I myself have only attended 3 in my life. I find it makes no sense really as this is such a barbaric way to show ownership of someone. I never took the plunge myself but I posed this question to find out if anyone out here has been to a non religious one and what they felt about it.

This is very interesting. I am not getting married anytime soon.. never have been but am wondering what is out there for non religious folks that want to tie the knot and even for funerals too, who to contact & how that all works.. thanks!

Mistymoon, You are very welcome. Glad to help. I didn't know about it either until I came out of the closet and joined a local atheist group where I met this woman. I also met a man at this year's AHA conference who was in the process of becoming a celebrant. Now that you know they are out there, you should have no trouble finding one.

I used to shoot video for weddings and although the locations vary the ceremony stays pretty much the same. A friend was an ordained minister and married his son at a park with little if no religious references. I've been to a Unitarian wedding and it had the usual bridesmaids and groomsmen but I don't recall any overtly religious references, aside from it being held in a Unitarian church. One of my own weddings we held in a museum. The room had 4 story ceilings and suspended above us was a gigantic complete skeleton of a blue wale and a 4 story all window wall onto a major river. My wife was Christian so we used the Lutheran minister from my family's church, a really nice guy. I told him I wanted the ceremony short and about love. I selected bible Bible passages from Solomon's Song of Songs like, "'Look! The winter has passed, the winter rains are over and gone. The pomegranates have appeared in the land, the time for pruning and singing has come; the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree has budded, the vines have blossomed and give off their fragrance. Arise, come away my darling; my beautiful one, come away with me!' O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountain crags, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely." And then he gave what was suppose to be a very short sermon of love but turned into 20 minutes but the religious references were few and it was still a beautiful ceremony. One of my favorite weddings was some kind of Catholic Russian Orthodox Church. The church was tiny, quaint, lit only by sunlight on the alter, and packed with standing room only. The bride and groom were donned with wreaths and circled the alter 3 times. The groom was an opera singing and sang an acapella rendition of Ave Maria that still gives me chills just thinking about it.