Giving Notice

Glad to hear it all went smoothly!

Our attempt at giving notice was quite different. I don't have a passport (it's about 10 years out of date as I haven't needed one since I was a child!) and so brought along my birth certificate instead. During the time in which we booked the appointment and us turning up, the law had changed a little teeny weeny bit. Instead of bringing along your mother's birth certificate if you don't have yours, you HAVE to bring your mother's birth certificate if you're bringing yours (if you don't have a passport) to prove that you're British. Even though it says British on your own birth certificate!!! They did not tell us this, so had a bit of an embarrassing time of them telling us we can't give notice until I got hold of my mum's birth certificate. This would be fine if I lived near her. But I don't. It's a 6 hour drive to get to my parent's house. Cue major panic! Luckily though, I was meeting my mum for a meeting with the venue a few days after, so I managed to get her birth certificate from her then. Phew!

The other problem was getting to the next meeting. In my job, I can't simple "pop out" at lunchtime to go to a meeting or something and my work is 30mins away from the council office. So I had to take half a day off which was also a challenge as a lot of the days the council could do, I couldn't book off! Managed to book a meeting on the last day of the 28 day time limit they gave me though! Close call! It was an un-needed stress, but it got done in the end!

Moral of the story; own an up-to-date passport! Or make sure you bring along your mother's birth certificate. Don't get caught out like we did!

We didn't get asked anything - just given a form each to fill in about ourselves and one for both our details to go on. We signed, the registrar signed and off we went. I don't know if it's because I knew the registrar and she knew we'd been together yonks.

Wow, such different stories - at least they all worked out in the end! Ha ha.

Wow, we had to be interviewed separately and answer questions about eachother! Very interesting people have had such different experiences.

I didn't even know they asked questions. We have our appointment mid September and I've been told there is a form to complete and the appointment should take 45 minutes. Sounds like more than fill this in and give it me back so maybe ours will be asking us questions also. How embarrassing if we don't know an answer! Aaaagh.

Pick the papers up before?? I had no idea we would have to do this.... what is this for? I'm a bit worried now ?

Thanks! I've absolutely no idea to be honest.... maybe I will ring to double check.

I assumed as we are getting married at the hotel and they will facilitate the ceremony they would bring the papers but maybe not, eeek!

We had to give notice to Bournemouth (we live here), but wedding is taking place under Dorset Council, so our papers need to be with them for the ceremony.

It's all done on a central database so Dorset Council have been informed we've given notice in Bournemouth, Dorset will get a message when the 28 days are up and then they'll download/print the papers ready for our wedding.

All I need to do is make sure they've remembered to print out the papers, which I'll ask when we have our ceremony appointment (to go over some finer details) in November.

In theory, I don't have to worry about anything... ?

Love the in theory part of that post lol x