Wedding registrar for civil ceremony

All areas are slightly different-some will only let you book 12 months ahead, others as soon as you want.

they are bound to have availability I'm sure, just be prepared to perhaps be a little flexible on time. We booked ours 1 year ahead, but for a bank holiday Saturday ( therefore super popular) and we were offered 10.30 or 4pm. I can't imagine your date being as limited though.

as for living in the area, I think that may need some thought- you may need to take a weeks holiday from work or something next year. You don't have to give notice until much nearer the time so have time to investigate and plan.

We reserved our registrar 18 months in advance... You usually give notice where you live and they tell the local registrar that you've done it. Don't worry abut having to move to Cornwall for a week! We live in Leeds but get married in Wakefield district so booked Wakefield and gave notice in Leeds.

I know I just need to call them in the morning and hope for the best but I'm very aware that it's a busy time of year and Cornwall is very popular for weddings. To be honest I thought that the registrar would be a last minute thing- I'd just assumed there were loads of them and you could choose who you wanted to do it. No one told me otherwise but most people I know have had church weddings.

I really wanted a 2pm wedding and didn't want to negotiate on times! That's good news about the intention to marry thing... the website really made it sound like you had to stay in Cornwall for 7 full days. If that does turn out to be the case I'll give them my parents address and hope for the best.

I'm annoyed because I've been so organised with everything else and now I feel like a failure!

Oh jeez - now I have the fear!!! We've decided on the perfect venue and the prefect date, now it all depends on the registrar being available on 16th April 2016! Didn't even think about it being an issue...

Am calling them in the morning - fingers crossed for both of us!!!

I didn't think it would be an issue either, I'm glad it's not just me! I thought that your registrar was someone you chose- much like your photographer and caterer! I thought that there would be a list of registered people and you'd pick the one that suited you best, for example I wanted to have a woman with a nice voice and good taste in fashion!

So naive! Well fingers crossed for both of us tomorrow... why don't more people tell you about these things?! xxx

Hi

I can completely relate to how you are feeling . We had this issue a few months back. I had been reading one of the threads on here when the girl said she had to rebook her wedding! Me and my H2B had booked our venue and everything else, thinking we didn't need to worry about the registrar for a few months yet! I'm already a bad worrier, so it completely shook me up and felt like we had completely mucked up. I rang the registrar the next day & they said not to worry as there is always plenty of people to conduct weddings. I'm not sure if it's the same in England, we are in Edinburgh I wouldn't worry about it! Just give them a ring and see what they say, your date is a while yet so I'm sure it will all be fine x

Well it's very early in the morning to be in tears but I'm gutted.

Called the registration office this morning and they only have 11.30 or 15.30 available for our wedding day. I really wanted to get married at ****. I know it's not the biggest deal in the world as at least they still have availability and we don't have to rearrange the whole day but I've been so organised... we've had the wedding venue booked for over a month.. we could have sorted this ages ago but no one told me it was so important!

I don't know what to do. Either we have a ridiculously early wedding and then all our guests will be bored by the end of it or we'll waste the best part of the day and I'll be pacing up and down in my dress waiting for 1530 to roll around.

Another option is we do the civil ceremony in the office on the Friday before the wedding and then have a humanist wedding on the Saturday... I just don't know what to do I'm so upset.

Oh no ?. I am so sorry to hear this.. Huge hugs ?. That is so gutting it's a difficult one as I know what you mean if you got married at 11:30, it's a long day, especially for you in your dress too! What does your future husband think? Whatever decision you come to, I hope it works out for you! But I'm sure it will, and I'm sure you will still have a perfect day x

Oh no!!! How totally gutting Personally, I would go for the 11.30 over the later one as I don't think I could stand the suspense all day!

I've tried calling my registry office for the last hour, but it keeps going to voicemail! So worried now... Honestly (and stupidly) thought that securing the venue was the hard bit and the the registrar details would just fall into place!

