The Process of booking a Registrar

It costs £35 each to give notice. You can give notice up to 12 months in advance but unless you go for a special licence, no less than 16 days. All that is set no matter where you go. You have to give notice at the registry office that covers where you live. They send paperwork through to the registrar who will marry you if different. Once they have that paperwork through you can go and see them to discuss the detail and start parting with more money

in terms of registrar costs for where you get married, prices vary dramatically, but it's always cheaper midweek and in the registry office. If you want them to come to your venue you will have to pay extra and it can be hefty. Likewise, opt for a Saturday or Christmas Eve etc and you pay a premium. Some will let you book your date pretty early. I booked mine 18 months in advance but have to wait until we give notice before we can go and actually firm up the arrangements. So basically if you know when, suggest you get that booked if you can, then the rest will drop into place. Most council websites detail the charges for their district.

hth

x

Hi HeavyMetalMaiden,

Before we booked our venue we were asked to contact the registrar to make sure the date we wanted was available. We had no clue what to do so we just asked them on the phone, they were extremely helpful and we were able to book our date and time there and then! Only problem was the cost! Giving notice doesn't happen until a year before the wedding (I'm in 2016 so have a while to go yet) So i'm not 100% what this entails, but just ask them they'll be able to help you

When you give notice you have to take your passprt or some sort of ID and proof of address. They interview you separately to check your not being forced to get married or are doing it for a 'green card'! I surprised they are letting us get married seeing as my OH got my birthday wrong! Only by a day so I'll let him off! It's nothing too scary though. Then they put your notice of marriage up for 10 working days (I think...) if no one contests it you get all your paperwork through from the registrar after the 10 days are up.

xx

The giving notice did make me laugh, my OH actually came out into the waiting room to confirm my year of birth lol. Does anyone else think the whole displaying the notice for 10 days is weird, like there is some sad person who goes and checks them regularly to see if they fancy contesting one lol.

I thought the whole process was pretty easy, i'm so impatient that i gave notice exactly a year in advance to the day and the registrar worked out pretty reasonable as we are marrying on a week day.