In Sweden, private life-circle rites, such as name-giving ceremonies and civil funerals, outside religious or nonreligious congregations are increasing. This paper aims to expolore how people who prepare and participate in private life-cycle rites position themselves in relation to what they perceive as ‘religion’ or ‘non-religion’ in their ritual narratives. I use positioning theory to analyse the ritual narratives of the 12 interviewees. The study reveals that private rites are moments for making distance to organized ‘religion’ and ‘religious’ organisations by focusing on the individual, the main character of the ceremony, instead of God or a religious community. Other ways to show distance are by giving old traditions and materials new meaning or exploring existential dimensions, perceived as non-religious, in the ritualisation. Private rites can also connect to ‘religious’ organisations and organized ‘religion’ by copying practices from religious rites to a civil context, using ‘religious rooms’ and exploring ‘religious’ fusion in a ‘neutral’ place.