Not told to register their coming wedding, now working abroad.

Tuesday_Tenor

I think their best bet is to get married quietly in the Carribean before they come back. This would actually be something very special; something that is just the two of them ( and witnesses, possibly friends, possibly random strangers!) and something that doesn't get lost in the razzamatazz of the celebrations with family and friends.
Then in the UK have the full church service, which will actually be a blessing of a marriage that has already taken place, and will be recorded as such in the church paperwork. And then the partying, with no loose threads left.

I think it has to be this way round as the church's position will be as follows:

The church can't actually marry a betrothed couple without one of the following;
- certificate that beams were read ( giving chance for objections)
- Registrars certificate that notification was posted (giving chance for objections)
- Special Licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury (today granted for rare exceptions; [has has a different function in past centuries]

So unless one of the above can be arranged, the Church won't be marrying them.

The church will, I'm sure, be happy to conduct a marriage ceremony as a blessing for an already-married couple - this is a fairly common occurrence.

Whereas I doubt whether the church would conduct a marriage ceremony, even in the form of a blessing, in advance of a legal marriage set to take place in a month or so's time. Plus the couple no doubt wouldn't feel like celebrating in quite the same way when the legal ceremony is yet to take place.

If they can't get home to do the Registrars notification bit, then get married in the Caribbean. Your daughter might well initially kick this idea back in your face, but she might come to see it's the best, certainly the cheapest, and maybe the only, way forward.

superboobs

Thanks everyone!
I have already suggested to my daughter, she gets married in secret somewhere else, and just has a church blessing, disguised as a wedding, but she says she doesn't want to deceive everyone.
I spoke to her about an hour ago, and she says she's going to telephone our local registry office in the morning.
She's also going to speak to her new employers, and see if they can come to some arrangement, and see if they can take an extra couple of weeks holiday without pay if possible. They can then come home the middle of July, and spend 6 weeks at home, so everything can be done properly in that time, and they can still get married.
Fingers crossed.

Gloomendoom

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

Whereas I doubt whether the church would conduct a marriage ceremony, even in the form of a blessing, in advance of a legal marriage set to take place in a month or so's time.

Having looked into it a bit more deeply, I would agree with this.

TonyMMM

A church wedding in the Anglican church would require banns to be read, and there would be no requirement to "give notice" at the register office at all.

That suggests the church involved here is not C of E ( can you clarify ?) and therefore does need the couple to attend the regsiter office and carry out the paperwork to be allowed to marry. The law has been that way for 180 years.

If they want their marriage to go ahead as planned in the UK they will have to return and give notice at least a month before the wedding. They won't have to stay here for any period. Assuming they have the paperwork to show they own a property they can use some documentation from that to prove their residency, so they wouldn't need to stay for more than a day.

The notice has to be given in the area in which they reside (so where they own the house) - not the district where the wedding is to take place.

Mojisola

superboobs wrote: »

I have already suggested to my daughter, she gets married in secret somewhere else, and just has a church blessing, disguised as a wedding, but she says she doesn't want to deceive everyone.

Why does she have to deceive anyone?

The couple can tell people that, for logistical reasons, they had to get married in the Caribbean but that they wanted the Church service and 'do' with all their family and friends because it was important to celebrate the day with them all.

superboobs

TonyMMM, they are getting married in a Catholic Church. I haven't heard from my daughter yet, but she was supposed to phone the registry office this morning, so I'm going to assume, it wasn't the news she hoped for, and she'll be coming home in the middle of July, instead of the middle of August.
Not bad news for me though, it means I get to spend more time with her as I've missed her so much!!!

Tammykitty

We were able to register our intention to marry by post with our local registry office (I worked somewhere with fixed holidays - so couldn't get time off to go without a hassle) as long as we were both present and had birth certs and/or passports when we collected the marriage schedule a few days before the wedding.

tensandunits_2

Is it a church she regularly attends, or does she just want a church wedding?

Silvertabby

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that for some reason a Church of England vicar is authorised to conduct marriages, but a Catholic priest is not. When Catholic friends married some years ago, they had the church ceremony then went into the vestry where a registrar was waiting to carry out the legal bit.

susancs

When we got married in the Catholic church we had to do a all the paperwork with the priest, a wedding sacrament prep course and get a certificate for this. We had to make an appointment at the registrars office where we lived and take id etc and get a registrars certificate. We had to give this to the Priest and it was stored in the safe as we were told we could not be married without this certificate. In our case one of the parish members was an authorised registrar so we did not need to book for someone to come from the registry office. Other family members who got married in the Catholic church had to follow the same process (the priest was the authorised registrar at some, but all needed the registrars certificate).

I would also check about the marriage preparation course as that may need the certificate from that, but probably could be done in the West Indies.