Civil Wedding and Civil Partnership Ceremony
Music for a Civil Ceremony
The music is just as important as at a Church
wedding. The service will take a lot less time making
the addition of music to a civil ceremony even more
important to add substance and atmosphere. The order of a
civil ceremony is much the same with the entrance of the
bride, the signing of the register and the recessional at
the end of the ceremony, so music can be chosen for each
stage of the ceremony in much the same way, providing of
course it is non-religious.
The definition of non-religious music is subject to the
interpretation of individual registrars therefore it is most
important that you contact your registrar with your choice
of music before the ceremony; this will save any potential
embarrassment on the day!
You can really have a lot of fun with choosing your music
for a civil wedding, you may have a theme in mind for your
wedding and the music will reflect this and your
personality.
Religious Music and The Law
A prohibition of lyrics and poems with religious references
had been in place since civil ceremonies were introduced in
England and Wales in 1837. The law was drawn up to keep the
ceremony distinct from church weddings.
Today, civil marriages vastly out-number religious
ceremonies. In 2003 there were 181,000 civil weddings
compared to 86,000 church ceremonies.
Civil weddings are becoming increasingly popular, partly due
to the fact that they are non-religious and partly because a
particular choice of venue or theme dictates this type of
wedding, but whatever your reason for a civil ceremony, the
scope for musical variety is vast. The law states that the
music at a civil ceremony must be non-religious so it may be
that your personal taste is jazz, romantic ballads, musical
theatre or operatic, the musical style is completely your
choice so you can really put your own personality into your
civil wedding.
|