Giving Notice

That is odd. No you only have to give 16 days notice. Maybe they are talking about booking the registrar? Or have you done that? Strange.

I was told no less than 17 days before and no longer than a year before. We did it this week because we're both off work. I got told I didn't have to pay until 3 months before as well, but I paid in full when we did it so I could forget about it and take it out the budget.

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We're getting married in Scotland and we've been told that we can't do it any more than 3 months before the wedding, so I have it in my calendar for October.

We did ours just under a year in advance because our registrar said they wouldn't firm up our booking until it had been done. We had it provisionally booked but we wanted it confirmed ASAP. I'm sure it varies with district though.

That's what it says on our paperwork as well, we've paid the deposit but it says we're only provisionally booked. I think we'll just go as soon as we can.

That is very odd indeed. I take it this is in England or Wales? If so then you can't give notice more than 12 months in advance of your wedding and as has been said no less than 16 days before your wedding, unless there are special circumstances when you can get a special license. Are you getting married in a church or something other than a registry office? If the formaer then that might have something to do with it and you'd give notice via your vicar/priest.

If it's a registry office/non-church type ceremony then in terms of paying - if it's a two centre affair, you'll pay for giving notice at the time and place/s you give notice (places if you and OH live in different areas). If your ceremony is then in a different registry office/area, you'll pay for that at an agreed time with the registrar. If it's a church wedding the vicar/priest will sort all that out for you.

But if there's anything in the paperwork you have that you don't understand, do check with the office/person that issued it. Advice on here is great and given with the best of intentions, but we don't necessarily know everything and advice could be given ignorant of a highly relevant fact.

We did ours about 10 months in advance, the district we're getting married in asked for us to do it by the end of 2013 - so we did. ?

It's one less thing to worry about anyway.

I think ours was the same. I vaguely remember something about having to give notice within 3 months of booking the registrar.

I think it's just one of those things that varies county to county (like the price! )

Actually it's not odd at all. The majority of registration districts will give you a certain period of time to give notice in order to 'confirm' a booking. The booking may well be considered provisional until notice is given.

We provisionally booked our 18 months before only two time slots at the time left. We then had to give notice no less than 10 months before. That was Leeds think it may have to do when you first book it.

If it's linked to a booking then I agree but OP doesn't mention that it is. The suggestion is that she's just been given this window with no explanation why - hence I suggested she coNtacts them to better understand why .

Ours hasn't given us any time restrictions at all - just that we go in and see them anytime up to a month before to discuss what we want. They are so laid back it's scary!!

We were told it had to be done at least 16 days before the wedding but no more than a year before. Any time between the two was fine but we were advised to avoid wedding season as the registrars get, understandably, very busy then. That's why I booked ours for March. Word of warning - I phoned to book it in January and that was the earliest available date so don't leave it too late to make the appointment x

We get married in July 15 and we're told to secure our date we had to do it between July and September this year! We can't do it before a year of our wedding date so we have booked for August this year. We have arranged for a registrar to marry us in a licensed building so not sure if it's different than marrying in a registry office. They said if we don't do it before September our date will be re opened for others to book! I would get it done on the earliest date possible just to be safe xx

We get married September 2014 and I received a phone call early December 2013 from my registrar basically telling me "hurry up and give notice or we will give your ceremony slot away"...!!! Tbh I think it depends on the registrar

Definitely depends on the district, we were told that we couldn't give notice more than a year in advance and that we had to do it a minimum of ## days before the wedding. They suggested though that we do it as soon as possible once we got to the "one year to go" point as as we both had some time off work just after the year mark we went in and did it then.

Sounds like it's a similar situation to our registry office - they wouldn't take a provisional booking until within a year before and then they'd only hold the booking for a month and we had to give notice in that month to firm up the booking else they'd have given it away if someone else asked. So we've just (literally yesterday) had to give notice really early so we can be sure we'll have that date. So no, posters are right that you don't have to give notice by law that early but it sounds like it's your registry office forcing you to, which some do.

Thank's Bekki, that's usuful to know as I only have a three months to do it. Will give them a call soon.

No problem, good luck!!