If you are planning to have an intimate London registry wedding, I have done the hard work and put together an all-inclusive guide to help you through planning it. 

People decide to have a town hall wedding for all kinds of reasons. You may prefer to have a small intimate do with just your nearest and dearest, or you want to, like me and my other half, sign on the dotted line before heading out to your destination wedding. Whatever the reason may be, here is all the information that I gathered while planning my own and a fair few other registry weddings. 

 

All about the registry wedding

Registry weddings are becoming more and more every day and it’s no longer something out of the ordinary. 

Registry weddings offer couples a more modern, intimate and cost-effective alternative to that of a big church wedding or having to wait for the actual wedding day to get all the legal paperwork done and dusted. It also helps a lot if you are planning a destination wedding and you would prefer to have your wedding registered in the UK from the get-go, rather than having to navigate the minefield of registering a foreign marriage licence or doing the equivalent of giving notice in a foreign country – yikes! 

Now with that said, not all wedding registry offices are created equal. They all have different looks, there are slight differences in what is and what isn’t allowed and within each registry office/town hall there are also different room options to suit your ceremony style and size.  

Below I have put together a list of my personal favourite ones.

 

LONDON REGISTRY OFFICES & TOWN HALLS

• Old Marylebone Town Hall, London
  
• Hackney Town Hall, London
• Islington Town Hall, London
• The Old Finsbury Town Hall, London
• Chelsea Old Town Hall, London 
• Merton Register Office, London
• Shoreditch Town Hall, London
• Wandsworth Town Hall, London
• Lambeth Town Hall, London

 

Registry Office: The Rules

No surprises here, the rules about who can and can’t get married in a registry office is pretty much standard and doesn’t vary much from those that apply to get married anywhere else in the UK.

The gist of things as they stand are:

• The legal age for marriage in the UK is 16 years old (some places require parental consent).
• Of course, there are separate set of rules that apply to anyone who is not a UK citizen. The person who originates from outside of the UK may need to apply for a Marriage or Civil Partnership Visitor visa.
• If you are looking for any further details regarding regulations, you should be able to find them on the UK government website.

 

 

Getting Married At A Registry Office: The Ins And Outs

If you’ve gotten this far then I have a feeling that a wedding at a registry office may be a good fit for you. I have broken the process into easy enough list of actions and considerations if you decide to have a registry wedding.

 

CHOOSE YOUR REGISTRY OFFICE

 There’s a registry office for practically every borough, so if you want to keep it local you can simply choose one near to your home, or if you have a particular taste or have a sentimental attachment to a specific area you are not bound to your local one specifically. There is a very handy tool on the gov site that will help you locate all the registry offices in and around a specific are – registry office finder!

 

GIVING NOTICE OF MARRIAGE

As soon as you’ve found you’re the registry office you would like to get married at you will still need to give notice at your local registry office. It is also worth noting that if you and your partner live apart, then you will need to give notice at your respective local registrar offices. 

Once you have done this you can book with the registry office you have chosen to marry in to arrange an appointment where you can go through the interview process and complete all the required documentation.

Once you have given notice, you have 12 months to get married from the day you gave notice and at least 28 days are required before your decided marriage date. Of course, the more time you can provide the better!

 

What you will need:

You will be provided with a comprehensive list of the documentation that you need to bring with you as it may be slightly different from office to office, but as a start, the following should be on your list: 

• Proof of your name, age and nationality. (eg. valid passport, birth certificate, national identity card, etc.)
• If you’ve changed your name, you will need to bring proof along to support that.
• Proof of address (eg. valid UK or EEA driving licence, recent gas or electricity bill, recent bank statement, etc)

 

How much does a registry office ceremony cost?

There are several costs involved with a registry office wedding, a big part of the cost being the room hire which differs from registry to registry. 

 

REGISTRY OFFICE WEDDING PRICES

The cost of hiring a room in a registry office starts from around £60 upward for a standard ceremony.

The giving notice fee will run around £35-£50 per person.Your marriage certificate will cost around £4 on the day or £10 should you arrange to fetch it afterwards. (Get a fair amount of copies – we got 10 and do not regret it!)

Additional costs you can incur include: paying for a ceremony room not just a registry office room, extra charges for Saturday appointments to give notice, and fees paid for approving divorce documents from outside the UK or making changes to your application.

 

Getting Married in a UK Registry Office Before An Overseas Wedding

Depending on the legalities of the country you have chosen to get married in, it might be necessary for you to get married at a UK Registry office beforehand.

Your situation may be an exception should you have residency or have been living in a country for a certain period of time. Be sure to do your research for the country you have chosen for your wedding. A lot of the time it is easier and less complicated to get married in the UK at a small registry office wedding or just with your partner and then jet off to your magical destination to host a blessing.   

 

Personalising a Registry Office Ceremony

A registry office wedding has many advantages but the freedom to decorate the space as you please is not necessarily one of them since there are often several couples booked to have their ceremony on the same day.

Instead of fussing over décor, the best way you can make your ceremony sentimental and special to you and your partner is through readings, personal vows, and music. Besides the legal words that need to be said, there is a lot of space for you to make your ceremony as personal as you like.

It is important though to note that there is also room to add readings and songs or music, but nothing religious is permitted. 

 

How long does a registry office wedding take?

Registry office weddings are quite quick, and normally about 20-30 minutes long. They will often ask you and your guests to be at the town hall at least 30 minutes before. You and your partner will have to each be interviewed separately before the ceremony can take place. After the ceremony, you are normally given about 10 minutes for confetti and photographs on the steps.

 

A Few Extra Things To Take Note Of

• A marriage ceremony in a local registry office generally takes a minimum of 10 minutes to a maximum of 30 minutes.
• Your marriage has to be carried out by a person or at least in the presence of a person who is authorised to register marriages in your chosen district.
• As romantic as getting married alone might sound, you are required to have at least two witnesses present.

 

If you wanted to get married at a restaurant, some have been registered as a wedding venue. If you are looking into that as an option, let me know and I will take you through a list of wonderful options that I have put together.