ARRANGING THE SERVICE

Contacting the Register Office

A Civil Ceremony will be conducted by a Superintendent Registrar and it is the responsibility of the couple to arrange their attendance.

Whilst couples are free to contact Register Offices for information and advice at any time, they are not able to ‘give notice’ of the Wedding/Partnership (and in turn, ‘book’ the attendance of the Superintendent Registrar) till one calendar year before the date of the Ceremony. So once a venue has been booked (or a date has been provisionally reserved) and it is less than twelve months till the Big Day, the couple should immediately contact the Register Office (or offices – see below) and schedule an appointment(s) with a Superintendent Registrar. Some Register Offices (such as the one in Belfast) allow couples to make a provisional booking up to 2 years before the Ceremony, but our research has shown that this is the exception rather than the norm - though for those eager beavers among you, it may be worth checking out. In Scotland, the 12 month rule does not apply, and the actual notice period does vary from Register Office to Register Office. In certain cases, Scottish Register Offices do not have a limit at all, so if you are planning to tie the knot ‘North of the Border’ we suggest that you contact the relevant Register Office as soon as possible and confirm details with them direct – it is never too early to start!

For those couples whose Ceremony will take place in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, it may be necessary to contact up to three Register Offices – let us explain that statement a little more.

• If the couple both live in the same district and plan to marry within that district, only the local Register Office need be contacted.

• If the couple live in different districts and the Wedding is to take place within one of those districts, then the Register Office in each of the partners’ districts must be contacted.

• If the couple live in different districts and the Ceremony will take place outside both of these districts, then the districts in which both the partners’ reside plus the one in which the Ceremony is to take place will need to be contacted.