A civil wedding is a legal form of wedding. This wedding has less to do with the aesthetics of décor and how the venue looks and more with the legal paperwork and other stuff. So, if you want to know how to plan a civil wedding and whether you should plan it traditionally by hiring a venue and tent rentals, then here is a guide.
What Is A Civil Wedding?
Before you have your wedding with all of the décor, the fancy venue, and the long guest list, you have to legalize said wedding too. This is really important and for this, you need to go to a civil office and have your wedding held in front of a civil officiant – not someone who is a priest, religious, or a family member.
This is basically legitimizing your wedding. Your wedding won’t be real if you don’t go down the civil route. This wedding is the event in which you get your legal marriage license and your marriage is official. This is a very important step in getting married and for a lot of people who don’t want to spend crazy money on weddings, civil weddings are the way to go. So, if you think that you are also in the same boat, then you can go down this route too.
Civil marriages are the real deal, but they’re not very heavy on the whole dramatics and stuff. It’s simple and it’s real.
You can go for another wedding for show after the fact, but once you’re civilly married, you guys are a couple in the name of the law, and that is legit. Remember, without a civil marriage, there is no marriage, but once you get married civilly, you can or can’t go for a regular marriage with the ceremony and guests. It is all up to you.
Planning A Civil Wedding
Even though there isn’t a lot of planning involved in a civil marriage because you can simply avoid all the traditional stuff or choose an intimate wedding, there are a few things to care of though. Here is what they include.
Do Your Research
You need to know about civil marriages yourself. You are about to get married and the way you choose to get married is also important to figure out. You still have a lot of time to figure out how you’re going to pan things out. So, you want to look into civil marriages, how they’re done and what the requirements are.
If you’re going to have a civil wedding, then you have to know all of the ins and outs of this type of marriage. So, hop on over to your computer, because there is a lot of homework to do.
Get The Legalities Done
With a civil wedding, you don’t need to worry about the décor, the guest list, and the seating arrangement. What you want to stress over instead is getting the legal processes done and getting your wedding license and certificate. It’s really important and you have to figure these things out before you get married.
There is a lot of boring paperwork involved, but it is very important at the end of the day, so you know that you have to get it done. You can visit your nearest civic office that holds civil weddings and find out things from there.
To Dress Up Or Not
Civil weddings are simple, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t dress up for the occasion. If you’re only going for a civil wedding and are not doing another wedding after the fact, then you can make it special.
You can dress up in a simple but still stunning dress and show up to say your vows to your forever person. It is a really fun way to add some personalization to a very simple civil wedding. You will love it looking back.
Don’t Forget Your Vows
You can either go for the standard wedding vows or there is always the option of saying your own personal vows to make things extra special. There is a misconception that civil weddings are really uptight and that you can’t do anything on your own.
Well, here’s a surprise for you. You can totally write and say your own vows on your wedding day and there will be no objections. So, you can totally make a civil marriage very fun and that is going to be something that you will remember when you look back on this day.
Get The Rings
Even though it is a civil wedding, you can’t forget about the rings. Usually, a civil wedding goes something like this: You say your vows and exchange rings in front of a civic figure, who is either a judge or a notary and then your wedding is made official with a license. So, whatever type of wedding you’re going for, you can’t forget the rings.
Now, rings aren’t usually important in any type of wedding, but if you are going for them, then they’re needed in a civil wedding, so make sure that you don’t forget about them. They add a nice touch, are a symbol of the union and you guys can take pictures at the end of the ceremony, and even plan a reception later by hiring a venue and wedding party rentals Northern VA.
No Guests Needed
A great thing about civil weddings is that they are super chill and low-key, no-stress at all. You don’t need to fret over not inviting a specific person to your wedding or trying to wedge a long guest list into your wedding ceremony.
A civil wedding doesn’t need any guests. Now, again, you can have a couple of guests if that is all that you’re going for, but you don’t need to. As long as the marriage is legal and everything is ticked, you are good to go.
Get The Expenses Down
Even though a civil wedding is a lot less expensive than an actual wedding, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get away with not calculating the expenses. You have to calculate the expenses for the civil wedding. There will be the legal fees of getting the license and then some other fees.
Keeping a track of the expenses, especially for events like a wedding, is really important and you know exactly where you have spent your money and what you’re left with. You will know exactly what you’re getting yourself into and even though some people might call it penny pinching, it’s more about being aware of what you’re spending.
Plan The Day
For a civil wedding, you need to plan your day. A civil wedding takes no more than a couple of minutes to get done, so you can plan out the rest of the day after the fact.
You can go somewhere to celebrate, you might have an event to attend after the wedding or you might have people gathered for a little celebration of your union with your significant other. The point is – you want to plan everything down to the minute post-wedding.
Conclusion
A civil wedding is actually pretty easy to plan and if you want a break from all the glamor of regular weddings, then opt for this one. You can plan make it however you want after the legal paperwork is done. So, if you want to go ahead and host a ceremony or reception with wedding tent rentals Clarksburg and all the bells and whistles, then you sure can.
