Booking registrars

Granted I booked before Covid when things were less busy, but I just called up and booked the date and time. It was really simple. I think it’s unreasonable to have a two week wait. Email and call them.

I would call them and say that your venue is giving you 48 hours notice to book or they are releasing your date so they need to provide an answer as you dont want to loose the venue but cant book it without knowing the registrar is free. We had the same delay and i did the above and we managed to get them to confirm on the phone they had availability and I paid £50 there and then to secure and then completed the booking a few weeks later.

I booked mine last week, probably took about 3 weeks to fully sort because they were quite slow. They do need to be chased as I waited 2 weeks, heard nothing, chased them up via email and received a response the same day. I went ahead a booked my venue first then dealt with the registrar.

Having problems, too! I keep calling and they just keep telling me that there's a backlog and they're working through it as quickly as they can- it's really making me anxious, as I've booked almost all of the main vendors! eek!

Thanks for all of your replies. We chased over the phone and finally heard back today. They can only do 3pm which is later than I wanted but what else can you do?!

View quoted message I did the same thing! Booked hair and makeup and photographer - they came back today but after the same spiel of working through it etc. Which county is yours? Mine was Hereford

View quoted message It’s Worcester for me- it’s so stressful, isn’t it? I can’t believe they’ve got that many marriage requests haha

View quoted message I don’t understand either! Hope you hear back from them soon!

View quoted message You, too! Fingers crossed it’s within the next week for both of us! x

View quoted message We had the same problem, the registrars only had availability at 12pm or 3:30pm. We decided to book 3:30pm and everyone has been really positive about the timing! Guests travelling on the day will have enough time to get to the venue without being rushed in the morning, and there are no really early starts for hair/makeup/photographers/suppliers.

Croydon has a 3 month waiting list for appointments. Even when i called them they only had appts in July - i called up in April. We were given the registrars email address, who then booked us in earlier and were very accommodating.

I kept hearing about delays and limited availability. We decided we would do the legal bit at the registry office on the Tuesday before- they do cheap quick option one Tuesday a month. You can have 2 witnesses and you just go in the office to sign and that’s it. Then we’re having my brother ‘marry’ us on the Saturday at our venue. Saved a fortune, we’re not dictated to by their availability and it will be really personal ceremony.

I booked mine online today, We're December 2023 so it's too soon to give notice but we've booked their attendance and paid for the marriage certificate, we'll sort the notice out in January.

Is there a way you can do it online too?

It took me over a month to be book my ceremony, I guess the back log from the last two years is having an impact. The best thing to do is just ring them directly as emailing is a waste of time. I get married in March 2023 and can book in the date to give notice but cannot give notice yet.

View quoted message You did yours online?? Wow. That must be a forward thinking council 🙈😂 wish I could have haha

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Cambridgeshire Council! Didn't realise most still did it via phone or email haha

Hopefully you get a response soon!

View quoted message I submitted a request for July 2023 (Worcester) at the weekend. Have you heard back from yours yet? I’m guessing we may be waiting a while!!
Our venue are asking for the deposit in the next few days which we are just going to pay as we definitely want to get married there.
They’ve assured me if in the unlikely event the registrar can’t do any time on our date we can move the date for free! I’m hoping because we are having a midweek wedding this won’t be an issue X

View quoted message That’s definitely reassuring! We heard back from Herefordshire around 2 weeks but could only get 3pm for August next year which seemed mental!
Hope you’re not waiting too long x

View quoted message Ahh that’s not horrendous! I just want to hear back now so I can start properly planning things! What time did you originally apply for? Is your date midweek or weekend? X

View quoted message Ours is a Friday and we asked for 1:30pm. How about you? Tbh I booked photography, hair and makeup before it was confirmed because like you say we wanted the venue too so we’d find a way around it and book a celebrant instead or something 😊 x

View quoted message Hey!
Finally heard back from them- took 3 weeks!
They had our date and time available, thankfully! I think you’ll be fine with a midweek date x

View quoted message Ahh brilliant! Thank you very much. All the best with your planning 😊x

View quoted message Ahhh lovely, are you going to go with the 3pm time?
Don’t blame you! So exciting isn’t it!
We’ve booked for a Wednesday at 2pm 😊x

View quoted message Yes we will it’s only a short time in reality from what we wanted and being summer it will still be very light 😊 x

I'm so shocked by how long it's taking some people to book their ceremonies! We literally called up in the morning waited on hold for 20mins, spoke to someone and confirmed our date and time, paid deposit, received email confirmation and that was it. I would've been so stressed if I'd had to wait weeks. This was Cheshire East Council so I'm guessing they just don't have a huge backlog like others.

We finally heard back today after nearly 3 weeks, both our date and time were accepted.
Best of luck to all those waiting to hear x

Mine was quick but granted we booked registrar back in Feb 2021 for a ceremony this July (10 days to go ek!). Ours did it all online too, we are in Surrey. What I was shocked about was how much it cost! £640 and then when you give your notice they want another £35 from each of you! I wasn’t expecting that sort of cost. We also had a bit of trouble getting an actual appointment to give notice as they are so busy with backlog. So once it becomes within the time frame for giving notice I would get it booked in straight away as our online system gave us hardly any availability and it has be at least 29 days before the ceremony- we were cutting it fine but thankfully all done now. Just waiting for the big day!!! Good luck all

View quoted message If you think 2 weeks wait to get an appointment was unreasonable, we couldn’t get an appointment till July 10th when we looked back in February. There is a backlog and don’t forget they have cut down non the number of staff available for appts. I don’t think it’s u reasonable. You just need to plan in advance. It was easier to find a venue and reserve it and then book the registry appt at the council cause they bring the date forward and give you a an hour appt even though it was 20 mins for us..