Marriage for atheists

[Shippo]

Ok here goes.

We have been together for almost 20 years now and have 3 children. We have discussed marriage several times and have always decided against it. The reason being the ceremony contains religious content. We are both of the opinion that religion is responsible for a lot of the worlds problems. I guess this statement will offend a lot of people but that is what we believe.

My parents are extremely religious. They know how we feel but dont like it. Our three children are not christened as we feel it should be their decision when they are older. We have shunned getting married in the past because of the religious content of the ceremony and we dont want to be hypocritical just to get married.

Is there a ceremony available that doesnt contain any religious overtones but is legal.

If we look the word marriage up in the dictionary we get the following definition.

Marriage
1. The state or relationship of being husband and wife.
2. The act of becoming husband and wife.
3. The ceremony within which this act is performed ; a wedding.
4. A joining together ; a union

Note no mention of any religious connotations.

We look forward to any replies.

Dave and Shirl

[Dave]

Shippo

You really don't seem to have done your research very seriously. The Civil wedding ceremony in this country specifically must NOT contain any religious connotations or words. This was marginally relaxed last year so that certain poems etc which mention God can be used.

Dave

[Shippo]

Cheers for the response Dave.

We must admit we havent done a vast amount of research and we stumbled across this site by accident. Plus the last time we seriously considered the notion was a few years ago.
We had heard of the civil wedding but we were of the opinion it was a ceremony for same sex couples. How wrong were we. Doh !!
Thanks for your commemnts much appreciated and if we hadnt of asked then we would probably never realised it was possible.

Thanks and soz for being a bit dim...

Dave and Shirl

[hoxton]

Shippo,

Me and my H are not relgious at all, and he never wanted to get married because of all the religious stuff, But in the end we got married because it was about our commitment to eachother and our kids,
So I am sure you can find a way to get married to suit you both.

Good luck,

Amanda