We are delighted to annouce that as of today Hanbury Wedding Barn is licenced to hold wedding ceremonies in both The Red Barn and outdoors in our Wedding Pavilion. To celebrate this Ali Fleming from Cariad Personal Ceremonies has penned us a post on how to make the most of your wedding with a collaborative ceremony.
Collaborative Ceremonies
So, what is one of these you ask? There have been ample discussions across media sites, blogs, celebrant Facebook groups about the “them and us“ factor…. Registrars on one side of the fence and Celebrants on the other. Ok, Registrars have the upper hand because they are legally able to marry a couple at their chosen venue or in the registration offices. The laws of this, date from the 1800s.
Couples have been choosing this route for many years, when there were only two choices of action, Church or Registrar…. Even being able to marry at a chosen venue is a relatively new option seeing how old registration dates from.
The introduction of Civil Partnerships and then quickly followed by Same Sex Marriage laws changes, started opening the gates for choices.
Let’s fast forward to the introduction of all the fabulous choices that Celebrants can offer – a blank canvas and space open to artistically choreographing anything that you would personally like. “Personally”, being the key word, Celebrants bring personalised options to everyone… Its your day, why wouldn’t you like this, one of life’s special days, to be about “you”?
Celebrants introduce their couples to a way around the legal process cutting out the need of a Registrar to be present on your chosen day … A simple “legal declaration“ is the terminology where the couple and 2 witnesses attend in the surroundings of a Registrar’s office, pre booked, completing a straightforward legal procedure, obtaining the necessary marriage certificate.
There are many more couples though that really prefer to have their marriage legally registered on their chosen day at their chosen venue….
Staffordshire Registration Service, led by their very forward thinking, modern day management style, came up with the idea of a working collaboration between Registrars and Celebrants.
I am one of those Celebrants that keenly put my name forward to trial this collaboration. Having held a previous post as a Registrar/Deputy Superintendent for 12 years, it seemed a good move to make.
It has been slow on the uptake, mainly because of costings to the couple, having to pay 2 different parties. But surely, with high budget spending on dresses, shoes, rings, the reception afterwards, more weighted consideration of a higher budget for the actual ceremony – the actual main important setting for your day, the part that will create some of the best memories , shouldn’t it really be given higher priority?
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of being introduced to a wonderful new purpose-built venue- “Hanbury Wedding Barn”, by owner Adrian, sited amongst a backdrop of stunning Staffordshire countryside.
Newly licensed by The Staffordshire Registration Service, Adrian is keen to offer any of the couples planning their marriage ceremony in any of the outside or inside areas available at the venue, the opportunity of the Combined Collaborative Ceremony offered by Cariad personal ceremonies and the Registration Service.
A further blog will be issued giving more details of the collaborative ceremony. If you are interested in finding out more details, then please contact Ali at info@cariad-personalceremonies.co.uk (07961 668996 ) or Adrian at Hanbury Wedding Barn on 01283 372 715.
Written by Cariad Personal Ceremonies