Registrar fees?

Hey

I am getting married in a church and was also surprised at costs.

Oh by the way your venue looks stunning, really beautiful x

The charges differ from County to County however yours is almost exactly the same except I think mine are £450 plus the £35 each, plus £8 for the actual wedding certificate.

It's a lot of money but bare in mind your registrar has to travel to your venue and spend time there plus the admin fees. It all adds up unfortunately.

Mine were more. Quite standard, I'm afraid.

Ah ok well glad to hear I'm not being ripped off!

I was shocked too, they aren't sure how much it will be for us as we don't get married until 2015. X

Alas yes, that's about normal. Ours were £525, they are only in the £200 region if you get married in the actual reg office.

When do you need to pay the fees?

We're having a try before you buy weekend at our venue, and then intend to firm up the booking that week - but will need also to book the registrar at that time,

Mrs skinner i am not stalking you, but these are the things i am also trying to sort at the moment

x

I even had to pay money to Wandsworth Borough Council for the privilege of getting married outside of their borough - and then about 400-500 to Westminster Council.

Moral of the story: everyone will take as much money from you as possible for your wedding!

We are having a church wedding but it i was expecting that to come out at £1000+ so i was surprised when it came in under £700 for the whole lot all the bells and whistles...

We looked into civil ceremony and where our wedding is (Cheshire) it was around £650 for a Saturday. Apparently it's to cover overtime and travel for the registrar but I'm not 100% sure. Other councils have different charges so you could get married in a cheaper county if your plans aren't set yet?

You normally pay a deposit to secure the date/time and then the balance was due four weeks before. We just paid the lot when we got the date though so it was out of the way.

We paid a deposit on booking (£80, 18 months in advance), with the balance due at some point I can't remember now. Likely the 12 month threshold.

Aye, Cheshire is an expensive one, from personal experience and compared to the general comments here.

Did you? I'm wondering if we had to as well then! I can't remember. Although cheapest council tax in the country, I guess..

I suggest you get married near me, my registrar fees were £360 plus £35 each for giving notice.

yeah that's what I remember! Yes used to be the cheapest council tax, but now I live in kingston borough - really expensive council tax does not make it one of the happiest places to live!

We've just moved down the road to streatham so no longer get the cheap council tax either. Kingston is lovely. Streatham is ok, a lot cheaper than the Junction!

We are paying about £320 (plus we had to pay £35 each to give notice) I don't think ours went up in January!! We have a contract that I signed saying the cost, so I will fight them all the way if they try to raise it.

Ours was nearly £700! Woo, Kent!

holy crap!!!! Cheshire East I assume? cheshire west is £350 odd for a friday i cant believe the different that tiny border makes!

My venue is Cheshire/staffs border but thankfully it comes under staffs as far as registrars are concerned. Havnt a clue how much its going to be but I've been told by venue that its about £300 cheaper just because its not Cheshire! Phew is all I can say!

Its shocking isn’t it!! Ours is:

£55 booking fee

£35 each to give notice

£574 Ceremony fee

£4 per certificate

They also charge £133 per rehearsal, so i think we will give that a miss. Personally i think the fees are a complete rip off and they increase every year.

Hmmm, I'm not sure they are a rip off. Not least because I can't call any aspect of the most important part of the entire day a 'rip off'. You're paying for two people, both well-trained and well-dressed, to travel sometimes long distance to a venue, most often on a weekend, to oversee your marriage that YOU chose not to have in a register office. I'd have paid whatever it cost!

Now band prices, they are a rip off

Ours was under £200, but we got married in the actual register office. (Tamworth)

This is the most important part of the day, so does it matter how much it costs. Seen some ladies on here spend hundreds on a dress, they are only going to wear for a couple of hours, yet moan about paying for their actual ceremony. The mind boggles.

I think the reason why is because the dress price is a personal choice. I could spend nothing, go in t-shirt and jeans to £200 on the high street or to £1000 on a designer dress.

the ceremony is the same wherever, you ended up married at the end, same result ... so why the price differences from county to county?

To me £55 booking fee?? That is a rip off, that has to be paid within 2 weeks of you booking the venue.

£35 per person to give notice? Far too much. £35 for both would be acceptable.

The fee for the ceremony i am happy to pay as you rightly pointed out they are well dressed and working on a Saturday.

It should also be one flat fee country wide not depending where you live. We have no choice but to pay it because we chose to get married at our venue but i just can’t see how they can justify the above charges.

The fee contributes to the running of the register office, and will reflect local prices in terms of building upkeep and maintenance, staff upkeep and maintenance and so on. That's why Kent is more expensive than Staffordshire.

The booking is deducted from the overall charge, at least i think that what my registrar told me. Its admin charge really for booking your day and making sure someone available

I havent had to pay anything yet - got a piece of paper to confirm booking but no deposit.. i did think it was weird at the time? next month we'll be able to book giving notice x

hmmmmmmm, I think that explains A LOT. Cheshire West are still in the same building for marriages etc etc in chester (across the roundabout from my venue) Cheshire East have just had to BUILD new building either in sandbach of middlewich, not sure which has the registrar's in it. Plus no rise in council tax in Cheshire East means they're getting money from else where to refund the refurb. Mystery solved!

I suspect in this instance, the pricing of registrars is also slightly competitive, based on the market (which is, of course, where cries of "rip off" may well apply). Cheshire East covers wealthy "footballer country" and if they are going to be marrying the likes of Rio Ferdinand in big castles, it means that us mere mortals take a bit of a hit for that. They charge more here, well, because they can.

Had a look online no mention of deposit for chelmsford - and costs less than i thought. £35pp to give notice, £370 away ceremony (thursday wedding wins again!) and £4 per certificate. looks alright considering some prices here ( and less than what we budgeted although prices are due to go up the month before we marry)