail and it would make your ceremony more personal and remove the obvious fear of religious intervention.

also, there is literally nothing harder than keeping religious family members out of the planning portion of your wedding ceremony. if you are saying that this is something down the road, my suggestion is start having the hard conversations with both sets of parents early. spend some time figuring out exactly how you feel about the situation and WHY you dont want god to be a part of your union. remember that you will be appealing to those who are indoctrinated and you will probably need to be very clever about how you word this. but starting the ball rolling and making both sets of parents understand your position early will clear up any confusion as the possible date grows closer. also, knowing where you stand will help the both of you hold the ceremony accountable to your secular standards as it is easy to budge for the parents.

 

[SoundBrain]

Atheist weddings are common in State of Tamil Nadu, India. It takes place the same way a Hindu marriage takes place but without the priest and sanskrit (since it is the language of aryans=casteism).

I don't know how it is in US.. lol