Registrar problem!!

How odd. I always thought registrars could only confirm bookings 12 months in advance, max? That's what we were told when we were enquiring about dates.

Possibly this varies from area to area - in mine you're responsible for booking your own registrar (none of the venues we looked at did it for you) and they did warn us that there were sometimes problems so to get the registrar before putting down a deposit. When I first called to book the registrar she said they were fully booked for that day, but called round some of the provisional bookings and one cancelled. So I had the choice of one slot only, and that's the one I went for.

I was responsible for booking my own registrar and I too could not book it until 12 months before my date and no earlier! The venue held a provisional date for me about 18 months before the date. I then approached the local registrar 12 months before and booked the date, we were none too fussed about time though really so we went with 2pm as it seemed like a nice time to get wed. All was hunky dory. There'll be two registrars at my ceremony, I thought that was standard as well? Praps not.

We had to book the registrar ourselves. I hope they can sort something out for you.

As we're getting married (cermony) in Hemel Hempsted, and we're living in Waltham Cross (different area), we've had to meet our local registrar who does the booking and checks (I got carmens DOB wrong ?) and in a few months have to meet the registrar in Hemel!

Some places are only 12 months in advance; I thought ours would be too, but apparently it just depends on how far in advance their diary goes! I don't mean its unreasonable as in 'I want this time! And I get everything I want!' Haha! I mean its unreasonable as in, for all the venues in Wrexham county, with the travelling between, only 6-8 people max can get married on that day! Only about 3 of them at a decent time. I ynderstand Sunday is a quieter day for weddings but to have the same number of registrars as on, say a Monday or Tuesday just seems a bit daft! But I suppose the councils are all cutting money at the moment. Hopefully it'll all work out following the phone call on Thursday ? If not, we'll have to speak to the venue about changing the date to the week before. Which isn't ideal as I was looking forward to being a September bride ☹️

I think how the registrar works varies from one county to another.

Without sounding too harsh.... I do think you're maybe being a tad unreasonable. I think it is reasonable that they would have one registrar working on a sunday... afterall, it isn't a popular day to get married on and registrars need days off too. I also think that whatever day we're getting married on, we need to expect to be a bit flexible with the time. It is the most important aspect of the day after all so whatever the time is, the rest of the day can work itself around it. I know that we didn't get our preferred time but 1 1/2 hours later was fine and it's all worked out well.

I know it's a headache coordinating all of this and I hope it gets sorted for you x

Our posts crossed....... sorry.

I guess it would be interesting to know how many brides get married on a sunday in wrexham county from week to week and whether the times are always fully booked. I assume that they respond and build a service based on demand....

I appreciate what you're all saying. Its hard to say what you mean in these forums sometimes without coming across as a spoilt b**ch! ? Gunna struggle to be able to have it at other times due to a few family things. Always the way isn't it! Us hitchers can't have it all though can we. Perfect OH, lovely house, beautiful dress and venue and expect the time. But with it being so far in advance, its understandable I got my hopes up! After all, its easy to get carried away with this wedding stuff as we can all see from the amount of wedding stuff available! xx

That's why Kent charge £700 compared to other counties £300! Kent make it easy becasue it's such a popular place to get married, apparently we get load of Londoners coming down for the scenery. But with 6 weeks notice they will guarantee to have someone available - they have something like 200 part timers on their books.

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Not really, registrars deal with births and deaths as well as marriages. Whilst they will be busy with weddings at the weekend, they will be busy registering births and deaths during the week (as well as all the other things they do).

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Where abouts in kent are you getting married?? just noted the £700 and nearly choked on my tea!! We're in Medway and are paying £410 for our wedding in January- because we paid the deposit in March we are paying this years prices and won't be affected by the price increase in April which is nice!! I'm glad we are getting married down here- I completely forgot about the registrar until a couple of weeks ago when I found the booking form, good job our venue had booked otherwise I would probably be on here in a panic!

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THAT is a hanging offence......

As I have discovered more than once!!!

(edited to add, getting my OH birth date wrong that is, not Carmens!!!!!)

Phew

Peter

We provisionally booked the venue only before we guaranteed the registrar. Did you do that ? Or have you paid a deposit ? Otherwise you could look at other dates maybe ? I think 3 pm is a great time to get married but understand that is an individual choice. Best of luck on Thursday x

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We're getting married in chislehurst and ours is c. £350....unfortunately Bromley register office won't hold the prices so we've gotta pay the increase!

Jude.....where the hell are you getting married? Thats extorniate!!!

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I'd check your prices and extra fees on the KCC Registrar website: https://www.akentishceremony.com/uk/58

£524 standard fee for a Saturday, £35 each for legals, £50 booking fee = nearly £650! Add increases for 2011 and it will be closer to £700.

It's less if you get married at the registry office though.

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Just checked the website, and the booking form again-our confirmation says £410 (+ giving notice which is about £67 for the both of us), glad I checked may have to ring them in the morning and confirm- If they have sent the confirmation and reciept of the deposit surely they can't charge more???

Thanks OldGal! Yeah its booked provisionally for a week to allow time to sort registrar then pay deposit on Sunday. Just wanna get it sorted now! Can't wait for Thursday xx

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Checked my paper work last night and it's £380 (I was £30 out) they have told me there will be a small increase on this though. Then it was £67 for the notice of marriage. This is the price for two registrars to come to our venue.

Jude have you had this price confirmed with the registrars you are using?

It is a little bit confusing as on the kent council website it does states fees are currently about £574 plus £67 for you both to give notice, however when I spoke to the registrar office they confirmed that it was only £410 (plus £67 for us both to give notice)- apparently is depends on what district you live in so someone will have to pay that much somewhere- just bloody glad it wasn't me!!!

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Yeah, my paperwork says £540 for a weekend plus notices etc. But Medway is a different authority to Kent.

Got a reminder today because we haven't given notice yet - still over 6 months to go! I guess we'll do it soon, just got to round up divorce papers, deed poll, birth certificate....