Civil ceremony

In the United States, civil ceremonies may be performed by town, city, or county clerks, judges or justices of the peace, or others possessing the legal authority to support the marriage as the wedding officiant.

[2][3] In the UK, a civil registrar ceremony cannot include hymns, religious readings or prayers,[4] and the marriage must take place at a registered or licensed venue to be legally valid.

Civil Registration of all Births, Deaths & Marriages has been compulsory in Scotland since 1855 when the UK government passed several Acts & Bills, effectively to stop the Scottish Traditional Practice of Legal Weddings being performed by communities.

In the end, the government dropped the marriage proposals, the session clerks were paid to be registrars, and the Treasury met the cost of the new system.

[6] Effectively, since 1855, Civil Marriage Ceremonies have not been legal in Scotland, except if performed by an employee of the government, usually in a registrars office.