Wedding in the woods...Help needed

alanalea

Hi all, I hope someone can help me with this…and thanks in advance

Saturday night my partner proposed to me and I said yes… now the problem is I don’t know where to start. We both really want to get married in some woods that are owned by our friend. Neither of us are religious in any way so we don’t want to be married by a priest.

All we want is a really simple wedding with our mates in the woods with a massive bbq and booze up afterwoods! I’m going to do all of the decorations and instead of presents we’re just going to ask everyone to bring a bottle (or crate lol) We’re also hoping to arrange it without our friends knowing and have them turn up for *my birthday party*.

Questions I need answering are:

Do we need to have a license for the woods to hold a ceremony? If so where do I get one from?
Who else can marry us and where do I find them?

I’m totally clueless! If anyone has had or arranged this kind of wedding can they give me some tips please

Cheers

Lea

Jay-Jay_4

Quote from www.weddings.co.uk or click here

The Law does not allow for civil marriages to be held in the open air, in a tent or marquee, or in any other movable structure, such as a boat, or train. Neither can a civil marriage take place in any building which has past or present connection with any religion.


that's probably not what you want to hear but I hope it doesn't put you off getting married in a more unconventional setting as what you described sounds absolutely fantastic.

Could you have the proper, legal ceremony in a local venue then go to the woods for a more informal 'ceremony', perhaps conducted by a friend or relative, then continue with the celebrations as you described?

Callisto

The law in Scotland is different, can't remember the exact details, but I know you can get married on a boat on a loch in the Highlands (but it does have to be anchored when you take your vows)

http://www.highlandvoyages.co.uk/weddings.html

I think you can also get married in the grounds of ruined castles, so there is a lot more flexibility to get married in Scotland (if you're prepared to travel there!)

Other than that, I did see on the Confetti website a while back that the govt is considering changing the law, so it becomes the registrar that is licensed, not the venue (so you could then marry in a wood in England), but I have no idea if and when this would become legal.

https://www.confetti.co.uk

We are planning our wedding for 2007. We are thinking of either going to Cyprus to get married (can get married outside there, but only certain places) or a civil wedding at a licensed venue (we were thinking Scottish castle) and then a medieval handfasting ceremony in the gardens...

Cyprus would be great and cheaper than UK wedding... but a Scottish castle appeals to my romantic side - have no idea at the moment what we will decide on, they're such different options, but both with pros and cons!

megsykins

Congratulations on your engagement!! :beer: :j

I believe that if you want to marry in Scotland, it's the person not the place who has to be licensed, so as long as you can find a registar who agrees to perform the ceremony, you can have it wherever you want. However, like Callisto and Jay-Jay have said, in England / Wales you cannot currently get married outside. This is due to change in a couple of years (not much help for you!)

As Callisto mentioned, https://www.confetti.co.uk is a very useful website, as is https://www.hitched.co.uk (particularly the hitched forums!) I'm sure you can find answers to all of your questions there, and discover a whole world of weddings you never knew existed!!! :rotfl:

ashmit

No advice, but congratulations, and I wanted to point you to https://www.indiebride.com and the forums there - sounds like you want to do something different and I found the forums over there great. It's an American site but there are quite a few brits around and they're all very helpful

Murtle

Hand fasting - wiccan style. It might be worth seeing if you can do something like this if you are interested?!

You could do the "legal" bit in the local registers office a few days before and then have the hand fasting in the woods.

Not sure if it's the kind of thing you are looking for?

Congratulations and good luck
x

alanalea

Thanks to all that answered... We have looked at Handfasting and possibly getting a High Priest or Priestess from the Pagan community to ordain us at Stonehenge next summer solstice.

Our second thought was to get hitched in a registry office near Worth Matravers so we can have a little get together at the cider pub (Defo worth a visit of you're in Dorset nr Studland Bay) BUT we've just been informed that we have to have lived in that Borough for at least 7 days before we put our intention to marry in!! (we're in Berkshire).The only way we can get married there is to get married in an 'approved venue'... not what we want!

What a palava eh?

Lemoncurd

alanalea wrote:

Our second thought was to get hitched in a registry office near Worth Matravers so we can have a little get together at the cider pub (Defo worth a visit of you're in Dorset nr Studland Bay) BUT we've just been informed that we have to have lived in that Borough for at least 7 days before we put our intention to marry in!! (we're in Berkshire).

We decided to get married near my parents home and as we lived some distance away, to get around the residency rules there I just went and stayed with them for two weeks as suggested by the vicar, apparently it is done quite a lot.

alanalea

Quick update and thanks 2 all that replied:

Decided to book a registry office for the ceremony and have a party in the woods afterwoods....

Well we're getting married in 7 weeks and having a funky halloween themed party with pumpkin decorations in the woods with a massive bbq. We're putting all our guests in tents for the night

Everyone thinks we're mad but it'll not b a wedding they forget in a hurry!

Jay-Jay_4

alanalea wrote:

Quick update and thanks 2 all that replied:

Decided to book a registry office for the ceremony and have a party in the woods afterwoods....

Well we're getting married in 7 weeks and having a funky halloween themed party with pumpkin decorations in the woods with a massive bbq. We're putting all our guests in tents for the night

Everyone thinks we're mad but it'll not b a wedding they forget in a hurry!

Woohoo!!!!! :j :j :j


Congratulations, that sounds lovely


Hope you have something in place in case it rains, like a tarp or marquee kind of thing. Don't want to put a dampener on it or anything (joke lol) but best to be prepared.


Oh....... and can I come?

Lillibet_2

alanalea wrote:

Quick update and thanks 2 all that replied:

Decided to book a registry office for the ceremony and have a party in the woods afterwoods....

Well we're getting married in 7 weeks and having a funky halloween themed party with pumpkin decorations in the woods with a massive bbq. We're putting all our guests in tents for the night

Everyone thinks we're mad but it'll not b a wedding they forget in a hurry!

Sounds fantastic, hope it stays fine for you but as Jay-ay says you can never rely on the weather & best have a contigency plan just in case.

Don't want to put a dampner on it 'cos I really do like the sound of it, but have you got all the relevent permissions to use/camp in the woods & have open flames there etc? Don't want the fire brigade & police turning up & turfing you off mid-way through 'cos they think you are a safety hazard or trespassing or anything! Hubby is a countryside ranger & I know that there are a lot of rules about this sort of thing & BBQ's in woods don't mix very well, would hate for soemthing to go wrong & spoil your day so best get permission & follow the professional advice on this.

Congratualtions by the way:j