For those going humanist / non legal blessing...?

We live in Scotland so don't have that problem as humanist and other belief ceremonies are legal here, but I would probably do it a day or two before the wedding?

We were hoping to go to registry office on the way to the after party :-)

HMM were having it all in the same place (45 minutes from registry office) so we simply can't do it. As that sounds perfect!

We are going the day before. Registry office is booked for 11:30am, we're saying and doing the minimum and not wearing anything fancy. Then going straight across to the venue to put up some decorations ready for the day itself the next day.

We are having ours 4 days before. Not through choice really- we did want to do the legal bit the day before as it would fall on the date that me and the OH met, but the registry office we chose (where OH's parents got married) only allowed the "paper work only" ceremonies to happen on Tuesdays at either 9:15am or 9:45am, so we were stuck with that!

Personally, i'd definitely recommend doing it on another day if you can, if only so you can completely relax and enjoy your wedding morning without having the faff of the other ceremony.

If you are not planning to invite guests to the legal ceremony either, it's definitely worth having it on another day I think. We've had a slight issue trying to convey to some family that the legal bit "doesn't count" and that our wedding falls on the Saturday. With the legal and non legal being on different days, I think the separation of the two has helped. If they'd been on the same day, people (I suspect) may have got funny about not being invited to the "proper" ceremony.

We'll be inviting our parents / siblings and bridesmaids / ushers to the legal bit. But will tell them we won't be offended if they don't want to take the time off to do it :-)

Most of my couples have their legal marriage registration a couple of days earlier and attend in a very informal way. The only advice I would give is to check how many guests you can invite to this basic ceremony. In some offices it's no more than 4.

Karina

www.celebrant-uk.co.uk

Hi Karina, we're going to have to pay for the bigger ceremony to fit people in. The cheapest one only allows 10 guests and that won't even cover my parents / siblings!

Hi Snow Bride, I think my clients treat it solely as a registration of marriage rather than their wedding day. So in the same way that you register a baby's birth and then have a christening/naming day, my couples register the legal side and keep it low key and then celebrate with everyone a ceremony that's as traditional as they want it to be.

good luck with your day xx