A Civil Ceremony allows you to personalise the proceedings, even choosing to write your vows if you want to. 
Legally you cannot have any religious content in a civil ceremony, that includes vows, poems, songs and readings, so care must be taken to check that there are no religious references at all!
A Civil Ceremony usually last about 20 – 30 minutes, it really depends on how much content you have desired to include.
Civil ceremonies are very informal and that is what attracts most couples but try and include a of poems and readings, otherwise the ceremony will be over in 5 minutes!
If you getting married in a licenced venue then the order of service is not much different from a religious ceremony, apart from the wording of the vows are slightly different. And of course there will be know religious references.
Averell
