Civil Ceremony Charge

ooberandy

Hi,

Yesterday myself & my fiance went to the register office to post our notifications of marriage. We paid our £60 fee for this service, but were then told we have to pay £423.50 for the civil ceremony.

We had previously booked our venue & there website states...
Special Offers:

• - 15% Discount On New Bookings for 2008 - Terms & Conditions apply.
• - No civil ceremony charge will be applicable for October, November, December, January, February and March. This applies to new bookings only.

So I was a little confused when I received the £423.50 bill. I asked the registrar about this & she too found that this statement is misleading.

I have been in touch with the venue & have been told that 'No civil ceremony charge' relates to a fee they have to pay for their licence - but there is no mention of this on their site. Im waiting for the manager to ring me back, but the wedding planner doesnt think that they will pay/ contribute to this fee.

We have signed a contract with the venue & (homemade) invites have been sent out. Basically i feel i have nowhere to go & have to accept this charge. Does anyone know of anything i can do? Should i try citizens advice or even go as far as a solicitor?

*starla*

The charge from the venue and the registrar are different things. The venue need a licence which they may charge you for, or include as part of their wedding package, which your venue has done.

The registrar's fees are seperate - this is the fee for the registrar to come out to the venue and conduct the ceremony.

E.g. I have paid £150 to my venue to cover the cost of the licence, and £290 which is the registrar fee. If my venue had told me I didn't have to pay for their licence, I would still have to pay the registrar to come.

So your venue have not charged you, but the registrar charges would still apply. Most councils would have details of their fees on their website, it isn't a standard fee, I live in York where it would be £400 odd but because my venue is in East Yorks, different council and their charges are a lot cheaper.

Sorry this probably isn't the answer you wanted to hear....

Starla

bride_on_a_budget

I agree with starla,
we posted our notice of marriage and paid the £60 fee.
we then had to pay our registra their fee of £340 for a friday wedding.

This fee will have to paid to the registra about a month before the wedding date, they will usually contact you to arrange a meeting to go through the details.

our hotel included the license fee in with the package deal we got
If you dont pay, you will find that the registra will not conduct the ceremony.

i hope this helps

Alleycat

Again, just to echo what the others have said. We are paying £400 fee to the registrar to attend our wedding. Our venue don't have a separate charge for the ceremony, so just paying all in venue hire charge for ceremony and reception.

Sorry.

ooberandy

My unhappiness comes from the fact that they say 'No civil ceremony charge'.

I knew there would be a charge from the registrar, but thought that this was the venue saying they would pay it as an incentive to use them.

Alleycat

I understand the confusion but I don't think that you can accuse the venue of being misleading. The fees you pay to the registrar are totally separate to the charges of the venue. As far as I am aware, the venue never pays anything to the registrar, just the cost of the licence to the General Register Office and that is not per couple but when they are given a licence to hold ceremonies.

sexki11en

Awwwww that's really awful ooberandy, but I don't see what a solicitor can do when the misunderstanding was on your part Whether you understood it or not is not really the venues problem and definately not their 'fault' (I hate that word).

It's an awful amount of money to have 'sprung' on you when you weren't expecting it but I really don't think theres anything you can do about it.

SK x

louisebbctlc

We have the same problem £480 and then the £30 each 2 sign papers when we went 2 reg for the wedding!!!!!!!!