booking a venue

Hi, Have your tried ringing your registrar's office and checking with them? I don't know how it works or if it's because it's slightly sooner, but we were able to provisionally book a time and date with the registrar and then we have to book it and confirm it when it's twelve months to go. We're getting married in May 2014, and provisionally booked a registrar about a month ago.

Hi

Can you give your registery office a call. It may be that they are able to 'pencil you in' with a small deposit and you ring 12 months before to arrange giving notice- that's what ours in Cheshire did. The venue actually told me the details of who to ring to get the provisional booking and then they gave me our local offices number

Xx

You tell the venue to pencil you in and that you will confirm on the next working day. On that next working day, you phone the appropriate register office and see if they have space and at what time. You tell them you'll phone them back. You phone the venue to confirm a booking at x time. You phone the register office to book x time.

It's a frantic twenty minutes.

My registrar wouldn't take a booking without a firm venue booking, hence the order in which we confirmed stuff. Also, we were ahead of the year when booking so we were 'pencilled in' with the registrar (but really, this is a booking, they aren't giving that slot away).

Same for us, except we went to the venue during the week and made the phone call to the register office from the venue.

I'm glad someone asked this. I've been wondering this myself! Do you pay for the registrars time when you book or when you go to give notice?

X

When you go give notice you have to pay a fee (I think it's £35 each) Then you have to book your registrar and you pay a deposit. Then when you have about a month to go you will have to pay the full amount.

Some venues have 'arrangements' in place with registrars that will 'guarantee' a booking for your date

We booked our venue in September 2012 for May 2015 and had a letter from registrar a few weeks after to confirm date and time of ceremony but that's because the venue sort out the registrar so I think some venues must be able to secure dates much further in advance. Depends on different areas too as to how far in advance they will book you in but I would have thought you could be provisionally pencilled in.