This is going to sound an odd question but a friend of mine's daughter wants to get married to her B/F and instead of a tradational wedding they want a hand fasting performed by a wiccan friend of theirs however they have been told that even if they have that ceremoney that they would not be legally acknowledged as being married as the UK goverment refuses to acknowledge being a wiccan as an offical religion. So the question is what would they have to do for a simple hand fasting to be acknowledged as they don't want to have to stand in a registors office and neither of them want a more traditional member of the clergy involved. I've been having a look on line but can not find anything that states the requirements.
I think they'll be a bit stuck in the England as it needs to take place in licensed property by a registrar or minister, and no outdoors allowed not even a tent or marquee, scotland gives you more locations as you can get married anywhere but you still need a registrar. They could possibly have a civil service carried out in whatever location they choose after the Wiccan has performed their rite. Other possibilty fly out to USA or Oz have wedding there with wiccan officiate and use that license to prove wedded status on return to UK.
Best way round I'd guess with my limited knowledge is they go to a registry office, sign the forms there with just them 2 or who ever they want to take along to get married. Then have a wiccan ceremony or do the other way round, that way they get what they want and are legally married with minimum fuss in terms of the registry office. Plus registry office doesn't have to be a religious ceremony.
They just have to do what everyone else does in that situation - have the hand fasting or whatever, then pop down to the council registry office for ten minutes another day and sign the forms. Don't make a big deal out of it if they don't want, have two weddings if they do.
this is kinda screwy lets see if I have this straight being a wiccan is not an official religion so you can not have a wiccan legalised wedding ceremoney however according to the consenus forms that everone has to feel in being a Jedi IS an official religion so thay can have what a Jedi has when he gets married and it would be considered legal? man this country is loony tunes.
No the census form just gives you an other option and asks you to explain, people put jedi down as a joke, it isn't legally recognised in any form what so ever.
Wicca is no more "correct" as a religion than Jedi - you can't use that comparison as an argument. And you won't find a Jedi marriage anywhere. Just like you won't find a legal Scientology wedding, or any of the other religions that sit on the fringe of dubious as Wicca does. Just tell them to do what EVERY other member of an unrecognised religion does (and there are hundred of thousands, if not millions of people in this category), go down to the registry office, sign the forms, and have a wedding in whatever style they want - it's not that bad!
Yeah, not enough people put down Jedi for it to become recognised. The way someone I know did it was have their wedding and then went to a registry office. That's the only way to do it and be seen as legally married. What are the advantages of being legally married anyway? I always wondered why people bother beyond tradition.
has anybody suggested yet that they should just have the ceremony and then get the forms signed at the registry office later? i think that might work.
Pfff, I don't believe in any God so legal marriage is just signing a contract, doesn't sound like love to me As Ryu's friend's daughter would probably point out, if they do get married in the above suggested way, the real wedding to them will be the one that isn't legally binding.
Exactly the point she like most of your daughters sisters etc has been told all her life that her wedding day is her day and that it should be one of the happiest of her life so why does that day then not seem to be so in the eyes of the government. how is being married by a total stranger in a building that looks just like any other prove that you love and are more commited to your partner than when you are handfasted to you partner in a place that you have chosen with the handfasting being performed by some you know trust and respect. This whole thing sounds insane until he asked me to help him look into it I had never realised how petty this countrys laws could be, Surely the entire point in getting married is to show all the world that you are commited to each other and that you love each other and showing them that in a setting that you and your partner choose that complements the lifestyle you both choose. As far as I was aware we had the right to practice any religion we wanted but I guess it should be that we have the right to practice and religion we want unless we want to get married then the Uk goverment gets to pick for us.
In the US wiccan is now regarded as a religion and is allowed on headstones as a marker even up to military cemeteries. We have dead wiccan soldiers. john
It will if the marriage is legally recognised in the country it is performed, you still need to sigh the bits of paper in the alt country, though, but the US has a much looser restriction on who can perform the wedding, I believe just about anybody can become a registrar in the US, which means people there can have the wedding officiated by family or friends, and its still official so will be recognised in the UK. In the UK if you want the legal benefits of getting married, ie tax breaks and greater protection of assets in case of death you need to sign the bits of paper, its the same for both civil and religious weddings, if you get married in a church its not the saying "I do" part that’s legally binding its signing the wedding licence, the I do part is the "in the eyes of god" part.
I know in Germany and believe some other European states even a church wedding is not legally recognised. So there you have to go to the equivalent of the registry office sign the papers then you can do as you please for your ceremony. Personally i don't see whats wrong with that, in a church wedding its not binding to any one but the church till you've signed the papers after the vows any way, doesn't matter what you do it still boils down to a explicit contract as opposed to an implicit contract one would form from a common law partnership. And besides all that the mortgage they probably already have is far more binding!
I was under the impression that only the only wedding where you don't need a registrar present when you sign the documents was CoE where the ministor is the registrar. And the documents need to be signed by everyone, but you don't neccesarily have to do it at the wedding. I might have the wrong end of the stick though
A wedding is a public promise of commitment to someone, regardless of religion. If they love each other and want to commit then going to a registry office signing legally binding document to make this commitment official in the eyes of the law is hardly a major issue. Your making a problem out of one which does not exist.
Exactly. If they love each other sooo much then a 45minute trip to their local registrars' office is hardly an issue. After all, from the state's perspective, the only difference that marriage makes is a tax one, so it seems perfectly fair for them to ask you to register your marriage.
