HELP! No registrar available

Doesnt sound like you have much option but to look at changing the date, or have a late wedding. Lots of people get married late and go straight into the evening do. It would cut a lot of the cost out if you invited everyone to the meal, and then you would only have one set of guests and only have to feed everyone once.

Could you not change the date for another date in the summer holidays???

Church wedding? without a registra for your venue, there won't be a wedding. I personally wouldn't want to get married that late, the day goes quick enough without loosing a few hours. i know you said you can only get time of in summer holidays is that coz you work at a school? what about half term?

Hi there!

Just a thought but you could get legally married at your local registry office during the week before your wedding (close family could attend?) and then have something like a humanist ceremony on the day (I think humanist ceremonies aren't legal marriages in England and Wales but are in Scotland!)

Otherwise you could have a Church wedding??

I dont see there being any prob getting married that late to be honest. I am getting married at half three and as has been said you can then go straight into the evening do after the meal (personally i dont like the hanging around bit). You will have to think about you timings carefully and think about how long you want your photos(if you are having them) will take as could start to get a bit late.

The wedding I photographed last weekend was a 4.30 wedding. It was also in a gazebo. The time of the ceremony is fine as if, as others have mentioned, you don't mind the celebrations being slightly shorter.

Welcome to hitched btw

Peter

I would have settled for half three at least its still light enough for photos. i work for social services and only work term time so hence the reason i booked for the summer with plenty of time to plan (and stress) Gonna phone the venue to see what dates are available but i know the 6th and the 14th were booked 2 years ago! would like to save money on the food and the hanging around bit inbetween can get boring. it is an option to have it late. im just a traditionalist at heart and would love the sit down meal, long speeches etc. the last thing i want my guests to feel is rushed through everything tho. dont think i could cope with the stress of rearranging everything and crossing out all the dates on things like the guest book that has already been ordered/paid for and delivered. "sigh" i live in wales and humanist weddings arent legal and majority of the family are roman catholic (and still need a registrar) so i think my nan would have a fit if i married in the church of wales. Never thought in a million years the registrar would be the hardest bit.

thanks for your help though. really appreciate all the comments.

Or, how about the bank hol weekend in August? You could go for the sat or the sun as people wouldnt have work on the Monday and still ties in with summer hols

Check with your venue, ours were able to allow you to use a Humanist, Registrar or a Minister. Plus they have one they always use if you are unable to source one.

We used Hubby's Family minister for our ceremony. and his cousin used a minister from a different church as like you she couldn't get a registrar for her date.

HTH xXx

I'll swap you your 4:30pm for my 10am! we had the same problem and the registrar bless her tried the whoole county for someone else to do it so we had a better time but no such luck. We're now either looking at changing dates (unlikely as booked quite a few bits already) or scratching our heads for ideas to entertain everyone all day. Also cuts short my time to get ready lol

Im having a 5pm wedding which is perfect for us. We dont want a formal wedding breakfast (can think of nothing worse!) so we will have ceremony then photos then straight in to a big old knees up! Its going to give me all day to get ready so i have minimum stress (but probably maximum nerves lol), more time to enjoy the prep, no hanging around during the wedding and be a hell of a lot cheaper as we have only budgeted £3500 for the whole wedding.

If it helps, I went to a wedding at the weekend that was a late wedding (not sure the exact time as we were invited to the 'evening') and it was lovely. When we got there for the 'evening' the day guests had just arrived from the actual ceremony. We all had a couple of drinks and found our seats and then the buffet opened. They did their speeches just after everyone had finished eating. Then they cut the cake and had their first dance etc. Yes it doesnt last as long but everything went very smoothly into the next bit etc with no waiting round etc. You can still have the table plan etc it just wont last as long.

BUT if you add up the things you might have to change e.g. guest book etc which already has the date on, would having a longer day be worth more to you? You could always have a Friday/Sunday or Monday wedding?

HTH

xxx

We've deliberately gone for a late ceremony (3:30pm) because we want a relaxed morning and neither of us have really enjoyed weddings where you spend half the afternoon waiting round! I wouldn't say 4:30 is too late, but it really depends on how you feel. If you have to ask, I'd say it's probably not right for you and you're better off considering a humanist ceremony or a different date. Good luck!

Oh, and if it helps, we had to bring our wedding forward by 6 WEEKS because there wasn't a registrar available for our venue on our original date even though we were booking a year in advance.

We are getting married at 4pm, having the evening guests arrive at 6 and feeding everyone together-we preferred it that way so that there is no hanging around and getting bored!

Hi and welcome to hitched!

I am getting married the day before you - almost a date twin!

We have gone with a 3pm Church wedding and that suits me just about right - I don't want to be in my tight corset dress for 14 hours and we could afford to feed our 140 guests twice so it works for me.

