register office ceremony

flora48

I found the registrar at the Registry Office to be more than helpful. She bent over backwards to help fulfil our wishes and suggested good areas of the office for photos and even took some herself so we could all be included.

At the time, 4 years ago, there had to be connection to the area for one of the couple, not just any old registry office could be chosen.

Slinky

margaretclare wrote: »

What can be threatening is the interview beforehand when the couple go to state their intention to marry. DH and I were interrogated - no other word for it - and he was pounced on when he got my year of birth wrong. Makes you wonder how so many 'sham weddings' actually get through.

Oh yes we had this. We were both aged over 35 and lived in the village I was born in. We happen to have a county boundary running through the village. The registrar insisted somebody from their office check which side of the boundary we live in order to make sure they could deal with us (people come in here not knowing she says). Like we don't know who we pay our council tax to, etc etc, it's not like we were a couple of clueless kids.

Fortunately we didn't marry there and didn't have to deal with them again......

My OH couldn't remember my age either (we'd only been living together 6 years).

MadDogWoman_2

With CofE, you need to have a qualifying connection to marry in a particular church.

CofE can be flexible.

If you are marrying out of Parish you will need to get your Banns read at your local church and a certificate provided, there is a set fee for this.

maggy50

We got married at the Register Office over the border 4 miles in another county.
Unfortunately we had to do our notices in our county and it was not a very nice experience.

We are well over our 50s and were treated like imbeciles .

The initial 1st appointment we were told we did not have all our paperwork yet in the county we married the guide sheet sent to us we complied with .

The 2nd appointment one of my documents did not comply :mad:

So back again for appointment 3 paperwork in order but at the sperate interviews
My partner of 20 years did not know my birth date , his post code , telephone number and worst of all the date of marriage ...men !!!!

She did accept our notices after sending him for time out with me :eek:

When she handed our paperwork back she commented about our venue and asked why we were going there , that is when we realised that we were being messed about due to sour grapes on their part .
I would never have chosen the venue in our county it is an unsightly building with nowhere to take photos .
Our venue has a lovely outlook with plenty of areas to have photos ours were perfect .

Georgiegirl256

Is the above the norm regarding registry office weddings? Asking questions such as partners DOB etc? I didn't realise that, no wonder some people feel like they're being interegated.

We got married at Gretna Green and we had none of that. We went up and chose our venue, booked the date etc, we then sent off the relevant paperwork and turned up on the day, simple as that!

onlyroz

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Is the above the norm regarding registry office weddings? Asking questions such as partners DOB etc? I didn't realise that, no wonder some people feel like they're being interegated.

We got married at Gretna Green and we had none of that. We went up and chose our venue, booked the date etc, we then sent off the relevant paperwork and turned up on the day, simple as that!

I remember a meeting in a room in the Wandsworth council offices but I don't remember it being like an interrogation. I can't remember the process now - we were living in Wandsworth and got married in Twickenham by a Richmond registrar and so I suppose there must have been some sort of coordination between Richmond and Wandsworth. I don't remember it being too complicated or stressful. I do remember the registrar speaking to us about 5 minutes before the wedding questioning us about the length of the ceremony (we got it down to two minutes). He said that he would pad it out a bit with some history of the building, which was nice of him.

barbarawright

margaretclare wrote: »

TWhat can be threatening is the interview beforehand when the couple go to state their intention to marry. DH and I were interrogated - no other word for it - and he was pounced on when he got my year of birth wrong. Makes you wonder how so many 'sham weddings' actually get through.

How many sham weddings get through?

Kynthia

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

Is the above the norm regarding registry office weddings? Asking questions such as partners DOB etc? I didn't realise that, no wonder some people feel like they're being interegated.

We got married at Gretna Green and we had none of that. We went up and chose our venue, booked the date etc, we then sent off the relevant paperwork and turned up on the day, simple as that!

When you apply for your license you are questioned separately about your partner's DOB, address, job, parents, etc, and your ID is checked. It is a little bit interagatory but was done as a pleasant chat.

Savvy_Sue

Maybe things have changed, but when we married and needed a licence because our church wasn't CofE, DH went to get the licence without me. I was going to say 'on his own', but he had another young lady with him because he needed a lift.

I was working!

maggy50

Kynthia wrote: »

When you apply for your license you are questioned separately about your partner's DOB, address, job, parents, etc, and your ID is checked. It is a little bit interagatory but was done as a pleasant chat.

Ours was far from pleasant it was worse when everything my OH got wrong he could not remember our wedding venue ...lol