Ceremonies Plan your ceremony

About the ceremony

A marriage ceremony requires two registrars in attendance, one who will conduct the ceremony and take you through the spoken declarations and vows and the other registrar who will ensure that the legal formalities are completed. You won’t need to remember any words as the registrar will say the words and you will repeat them.

For a civil partnership, you re not legally required to make spoken vows or a declaration. If you wish you may have a ceremony where you will be able to exchange personal promises to each other. If you choose to have a statutory formation then a ceremony is not permitted and is purely a signing.

Ceremony choices

Shropshire Registration Service offers a choice of ceremonies so that you can make you day, just as you want it.

On the lead up to your ceremony

Once you have booked and paid your non refundable deposit you will receive and email confirmation from us confirming all the details of your booking. Once you are within 12 months of your ceremony you both need to give notice. Your notices are taken on a national system and so if you are giving notice within the district you live that is not Shropshire we will be automatically aware of this. Once you have given notice you will receive a wedding planner from us by email. On you planner you be will asked to indicate how you would like to be interviewed prior to the ceremony, music choices, readings and who your witnesses will be. We ask that this is returned to us at least 6 weeks prior to your ceremony. During the lead up to your ceremony we are available for you to email us any questions or queries you may have. We are here to help guide your through the process

Witnesses

The law requires that you have at least two other people to witness your ceremony and they will need to be able to hear and understand all the words been said during the ceremony, for a civil partnership they will be signing only. After the couple have signed the witnesses will be asked to print and sign the document.

Your witnesses can be friends, relatives or colleagues who understand English an understand what is taking place before them

On the day

On the day of your ceremony you will both need to be interviewed immediately before your ceremony by the registrar who will be checking that all the personal information is correct and accurate. The registrars will arrival at the venue around 30 minutes before the ceremony begins.

You can choose to be interviewed together or separately, you will be asked on your wedding planner to indicate this. The first person will be interviewed about 20 to 30 minutes before the ceremony starts and the second person 10 to 15 minutes. If you choose to come together this will be done 20 to 30 minutes before.

It's extremely important that you and your guests arrive in plenty of time for the ceremony, as the Registrar may have other ceremonies to attend on the day, so can't delay the start time of yours.

How will your ceremony run?

Still got questions?

If you’re not sure about anything and would like to speak to us, we're on hand to help. Just email Registrars@shropshire.gov.uk