can someone explain what i have to do to give notice?

Are you having a civil ceremony? If so, you need to call your local authority and arrange to give notice. You can't get married unless the registrar is free so you need to book them before you can decide on any timings etc.

What council do you live in? And where is your wedding venue?

I'd do it pretty sharpish to be honest.

Our venue held our provisional wedding date until we had booked the registrar. Only then would they take our deposit. However, we sorted the registrar within 2 days so we were pretty quick.

Once you have booked your registrar, you'll getting a letter called a provisional booking of marriage (or words to that effect!) from the council/register office department. On that letter ours said we should book an appointment to Give Notice between January and May (getting married this July). You can book this meeting by ringing your local register office. You just have to prove your identity etc.

They don't let you give notice too early as its valid for a year afterwards, so if you postponed the wedding you wouldn't haven't to declare your wish to marry again.

Oh and you have to pay £33.50 each for that little luxury...

Thankyou,yes we are having a civil ceromony

The venue have booked our registrar i think, we live in medway council area, but we are getting in thanet!!

I would check for certain that you have a registrar booked - you can't get married without one! None of the venues I looked at would book it for us, but thats not to say it can't happen.... but please do check!

Giving notices is a legal requirement, you must do it between 1 year and (I think) 2 weeks before you marry - basically it is the registrar where you live putting out a public notice of your intent to marry, where and when to allow people to object,s houdl they choose.

In order to do this you need to prove your ID and address - e.g. passport or birth certificate and a utility bill.

You and your partner are seen separately (by the registrar where you live) and you have to give details about you and your partner, such as full name, DOB, occupation.

AS said above there is a £33.50 charge each for this.

Once notices have been given where you live the documentation is sent to the registrar where you intend to marry and then they take it from there in regards to arranging the format of the ceremony etc.

You can guve notice up to a year in advance. Its pretty pain free really!

You can read more about the legal bit of marriage here:

https://www.gov.uk/marriages-civil-partnerships/overview

I've never heard of a venue that books it for you - please do make sure this is the case.

As well as the £33.50 fee each, you will have to pay the registrar to come to your venue. Mine was £350 but it varies by county.

According to Thanet council here: http://www.thanet.gov.uk/community__living/home_and_family_life.aspx you need to register at Kent which should cover where you live and where you're getting married.

Contact details are here: https://www.kent.gov.uk/community_and_living/births,_deaths_and_ceremonies/marriages/fees.aspx

And I'm afraid Kent is one of the more expensive councils as shown here: https://www.akentishceremony.com/FCKfiles/File/Fees 2011-12 Final Version_.pdf