Registrar AND celebrant?!!!

Yes this is totally possible

We've photographed a few weddings where there have been registrars present to make the marriage legal, as well as a celebrant or someone to conduct a religious blessing.

In all cases for us, the registrars have done the legal bit first. How much you want the registrars to do and how much of a civil ceremony you want is completely up to you as far as I am aware. For example, you can have a full civil ceremony with readings, vows and so on, or you can have the legal bare minimum where you essentially just state that you are legally free to marry.

It can be done beautifully and seamlessly and I love it when we have couples who do this!

I know you've said that you don't want to just go to a registry office, but it does work out to be massively cheaper if that's a deciding factor for you at all. We're having a celebrant for our wedding in 2 weeks time and she's costing £400. Had we had a registrar too, we'd have then been looking at another £480ish on top.

Instead we're going to the registry office a couple of days before just the 2 of us to sign the paperwork- it's costing £45.

For the sake of saving over £400, it was worth separating the 2 for us.

By all means, if you want both then have both. But I know from personal experience that the legal ceremony is a formality, we got legally married the day before our wedding day and it was our humanist ceremony that truly made us feel married. It was very meaningful and very special, and as the previous reply says a hell of a lot cheaper.

You can do Both, we are having both at the same time. The celebrant has said we have to do a few things to make sure it's legal but apart from those parts we can have whatever we want.

View quoted message Did it work out the way you wanted it to? Just currently trying to figure this all out for our wedding.

Interested too, as we are wanting both but I don't want them to feel disconnected or have no flow!

I’d love to hear how it went too! We’re planning on doing the same thing, and any tips to help the legal but transition to the celebrant-led ceremony would be really appreciated. We’re aware that the registrar has to leave before the celebrant starts

Registrars are celebrants! They conduct your ceremony, tailored to you both, whilst also ensuring you are legally married - it's a win-win!

It is a bit of myth that registrars are stuffy and do not personalise your ceremony or take time to understand how you would like to tailor your day. I am a registrar, so I can confirm with wholeheartedness, that we are all very passionate about what we do, we want to ensure you are both happy and receive the ceremony that is special to you both. We are not prescriptive, all apart from the declaratory and contracting vows which legally get you married.

Your readings, ring vow choices are all free form (no religious content allowed) but otherwise, the ceremony will be a beautiful one, in one place, in front of your friends and family and you will be paying one price for 2 registrars, once to conduct - the celebrant registrar and the other to ensure your legal paperwork is all signed and sealed. The signing of the documents with your witnesses is also a special moment, lovely memories captured in photos of you both legally signing that you are both married in front of your guests.

Contact the register office in the district where your venue is placed and they will be able to run through what to expect. You will not be disappointed.

Check out different boroughs on the social media pages, you may catch a reel/video clip demonstrating the above.

Congratulations and have a wonderful wedding day!

Hi Emm.

Its great that we now have an actual registrar on the forum and you make some good points but I just want to clarify something.

"The signing of the documents with your witnesses is also a special moment, lovely memories captured in photos of you both legally signing that you are both married in front of your guests."

I have never been allowed to photograph the actual signing, and the registrars always make a point of announcing that no photos are allowed during the actual signing.

Has this changed or is this something that your area are not strict on.

View quoted message

That isn't strictly true though.

Yes, there are registrars that style themselves as 'Registrar Celebrants' and they do offer an extra layer of personalisation - this can only be a positive thing. However, with a 'registrar celebrant' a couple would still be restricted to having their ceremony in a designated area of a licensed premises, no religious or spiritual content would be allowed, there are likely to be time restrictions on ceremony length (given that registrars generally officiate multiple marriages per day) and are couples are unlikely to get to know the registrar beforehand, in the way they would have the chance to get to know their celebrant.

I applaud registrars expanding what they offer, but couples must have informed choice. To imply that your offering is on par with the personalisation offered by a celebrant in terms of ceremony content is disingenuous.