Where to start

See our most up to date list of approved venues for ceremonies. This will give you a chance to explore the wide variety of venues so you may find the perfect location for your ceremony. It is important that you ensure your chosen venue has availability before contacting us to book the registrars.

Now you have found your venue, you need to ensure that the registrars are available. You are able to book your registrars up to 3 years in advance which hopefully will help with your planning.

We are able to carry out ceremonies on any day of the week, including Bank Holidays. There is no longer a legal restriction to the time of day. Our normal availability is between 9:00am and 7:00pm, however, if you wish to have your ceremony outside of these hours, please contact us.

It is essential that you agree the date and time with both the registration service and the venue before making any other arrangements.

Now you need to choose what sort of ceremony you would like to have on your special day.

You can have a simple no fuss statutory ceremony to a bespoke ceremony.

Please see all the choices on our Ceremony Options at a glance to document and choose which one appeals to you and let us know which one you have chosen when you complete your Enquiry form to book the registrars.

Before your ceremony, both of you will need to give notice to a registrar that you intend to marry or form a civil partnership. Please see Legal requirements.

Book your appointment.

If you need to amend the date, time or location of your ceremony, please contact us and we will do our best to help you. This may attract an additional fee. For more information, please read the terms and conditions.

If you are getting married or forming a civil partnership and wish to travel on your honeymoon in your married name, you can complete a PD2 form and send it, with your current passport, in order to apply for a new passport in your married name. 

You can download a form here:

• Passports for newly weds and civil partners (PD2) form (PDF)

Or from GOV.UK:

• Passports for newlyweds and civil partners - GOV.UK

You can apply for your new passport in your new name up to three months prior to the date of the marriage. The passport will be postdated to the date of the marriage and cannot be used for travel beforehand.

For information on our current fees for this service please visit our website: Registration service fees

The current fee for this service is £10.00.

If you are planning on a marriage or a civil partnership in a Church (other than the Church of England) at least one of the parties to the marriage must live in the district of the church or it must be their usual place of worship.

For all religious weddings or civil partnerships, you will need to contact the priest, minister or other religious representative to obtain agreement for your marriage or civil partnership to obtain agreement for your marriage or civil partnership to be conducted in their place of worship. 

For marriages in the Church of England, banns should be called during the three months prior to your marriage. This should be arranged by the vicar.  There is generally no need to involve the local Registration Service and Notice of Marriage is not normally required.  However, if you are a foreign national and subject to the Immigration Act 2014 the vicar will require you to give Notice of Marriage at your local Register Office.  If this is the case, we will also require a letter from the vicar to explain why banns cannot be read.   If you are in any doubt, please speak to a member of the Registration Team. 

For churches of other denominations, after making your booking with the priest or minister, you will need to contact the Registration Service to arrange for a Notice of Marriage or Civil Partnership to be given by each party in the district where you live. 

Please note a civil ceremony cannot be held as part of a religious ceremony.

For more information about getting married abroad:

• getting married or registering a civil partnership abroad (gov.uk)