Problems with ceremony venue

Maddie

Hi all, had our engagement party last night and am now getting back into the wedding planning in order to avoid tidying up!

We're really hoping to get married on 21st Dec this year as it will be our 10 year anniversary, and were planning on getting married in the registry office as we're not religious and want to save money.

Problem is that date is a Sunday and it turns out that the registry office is closed on Sundays :rolleyes:

We've booked the venue for the reception, its a lovely village hall. The lady there said they had considered getting it licensed for weddings, so we're considering trying to get that done & paying towards the fee.

Does anyone know the rules and how complex it is etc? I'm struggling to find info on the net.

Also, is it possible to book the registrar before you've got a venue booked?

Maddie

paddingtondoo

Maddie wrote: »

Hi all, had our engagement party last night and am now getting back into the wedding planning in order to avoid tidying up!

We're really hoping to get married on 21st Dec this year as it will be our 10 year anniversary, and were planning on getting married in the registry office as we're not religious and want to save money.

Problem is that date is a Sunday and it turns out that the registry office is closed on Sundays :rolleyes:

We've booked the venue for the reception, its a lovely village hall. The lady there said they had considered getting it licensed for weddings, so we're considering trying to get that done & paying towards the fee.

Does anyone know the rules and how complex it is etc? I'm struggling to find info on the net.

Also, is it possible to book the registrar before you've got a venue booked?

Maddie

I think you would probably best ringing your local council about the licence as in England this its their responsibility. Not sure how long the whole process would take though you know what councils are like.

It may be possible to provisionally get them to pencil the date in but as you will need to give notice if you're not getting married in the registry office and you have to have a venue fixed to be able to do this as they issue you with a certificate and check the venue out in their book.

HTH

Dusty_Moth

I emailed a lady at the registry office in Winchester (near us) about this, as we had been thinking about doing a similar thing. She replied with the following:

<i>"You will have to see if the premise where you are hoping to get married, would like to apply for a Civil Marriage/Partnership licence, the main criteria for a licence is, a fee for a 3 year licence of £1485, public liability insurance for a minimum of £5m, the Superintendent Registrar would inspect it is suitable, and Hampshire Fire and rescue would also inspect. If this is something the premises is looking to do, please give them my contact details and I will send them a pack."</i>

I found the lady through the hants.gov website - on the section about births deaths and weddings there was an FAQ and that mentioned about getting licenses. There is a leaflet called "Certification and Registration of Religious Buildings for Worship and Marriage" but that's not quite what you're after! - Not sure where you are so try looking at the council website for contact details of someone to ask there.

Hope that helps a bit!