How to Discourage Uninvited Guests from Attending Wedding

Who said that? Legal right my ar$e! I’m a law student and it’s no ones legal right to rock up! That’s scaremongering

you have who YOU want and don’t be put under pressure!

Good luck

Andy

Are you talking about weddings in civil venues? We were told that we can't legally exclude people from attending our wedding as it's in a church.

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Yes in a Church this has always been my understanding too, it is classed as a public event in a public building I believe. Andy can you check this for us for the exact definition.

But a civil wedding in -an other venue is on private property. Also venues will have maximum guest attendance numbers placed upon them by the local register office, the max numbers are decided by factors such as room size / fire /health and Safety considerations.

The first words of the registrar "This room in which we are meet has been duly sanctioned" - the sanctioning is the above checks in order to obtain a licence to hold marriages

It sounds like you are getting married in a civil ceremony and your friend has got mixed up with a Church wedding.

If they still keep going on about it then you can tell them you are only allowed x number of people in the room.

No, we are having a church wedding.

And there actually would be sufficient space for treble the number we have invited - we just wanted to keep the numbers low as neither of us is comfortable being the centre of attention and I really don't do well having to do anything in front of a group! The number invited is at the maximum upper limit of what I feel I can cope with, so you can imagine how stressed I feel at the possibility of uninvited guests adding to that number!

I'm absolutely horrified for you that some people are saying its their legal right to attend your wedding! So sorry you have to deal with people like that. If I were you I'd tell them a different date and time, or tell them where to stick it!

In all seriousness though, be firm with them and say 'It is OUR wedding and I'm sorry but we are having a small ceremony. You can't bully me into inviting you and you clearly do not care enough about me to respect my wishes.'

In Church weddings there is usually a member of the Church who stands at the back of the church who can turn people away if necessary, could you perhaps ask your Church if there is someone who can do this?

Another option could be to tell invited guests they must bring along their invitation and then you put a trusted and polite but firm friend/family member at the door to act as a bouncer and ask to see invitations before they can be seated.

I really hope you manage to dissuade these horrible people! I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

I realise this is an old question now, but to follow up one point, if you are married in a Church of England parish church then anyone who is resident in that parish has a very expansive right to attend your wedding. Church weddings are considered public acts of divine service and the right of parishoners to attend them is limited only by there being sufficient room in the church, the maintenance of good order and health and safety requirements.

The meaning of "sufficient room" has been tested in law and includes standing room - you can't argue that seating is not available for people.

"Maintenance of good order" is rather a grey area. You can certainly be removed for "riotous, violent or indecent behaviour" - in these cases, churchwardens have a power of arrest though they are generally reluctant to use it and prefer to call the police, who are insured against wrongful arrest. Churchwardens (and the incumbent priest of the parish) also have a joint right of possession of the church, which gives them the right to ask people to leave, though it's not clear what they can do about it if someone refuses, short of calling the police again and making a complaint of trespass. It is unlawful to exclude someone from a service because they have habitually disrupted services in the past; the main case law in this area is a case where a churchwarden excluded a teenager who was normally disruptive from a service and was sued for it. The judge held that the child had a right to attend divine service so long as he wasn't disrupting it at the time.

Health and safety legislation makes requirements on accessibility of fire exits and so on that may limit numbers in the church but this is obviously very specific to the building in question.

It is also possible that someone could be excluded from a wedding if their presence would otherwise be unlawful - for instance, if it was breaching a restraining order, non-molestation order or anti-social behaviour order, though as far as I know this has never been tested against the right of a parishoner to attend divine service. Your average churchwarden will almost certainly consider this above their pay grade and again call the police. Churches do have a legal obligation to provide a way for parishoners to attend divine service even when these sorts of orders are in place.

People who live outside the parish do not have any right to attend; they have a right to attend divine service in their own parish. In this case, it will be up to the incumbent priest and churchwardens to decide who is allowed to attend, though they are likely to be very reluctant to exclude anyone unless they believe there is a serious risk of disruption to the service. Even then, it will depend somewhat on the nature of the disruption, as the public have a right to object to your marriage if they believe it is unlawful and the way provided to express that objection is by saying so, publicly, during the ceremony, disrupting it.

I am not a lawyer and you should not take anything above as legal advice to be relied upon. I am a churchwarden and this is my understanding of how I should discharge my duties.

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Thank you for your comment - actually though, weddings are different to services, and under normal circumstances, anyone is allowed to attend any church wedding regardless of whether it is in their parish or not.

Weirdly, Covid did us a favour in this respect (if not in any other!) in that under Covid regulations, you can legally restrict the number of people attending! Our wedding took place with 13 people, and we were able to tell the would be gatecrashers that they couldn't come. I can't say I'd choose to get married under strict Covid regulations, but at least this was one point in its favour!!!

I understand how you feel my parents want me to have a big wedding but me and my partner want a quiet one so we are getting married with just are 3 kids .I know when your a bride your meant to be the centre of attention but i dont want to be neither does my partner good luck with it all x

I’m not in the situation, thankfully, but if I were then I’d try telling uninvited guests the wrong time for the church service. Have them turn up 2 hours late!

All wedding Ceremonies, legally must be done with "open doors". It's to allow anyone who has a valid legal objection to do so.

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Yes, as I've stated in previous posts, we were well aware of the fact that we were legally unable to refuse access to anyone, and this was never our intention.

The Covid regulations do not prevent anyone with a legal objection to the marriage from entering. They just prevent uninvited guests who wish to attend for their own amusement.