Wedding and Civil Partnership FAQs

In the event of someone who is terminally ill wishing to have a ceremony, please contact us on the number at the bottom of this page or if calling out of normal working hours please dial 023 8023 3344

When having a ceremony abroad, different rules apply. Please refer to the link “ceremonies abroad” at the bottom of this page, which also gives information regarding obtaining a Certificate of No Impediment

A religious ceremony is held in a church, chapel or other religious building. There is usually no need to involve your local register office in this process.

If you are wish to get married in a Church of England, there is usually no need to involve your local register office in this process.

If you wish to have a religious ceremony in a church other than a Church of England, you should first arrange to speak with the person in charge of marriages at the building, then you will need to arrange to give your notice of marriage to the superintendent registrar at your local register office. Please note that you will normally be required to live in the same district as the religious building.

When speaking to the person in charge of the marriage, you will also need to check whether a registrar from the Register Office will be required to attend the ceremony to register the marriage.

The law states that a marriage or civil partnership ceremony must be conducted after 8.00 am and before 18.00 pm

Many couples wish to amend their last name after a wedding or civil partnership. If a wedding has taken place the bride may want to change her last name to that or her husbands. In a civil partnership ceremony one partner may want to take the last name of the partner.

In both cases you might want to join names to have a “double-barrelled” last name. Regardless of whether you have had a wedding or civil partnership ceremony, there is no obligation to change your name. If you have decided to do so, you will need to contact a variety of organisations to provide proof of your change of name. This can be done by purchasing additional certificates from us. The sort of organisations that may want to see proof are listed below:

• Bank and Building Societies
• Benefits Agency (Department for Work and Pensions)
• Children's school or child care provider
• Council tax office
• Credit card companies
• Dentist
• Doctor and Hospital
• Driving Licence and vehicle registration DVLA
• Employer
• Finance and loan companies
• Inland revenue
• Insurance companies (car, medical, property, home contents and life)
• Internet services provider
• Library
• Loyalty cards
• Mail order companies
• Mortgage provider
• Motor insurance and breakdown associatio
• Opticians
• Passport (If you wish to travel on your honeymoon in your married name you can apply for a passport in your new name ahead of your wedding. It is possible to change the name on your passport up to 3 months before the wedding, but it cannot be used until the actual day of your marriage. Make sure you have enough time (at least 6 weeks) to change the documents you need for your honeymoon before you travel)
• Pension provider
• Premium bonds
• Professional institutes and trade unions
• Rental companies
• Satellite or cable television company
• Savings and investments - ISA's and shares
• Sports and social clubs
• Store cards
• Telephone supplier
• Utilities (electricity, gas, water)