Giving notice of marriage (civil ceremonies)

Smart clothes - no. We wore jeans and t-shirts!

The questions they ask you are basic stuff like names, date of birth, possibly place of birth etc. I think it's just to make sure you actually know each other and it's not a sham marriage (could be wrong about that, don't quote me!).

We were in there for about half an hour altogether.

We were called in separately at first, we were asked lots of questions like address, how long we had lived there for, partners DOB their occupation and fathers name etc I must adit it did make me feel a bit nervous. We were then seen together and the registrar gave us a marriaage planner pack to take away with us which contains all the words used in the ceremony and you have to tick which ones you want. He also ran though the music and how many tracks we needed to have.

Last week we went back for our 6 week 'pay and discuss' appt before the wedding which is when you pay the registrars fee and they check that all the details are still the same for the marriage certificate. We also gave them the sheet with the ceremony words tcked we wanted to have and they take the details of any personal readings you may be having. They then ran through the entire ceremony with us. They made it sound so lovely we came out of there walking on air Certainly feels real now.

We're both British and were still interviewed separately. I think that must be a standard part of it.

Yes - ID! Very important. I took my passport and the TV licence, h2b used his birth certificate and another utility bill. Because I was born after 1983, if I hadn't been able to find my passport or it hadn't been valid, I would have had to produce my birth certificate AND my mother's birth certificate. H2b was born before 1983, so even though he doesn't have a valid passport, he only needed his birth certificate. We both needed a bank statement or utility bill with our name and address on though.

Aha you just reminded me Sammyjay, we had a problem with the ID as they wanted a utility bill with both our names on it which was a problem as we dont have paper bills for anything anymore apart from Council tax but they said it had to be a bill only 3 months old!! We got around that by going to the help center in our local concil who did an identification sheet for us!

Wow, what a pain! Ours were fine with one each - which is a good job because nothing in this house has both our names on. We get our council tax thingy online and everything else is separate. What would they do for couples that didn't cohabit yet?

Maybe we just looked a bit dodgy then ?

We're both British and were interviewed separately. I've never heard of anyone not being interviewed separately.

We just took along our passports as ID and we had our council tax bill with both our names on, which they accepted as proof of address. I was pleased they didn't want one bill with my name and one with his, because pretty much everything is in my name.

We're both British & were interviewed separately first then we were spoken to together. They asked all the questions mentioned above but they also asked us what our fathers did for a living. OH's father passed away when he was very very young and he didn't know. Registrar suggested we find out but I'm not quite sure why. We were both a bit nervous that we'd get each other's job titles wrong but it was absolutely fine.

This made me smile, , , when we went we had just had heavy snow. We both had woolly hats and wellies on?

xx

We were interviewed together. I guess its a regional thing.

Its pretty informal and relaxed. The registar entered the answers on a computer that must have recorded them, but also provided a list of in-correct answers...

We had a few discrepancies, but nothing too major. (apart from me getting Carmens age wrong, and OLDER! ow!).

It really is nothing at all to be frightened of! As long as you've got the right documents it's really easy; they're not trying to catch you out or anything.

We're both British and were initially seen together and then separately (this is at Southwark registration office), but they didn't ask any questions which were remotely hard.

We're both Brits and were interviewed entirely separately, nothing together at all. I think part of the reason is not only to prevent shams but also to judge whether you are entering into marriage willingly and not under any pressure, which is presumably easier to sort out when people are on their own.

This was the only bit that I struggled with - I was like "Erm...something with computers?" but they seemed to be happy with that.?

My H2B and I don;t have anything with both our names on, he moved into my place about a year ago and everything household is in my name and we have separate bank accounts though he is on the electoral register.

Is that likely to be a problem?

No, because not everyone lives together! As long as you can both prove your address it shouldn't be a problem

We have our appointment on Thursday, and it's more complicated for me as I'm divorced.

I have to provide all the usual stuff PLUS divorce papers and Deed Poll for my change of name. And I've been told that sometimes if you weren't married for long or have only just got divorced they ask you awkward questions about your attitude to marriage too. (I'll be OK, married for 8 years, separated for 2, divorced for 3)