Wedding Ceremony Guide for Cheshire East Cheshire 2011 | Page 27

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Hi Vicki
So you’ve finally done it! What fantastic news,
you two are getting married, congratulations!
Thought I would drop you a quick line just
to see if I could be of any help. Hearing your
good news reminded me of all the things I
had to do when I got married and I thought
my memories might be useful to you too.
Book the Registrar! – most important, you
can’t get married without them.
If the big day is within three years you can
provisionally book the Registrar. Do this as
soon as you’ve found the venue and got your
day sorted with them. The venue will be able
to help you or you can speak to Cheshire
East Ceremonies Team about which Register
Office to contact on 01270 375140.
When you get to a year or within a year
before the wedding (whichever comes first)
you’ll need to ‘complete the legal paperwork’.
Your Registrar will be able to tell you where
and when you need to do this – this is called
‘Giving Notice of Marriage’ (and once
this is done, your booking is confirmed, the
wedding can go ahead and you can forget
all about the legal side of things, and get on
with the dress buying and all the good stuff!).
The funny thing is because we got married
in another area to where we lived, we had
to book the Registrar where the venue was.
Then we had to do the legal paperwork at
the Register Office in the area where we
lived. The Registrar helped us understand
this and I’m sure they will explain it all to you
too.
Make an appointment to go and see them.
When you go to that appointment they
will ask for documents to prove who you
are, your nationality and that you are single
(hopefully!).
The usual paperwork they tend to ask for
is a passport for each of you, a bill or bank
statement each and if you’ve been married
before either the decree absolute or death
certificate to show you are now free to go
and do it all again! There’s also a fee to be
paid at this point too.
Sixteen days later our ‘Authorities for
Marriage’ were sent out to us and it was
then our responsibility to get these to the
Registrar who was going to marry us (as
without them the wedding couldn’t go
ahead – not a good idea!). If you’re getting
married in the same district as where you
give notice then the Registrar will keep them
for you (so you don’t need to worry about
keeping them safe).
I don’t know where you’re thinking of having
your big day, but just as an aside, I’ve had
friends who have either got married abroad
or in a church and they have still had to
go and see the Registrar to ‘give notice of
marriage’ – so if that’s the route you decide to
take, make sure you still speak to the Register
Office as soon as you know where you’re
getting married. You’ll also need to speak to
them if you or your beloved is subject to any
immigration controls.
There seems to be such a lot to take in, but it
really is quite easy once you’ve spoken to the
Registrar. I found the Cheshire East Register
Office Ceremonies Team really helpful and
they guided me through all the different
aspects of booking the Registrar, giving
notice, and the ceremony itself.
As I said before, once you’ve decided on your
date and venue, make sure the next phone
call you make is to the Registrar.
Enjoy planning your day
With love
Julie
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