Outdoor Weddings - NEED HELP

You can't get married outside in England to my knowledge - the ceremony has to take place within a permanent structure. However, you can get married outside in scotland...

quick google search found this on the gloucestershire county council website: ' The law states that a civil ceremony must be held inside a permanent building, which means that you can't get married outdoors, in a marquee for example'

As others have said, only permanant structures can be licensed for weddings.

What you can do however (and what we are doing) is get a celebrant to conduct whatever ceremony you want, wherever you like (my dad's walled garden in our case) as long as you go along to a reg office to sign the book (we are doing this early the same morning in our jeans with 2 witnesses - I think we need to say 6 words each to confirm that there is no legal impediment to our marriage). Vows, rings, readings, music, wedding dress and guests etc will all be saved for the ceremony at my dad's house.

My friend got married outside in a Gazebo at the Calf's Head in Clitheroe. It was absolutely lovely, but the gazebo had to be licensed.

I don't know where you can look for outside places. My personal advice would be that you should look abroad if you want outside as you can never tell if the weather is going to let you down in the UK!

I am not sure what the rules are - but certain outside structures are licenced.

Coincidentally, I was going to mention the Gazebo at the Calf's Head in Clitheroe - We are photographing a Hitcher's (Katamari) wedding in August at this venue and it looks lovely.

I agree about the weather - if you want guaranteed sunshine and are set on an outdoor venue the UK might not be the best choice.

TG

The term "permanent refers to a fixed structure. A marquee isn't. A gazebo usually is constructed with a permanent "fixed" roof, so meets the requirements.

Ringwood Hall Hotel does these....

Our venue has an outside gazebo that is licensed, which we'll be getting married in if the weather is nice. It's in Cheshire though.

In England the registrars, bride and groom and witnesses have to be under a fixed structure for the legal and contracting words and signing the register, the rest of the ceremony and the guests can be outside. We (as long as the weather holds) are getting married under a rose arbor in Oxfordshire and our venue also has the front porch of the house and a summer house licensed. The county council should be able to provide you with a list of licensed venues (or may well have one on their website), then you may need to contact venues to see ifany of them have an outside area licensed. They're still relatively uncommon though I think (from when I was looking) so you may need to travel a bit further to find what you want.

Hi All

Thanks for your help on that, I didn't realise about the fixed structures, but the gazebo looks a good idea. Love the idea about the rose arbour - just that Oxfordshire is just a little too far away lol.

Thanks for all the info - will let you know how I get on.

I have looked at Ringwood Hall and that at the mo is top of my list - but think they only do it Monday to Thursday (typical eh), but I am going there next Saturday to have a look round so hopefully it will work out.

Thanks again xxx

Nutty

What everyone else has said so far is right, in England you can't get married outside, you have to be in a building with a roof as a permanent structure. However, this can include things like bandstands, gazebos, etc so long as they are permanent structures.

In Derbyshire we have photographed a wedding in the bandstand at Buxton Pavilion Gardens which was lovely. This is about as close to outside as you can get, plus I think they have a weather contingency plan there so if the weather is awful you get moved inside and the wedding happens in the conservatory. The only problem with the bandstand is that it will only hold about 30 people but there is no reason why other guests could stand outside the bandstand. We saw another example of this at a wedding in Preston (at the Gibbon Bridge Hotel) where they have got a wooden gazebo licenced but it is not big enough for many guests so most people stood outside and watched.

Not in derbyshire but I fancied this idea.. visited two places where you could get married in a gazebo outside.

The first was Castle Green in Kendal. Lovely place, gazebo lovely only downside was that if it rained you got married in the conference suite which you had to go through corridors etc and I didn't fancy that.

The most amazing venue was called Gibbon Bridge, absolutely stunning gazebo - the most breath-taking venue I visited - but out of our price range. They have a website but it does not do it justice at all. If you have a budget to work with, and you really want to get married outside I would go and see this venue just to see what it is like.

Nat

WE had the same idea about getting married outside - so having two ceremonies - one is a registry office wedding and one is a humanist wedding outside.

Our humanist minister is based in Chesterfield -

http://www.humanistminister.co.uk/

Know it's over the border, but you can get married at the Botanical Gardens in Sheffield, and in the Bandstand in Weston Park, also in Sheffield...?

We're getting married outside (although our venue also has a wet weather contingency).

Our venue has a walled garden with a dovecote, and the dovecote is licenced as a venue (thankfully there are no doves living in it anymore though). It's in Suffolk though so a little way for you to travel I would have thought!

So THIS is the thread you meant Mrs Woozle! What a small world!

As Mrs Woozle and texasgirl have already pointed out there is the gazebo at the Calfs Head!?

AFAIK it does have to be a permanent, roofed structure, so it may just be a matter of ringing round and asking venues if they have a gazebo or somesuch outside. Do make sure that they have an alternate if the weather isn't good though - ours has a lovely glass house we can marry in if the weather turns foul.

Altough be aware that its the gazebo that needs the licence,not the venue.