Marriage certificate help

Yep it's a new thing, it's all online now, your local registry office should be able to advice further

The Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Act will come into force on 4 May 2021.

The Act provides for the modernisation of marriage registration for the first time since 1837, by introducing a marriage schedule system and registration in an electronic register. Paper marriage registers will no longer be used by Registrars attending Civil ceremonies or be used for ceremonies taking place at churches and places of worship. You will no longer receive a handwritten marriage certificate at the ceremony.

Congratulations x💗

Yes, from the 4th May as Sarah has said above.

I finally figured out how to get ours (married 7th August) - contact your local registry office, they will need to conduct a search of their database as your wedding is so recent (if you had a registrar it should have been filed straight away but if you had a church one like us they have up to 21 days to file the paper work you signed on the day with the registry office). Then you pay your £11 once they say they have found your record, and they will pop a paper copy in the post for you. Just paid for ours today and waiting for it to arrive over the next week or so. x

View quoted message Thanks for your replies. Congratulations we got married on 7th August too. We received a copy through the post yesterday without doing anything. So I wonder if it depends on registry office

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Ahh yes I think it does, and I think it depends on your ceremony as well. My sister in law got married end of May and hers was a registrar led wedding and she got her certificate through the post without doing anything. I think because ours was a church wedding it was a slightly different process - maybe the church fees don't include the fee for the sending of the certificate?

Either way, congratulations! I hope you had a fabulous day and you didn't get too much rain after the horrendous forecast! x

Some info on this.

The traditional "signing of the register" is no longer a thing. All you sign now is a manky piece of A4 paper with black text, which is use to register the marriage at the office.

The COE Church have looked at this and produced their own copy of the traditional register book that they keep at the Church, it looks the same apart from the cover being grey instead of green. Each Church has the option of buying one so not all Churches may have one. It just looks better on the photos.

When it come to a civil ceremony each authority have a different approach, I have seen that you will have something that you can take away with you in place of a certificate - although it is not an official document. Some Church Vicars/priest have also adopted this along with their book.

It takes the form of a nice looking certificate printed on ivory thick paper that you also sign after the manky official one.