Decision time on Ceremony

Once you have decided to get married, the next possible question is whether to have a wedding religious ceremony or to have a civil ceremony, to exchange the vows and get yourself certified as a married couple.

You can choose to get married in a chapel, a museum, a church, a hotel or an art gallery as per your personal preference. You can even opt for your home, a park, a ranch or even a beach.

In case you are unable to make up your mind, you can ask your friends to refer some good places to get married. Also, take the help of the references from your friends, on who should preside over your wedding. You need to decide whether it is to be a minister, a rabbi, a justice of the peace, a priest or some other official.

In case you and your partner belong to different faiths, you can opt for an interfaith wedding. Now the clergy in both the faiths might not exactly be very liberal about officiating together over your wedding ceremony, although it would be a great idea if they can. In such a case, you can contact some lesser conservative religious officials, who would like to oblige you for the service. Alternatively, you can search the internet to find people who can give you the service.

In case you are not opting for a religious service and want to go ahead with a civil ceremony, you must have a qualified official to do it for you. It can be a mayor, a county clerk, some committee chair or a clerk of a court, magistrate, judge or a civil justice.

Most of the couples go with the set language of the marriage vows. In case you are innovative and want to say your vows in your own words that are different from the clichéd words, you need to talk to your officiant well in time and inform him/her about that. If you are going to have a religious service, you can inform them and take their consent for the same in advance. You must inform them of any special readings and the type of music that is going to be included in your ceremonies.

It would be a good idea to meet and rehearse what you would say at the time of your ceremony. You both need to go over the ceremony with the officiating priests or officials. You can also attend some premarital counseling sessions.