Registry offices and COVID-19 postponements

It seems to vary hugely from area to area. I've heard of one office that has said no weddings will happen until August! Ours in Wales is closed untiil the lockdown lifts, but they have posted on their page to say that when they reopen, couples who have already given notice and need to change their date will be given priority over new couples, which I think is fair enough.

It does seem crazy that it's not standardized!

Hi!
just out of curiosity have you moved your wedding to this October?

Ours is booked for 30th October this year but I’m concerned it’s still too soon following the outbreak and I’ll be forced to postpone.

I’m just wondering how many people are still aiming for an October wedding to put my mind at ease!

We’ve moved to 9th October this year, we had to make a decision in March so we assumed October would be ok. Clearly in hindsight we should have moved it to next year, I guess that will be out next move come July/August once we know what is what.

Hi Ladies

Hope everyone is keeping chipper!

We're in the process of rescheduling our 19th September wedding as I and many of our family are shielding.

Trying to juggle the Ceremony and Reception venues whilst not being able to contact the Registrars is like trying to knit fog!

I may be being a bit dim, but I don't see why provisional dates can't be booked, as when you make your initial provisional booking, that is made online, and provisional confirmation of the date is made subject to formally giving notice in person.

Am I missing something here?

I understand that the staff are not recording births as that has to be done in person, but birth recording is not date sensitive in the same way as wedding bookings, although they are far more important.

Thoughts, please?

Love from Liverpool

Ali xx

Most Register Offices are only registering deaths at the moment. To that end, they probably don't have the ability to see their diaries to be able to check for you.

Hi I was due to get married April 24th and just before the official van I contacted our registry in Salford to reschedule as the Marriott had already agreed to switch this with me free of charge. Although Salford would pencil me in for the new date they only did that for 2021 dates and I was told they wouldn't be doing any wedding bookings now for 2020 that hadn't already been pencilled in.

I also got advised by them that Wigan my local LA that is within the same wider GM area wouldn't be doing the notices etc! As we needed to do that again, but she put a note on to say I was awaiting the redoing of notices.

It's all getting even more stressful again now, part of me is starting to look into just having the wedding itself as the two of us at Gretna Green once they reopen and then at least it's only everything else, which is all planned and paid for at the Marriott. We can pretty much just have the party then.

Hi guys.

I'm not a bride but might be able to give you some insight on why the registrars are being resistant to booking new dates at the moment.

Because the date when weddings will resume is unknown the registrars cannot move dates that are outside of the current lockdown measures as they can only fit so many wedding in per year.

Similarly to how many weddings I can shoot in a year is limited to how many weekends there are, I've had some of my June, July and August ones ask me to put a hold on dates they may never be required to move to. This causes a problem, in that I'm giving up two weekend dates up to shoot one wedding, which halves my income. What do I do if a new couple enquires for that reserved date?

The registrars may be taking that same protectionist view. sure, I cannot understand the reason behind not moving those who have been caught up in the actual lockdown but there's one angle as to why there's resistance to blocking out date later in the year / next year.

I know some suppliers who have been asked to move weddings booked in October 2020 to August 2021 and it's causing a lot of problems.

Another thing that might make registrars reluctant to provisionally book - When we made our provisional booking, we only had a couple of months to confirm it by giving notice, which has to be done face to face. Since registrars have no way of knowing when they will be able to resume face to face meetings, they could potentially be making loads of provisional bookings that would then be cancelled if the lockdown isn't lifted.

Hello all

Have you considered using a celebrant for your ceremony?

That way you can do the legal part at the registry office at any date, before or after the event - and pay less than them travelling to your venue...for the guests - no one would know it wasn't the fully legal part on the big day. But you can get it booked in with a celebrant now and have a person who you can speak to regularly rather than a registry office.

Any questions - feel free to ask!

Lucy