Non-religous Wedding Ceremony

We had a non-religious wedding with only one reading. My grandmother wrote a poem for us that she read during the ceremony. I'm very close with her so when my husband and I were talking about the ceremony I wanted to include some type of reading so after much discussion we asked my grandmother if she would want to read something for our wedding. She agreed. It was so special to me. She also had the poem printed and framed for us.

My bff had a nonreligious wedding and she didn't even have any reading. it was a really quick 10 minute ceremony where they said their vows and that's it.

We're having a non-religious ceremony! For the reading, I think we're both going to pick one that we like and have them both read. We're also incorporating the Filipino traditions of the wedding chord and veil, which will symbolize us becoming one unit.

We aren't including any religious prayers, vows, etc. We're writing our own vows, and I found outlines online that had different phrases the officiant can use!

I've been to a few nonreligious ceremonies and the only thing different is the religion has been taken out. So no Sunday hymns, Bible readings or 30 minute sermons on being a submissive wife and the reasons to procreate.


The couples were able to use secular music of their choice for processional and recessional, and any readings were done by the officiant which is a much transition than having people shuffle to the front and then back to their seat. The whole thing lasts anywhere from 10-20 minutes tops.

We will also be having a non-religious ceremony. We won’t be doing any readings, or adding extras. We will simply be removing the religious aspects. I would suggest speaking with your Officiant if you have any questions about the ceremony- they have likely done hundreds of non-religious ceremonies and should have great ideas for you.

View Quoted Comment So out officiant is actually family member. She is actually quite religious. And legally ordained. While this family member has done weddings before they have done religious ceremonies. We're going to have to have that conversation about how it won't be religious. I wanted to have ideas to bring to the table before hand.

View Quoted Comment 10-20 minutes seem so quick.

View Quoted Comment I want to write vows but I am struggling.

View Quoted Comment Thats so sweet. I love that.

View Quoted Comment Oh dang, 10 minutes that's fast.

View Quoted Comment Most guests prefer it being in the shorter side. The couples Ive talked to said it was the perfect length

View Quoted Comment Gotcha. Yeah that is a completely different situation than what we have. We hired an officiant that was very experienced in non-religious ceremonies, and she is taking care of everything for us.

View Quoted Comment It was the only time I cried. For whatever reason, I have a tendency not to cry at what should be emotional moments and when I do cry it's at stupid stuff.

View Quoted Comment

Don't stress too much about it! What helped me was googling personalized wedding vows and seeing what other people did. You can make it exactly how you want it, and make it personal to you and your future spouse. We're not very religious, so repeating traditional vows from the officiant doesn't seem right, which is why we're writing them!

We will be doing a reading from the bible. I've seen my nonreligious friends read a poem.

We are planning to do a handfasting, with certain family members tying the cords. No readings or songs, but we want to keep it quick and simple

Our non religious ceremony was super simple. No readings or signing, but our officiant did include part of a poem.
The real stand out thing she did was to tell our story. She began with a brief story of how we me and started dating and got engaged before proceeding with all the formalities. It was a great way to personalize it and keep everyone interested

We had a non religious wedding and we had zero readings. The officiant spoke for a bit about how we met, then we said our old school vows "To have and to hold, for richer or poorer, etc" and we were done.

No one ever complains over a short ceremony and you are just as married if you have a super religious ceremony!!!