Not sure on the alternatives.. I have heard when an Asian couple get married they do the "legal bit" at home with their solicitors present and then they have a kind of blessing on the actual day? It's not my kind of thing, but its an option - could be done either just before or just after a "blessing" at your venue.?

Can you not find out if a priest would marry you at the venue?? Or find a Catholic Church??

Good luck......

If a catholic priest is marrying you, a registrar also needs to be present as its not the religion of the country.

We had a similar problem with time of year, my h2b is in the army and we had to have our wedding in their August holidays to be sure he would be there as he gets reposted in April and we still don't know where he'll be!

Our dream reception venue was booked all the weekends in August so were getting married on a Thursday, is this something you would consider? I was worried no one would come but having sent out the save the dates a lot of the people I thought wouldn't make it have said they'll def be there ? so much so we invited 97 people to the day hoping for about 80 but so far I'm a bit worried we may get the whole 97 ?

It is very unusual for a Roman Catholic church wedding to need a registrar. Usually the priet is authorised to do the registration or one of the congregation is an 'Authorised Person'

Have you checked with the church to find out if you do actually need a registrar?

I had a similar situation, and to make it worse, we have to be out of the restrauant by 5.30, so getting married at 4.30 was never going to work. Instead, we've gone for 11am which is very early, but the way i see it is that we get more vaule for money and to fill in the time we have extended photos for 2 hours, doing some formal but mainly adhoc and we are looking to get some entertainment, like a characterturist to fill in the time.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR REPLIES. cAN'T BELIEVE THIS PROBLEM IS SO COMMON. yOU WOULD THINK US BRIDES COULD DICTATE WHEN WE GET MARRIED NOT THE BLINKING COUNCIL. THEY SHOULD HIRE MORE REGISTRARS THATS WHAT I SAY.

WELL WITH MUCH DISCUSSION WITH MY H2B WE HAVE DECIDED TO GO FOR 4.30PM ITS MUCH SIMPLER THAN MOVING THE DATE AND IVE SAVED MY DAD ABOUT A GRAND AND A HALF SO HE'S HAPPY. NOT GOING FOR A 3 COURSE MEAL AS IT WOULD TAKE TO LONG JUST HAVING A BBQ BY THE BEACH. NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND ORIGINALLY BUT WHY NOT BE A BIT DIFFERENT. THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ME IS THAT IM LEGALLY MARRIED BY THE END OF THE DAY ALL THE REST ISNT AS IMPORTANT.

We phoned the registrars to check availability before we looked at our chosen shortlist of venues to get an idea of availability, so when we went we knew that certain days were more freer than others - 10th September 2011 for example they only had a 4pm slot free but the other saturdays were virtually empty. I have no idea what's so popular about 10th September but hey.

Then, when we booked our date with the hotel (14 day reservation) we were able to phone and confirm the registrar - 1.30pm - having checked what sort of times the hotel would recommend (they said they couldn't accomodate 4pm as it would mean feeding us whilst they were preparing for the evening meal for other guests).

When did you book the venue, as you're now having the registrar problems? Was it booked months ago?

I was also wondering this. Our venue provisionally held our chosen date for us for 2 weeks whilst we contacted the registrars to find out what times they could do a ceremony on that particular date. I would never have paid a deposit at the venue without knowing 100% that we could get married there.

I think you can give notice a year before the date that you want to get married and I have heard stories of couples camping outside the council offices, just to ensure that they get the date and time that they want!!!

Late wedding with BBQ on the beach sounds great, and why not have an encore photoshoot afterwards? That way you get to wear your dress again another day and get more photo time with you and H2B?

We booked the venue about 2 and a half years ago so there was no way of knowing the availability of the registrars then. it was my fault i should have rung them earlier or camped outside. thanks for all your comments guys.

The registrar issue is a pain in the backside....

Our local council do not open their books for 2012 weddings until November.... although will be phoning them tomorrow to see if they have opened them a couple of weeks early (wishful thinking).

We too have all the major items booked (thankfully if we need to change date this can be accomodated), and are hoping that as our wedding is on a Friday, we will not have too big a problem???? Finger's crossed, touched wood lol.

I wouldn't consider 4pm too late, although h2b wants to get married at 1pm.... I have no idea why.... have asked him several times and all I get is "I just want to" totally original...

Hope you get the registrar thing sorted ?

x x x

This seems to be a common problem when I called registar last summer to book they only had two times feft for the whole day. Venues should make brides and grooms aware when booking that they should also check they can actually get physically married. K Jackson woah thats one early wedding xx

I was at a wedding this weekend and the ceremony was at 3.30pm, the ceremony was very quick with no readings or singing but this was what the bride and groom wanted (both dislike being watched) and we had a 2 course meal and then a hogroast later in the evening.