So I've done lots of crying down the phone to my lovely Mummy!

H2B thinks do the humanist cermony but I've had a little look and it could end up costing a fortune. If we pick 11.30 and have a civil ceremony it would cost £415!!!! (nearly had a small heart attack). If we do a quick registry office wedding on Friday it's only £81 but humanist preachers can cost around £500.

I need some advice... if we are already legally married on the Friday, why does it matter who performs the wedding on the Saturday? A humanist wedding isn't legal, it's just a blessing. What would stop us getting one of our friends to do a blessing for us? I have a very lovely spiritual family friend who would probably do us one for free.

Or H2B has a friend who is a humanist preacher but isn't trained for weddings. Why does it matter if they're accredited if the wedding isn't legal anyway?!

Best of luck KJHC... it's a good job I spoke to my friend yesterday and that you read this forum or we both could have been in the s***!

Let us know when you get hold of them xxx

Wow, £415 is a lot! Ours only cost £200. I guess it depends on the venue and the area.

If I were you, I would get married the day before & have someone give you a blessing on your actual wedding day ☺️. Plus, it's a lovely touch having someone you already know give you a blessing! Plus if you're going to save yourself a bit money then why not?! I just actually saw another thread where a woman was saying about using a different district for your registrar? Maybe worth looking into ☺️ Don't know if that would work? X

I think that is fairly average for a registrar- ours is £419 for a Saturday. If it's at the reg office it is much cheaper, but if it's s venue I.e hotel they tend to be £4-500. They have to send 2 staff, and obviously with travel, they will do 1 in say 2 hours as opposed to thrn doing 1 each per hour in the office.

our venue made it quite clear to book the registrar promptly, I guess they face these issues quite regularly.

We opted for 4pm in the end (over 10.30 which was our other option) and for us it'll work out fine. You have to do what's right for you. Personally the humanist thing wouldn't work for me, I wouldn't be able to get my had around the fact it isn't the official thing, but plenty of people plan these ceremonies now and have as good a time, if not better.

One way or the other you will sort it out and will have a great day I'm sure.

Ours is costing £439 :o

I think it was my comment, MrsNes2be, about using another district. Our venue said if Dorset Council couldn't do the date/time, we could always call Bournemouth, Poole or Dorchester.

Might be worth calling around other districts, HollyHollyTree and seeing what they say. It may be different in Cornwall... but it might not...?!

The registrar was the first thing we booked, although we are having our wedding at the Town Hall. Even when we booked there were only about 3 options left to us for time slots and that was 18 months in advance!

There isn't anything stopping a friend from performing the ceremony or a blessing for you once you are legally married. My friend is having a legal ceremony two days before then having a ceremony in a marquee for her actual wedding.

The one thing I would think about first is consider which day you would count as your actual anniversary! Could you have a quick ceremony first thing in the morning of your wedding or is that pretty booked too?

They said definitely can't get a registrar from another district. I've called our wedding venue and they're happy to have our friend to do the ceremony. Makes no difference to them and it's not legal anyway so who cares. She'll do us a really personal blessing and help us to write our vows. It should be amazing! And she's doing it for free so it's shaved a nice £350+ off our budget.

So I'm having my 1 o clock outdoor wedding and no one can stop me!!!

xxxxx

Glad you've got something sorted and you'll still have the day you want

What have you done with regards to the legal bit? Are you going there the previous day?

Yeah we'll do the legal bit in a registry office the day before. Not exactly the wedding I had planned but it will be really special.

Finally managed to get hold of registrar (what a nerves filled morning!) and they luckily had availability for our date and time (16th April at 1pm) - all booked!

I know it's not the wedding you planned hollyhollytree, but sounds like you will have something very special! Everything happens for a reason ?

KJHC thank goodness for that! You've been very lucky! At least that's out of the way, what a horribly stressful morning! xx

Oh and I think we'll just have the 3rd as our anniversary! But who knows, we could always have a two day long anniversary