Secular Ceremonies
We can help you mark life’s milestones like weddings, memorials, and naming ceremonies.
Looking for a Humanist Celebrant?
As a secular community, we want to help acknowledge and celebrate all the important events that happen during our lives. Committed to this cause is our dedicated group of Celebrants. Each one volunteers their time, attention and skill to help those who reach out. Our celebrants welcome anyone to contact us and ask about our availability for weddings, baby namings, and memorial services in Greater Chicagoland.
If you want to explore the idea of one of Humanist Celebrants leading a ceremony, please contact us! We’d love to hear from you.
You can use the form below to tell us about a ceremony you’re planning, or email us directly.
Meet Our Celebrants
Our celebrants are volunteers who have gone through extensive training. They are committed to making secular weddings available to anyone who wants one while at the same time supporting the Ethical Humanist Society through their service.
Katie Merrell
Humanist Celebrant
I became a Celebrant in 2016 and have been grateful for the chance to help people craft ceremonies to commemorate important moments of their lives, whether making a lifelong commitment in marriage or reflecting on the death of someone they loved. These occasions are essential parts of each life, and I appreciate our Humanist approach to creating a ceremony that specifically reflects the people involved.
I’ve come to understand that the act of the ceremony is itself the tradition, celebrating that which makes us uniquely human. My role as a Celebrant is to use my training and experience to help create a ceremony that reflects the values, personalities, and needs of people marking an important life moment. By talking people through the various aspects, including readings, music, people to include, and other elements, I get a sense of what their ceremony should look like and write text to reflect that intention.
I’ve appreciated the chance to get to know people and help them find the confidence to create the ceremony they want, whether that means including a “unity gin and tonic” at a wedding or having an open comment period at a memorial service, even if there’s a risk that a loquacious relative may carry on a bit. These choices, made with care and integrity, create the exact right ceremony. Throughout the process, I encourage everyone to remember that these ceremonies are not performances, but rather real-life experiences that we choose to share with those we love.
GlendaKenyon
Humanist Celebrant
There is something special in being invited into someone’s life for a brief moment and help them mark significant events. Even if it’s like the first wedding I officiated, where it was an intimate roof garden setting with a small guest list, you can still be almost overwhelmed with the importance and reverence that naturally occurs.
I think my favorite part of helping someone plan something like a wedding or a memorial, is that I’m helping the people involved bring out the reverence they find necessary. As Humanist Celebrants, we are unconstrained by precedent or tradition to offer a ceremony that fits the people being celebrated. Certainly I’ve had people come to me and say they wanted to make sure there was a moment made for a practice they grew up with and felt was important. But we marked that practice because it was important to the person who was the reason of the ceremony, not out of obligation. In the end, I see how this makes these moments much more precious and special for the people who are the center of the ceremony. This occasion holds weight because they helped create it, and in turn own at least a part of it.
That’s the important part to me as a Celebrant: helping people mark those important life moments in a way that reflects who they are. That is a gift I love to help people give themselves.
FAQ
Below are answers to some common questions, but feel free to contact us anytime for more info.
Humanist Celebrants offer a secular alternative to help commemorate the important moments in a person’s life, while still providing the reverence many appreciate. In addition, our celebrants focus on helping shape a ceremony that is important to you, since it’s your event. We are not weighed down by constraints set by tradition and expectation, but rather guided by how you wish to mark your significant life event.
Traditionally, we have performed marriages, baby namings, and memorials. However, we are always open to other ceremonies that bring attention to momentous occasions in life. Please reach out if you have a ceremony or celebration in mind, and one of our celebrants may be able to help you plan your ceremony.
Depending on the ceremony, a celebrant will want to meet with you (and all important parties) at least once in person. Typically we want at least two meetings to make sure we’re making an event that fits what you want. For most ceremonies we also ask for additional information, such a response to a questionnaire, to help up write the ceremony.
We ask for a suggested donation for each ceremony made out to the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago. Please contact our celebrants about your ceremonies for details.
We perform them in Chicagoland at any venue, including our own. Contact our Event Coordinators if you wish to use the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago as your space for your event.
If you wish to utilize a celebrant outside of Greater Chicagoland, we may ask for travel compensation. Please contact us to provide details of where you will need a celebrant to travel. We also require one meeting in person in Chicagoland in order to get a sense of what you will want for the ceremony.
Do you have a ceremony coming up?
Fill out this brief form with information about your upcoming wedding, memorial, or other ceremony and we’ll get back to you soon to see how we can help make your event special and meaningful.
