Marriages and Civil Partnerships

If you are getting married in a Church of England church you should make all of the arrangements with the minister. Banns will usually be called, but if they are not, you must give notice of marriage by Certificate without Licence in the district(s) where you both live.

If you and/or your fiancé(e) are a non-EEA national and you wish to marry in the Anglican Church (the Church of England or the Church in Wales), you will be required to complete civil preliminaries as described above and give notice at a register office before your marriage. Other couples wishing to marry in the Anglican Church will need to provide specified evidence of British Citizenship or EEA nationality before completing Church preliminaries, e.g. the banns or common licence process. All marriages following civil preliminaries in England and Wales are subject to a minimum notice period of 28 days. If you and/or your partner are non-EEA nationals, the notice period may be extended to 70 days and you should allow sufficient time before the date of your planned marriage.

If you are getting married at any other religious building which is registered for marriages (such as Methodist, Baptist, Sikh, Muslim, Roman Catholic) you must give your notice of marriage. Please note that for single sex marriages, the religious building must be specifically licensed. Information on registering a religious building for single sex marriage is available from the register office.

It is normally only possible to be married in a religious building in the district where one or both of you live. You may, however, marry in a religious building in another district if you can show that it is your usual place of worship.

The religious building will usually have a person able to register your marriage. If this is not the case you must confirm with the Register Office for that district that they have a Registrar available.

Registrar attending a religious building

A Registrar from the Register Office attending a marriage in a religious building that does not have its own registrar costs £104 a couple, plus £12.50 for the Marriage Certificate.