Legal requirements – Civil Marriage (what the law requires)
You will both (bride and groom) need to visit a Register Office to give notice of your intention to marry. This is a legal requirement, without which it is not possible for the marriage to take place. If you are a Hampshire resident you are able to give notice at any Hampshire Register Office unless you are subject to immigration control, in which case you will need to contact the 'designated' office in Winchester. In order to give a notice in the Hampshire district, you must have lived here for at least seven full (24-hour) days immediately prior to giving that notice e.g. a person arriving in the district or registration authority at any time on Tuesday 3rd February does not start the seven day period until Wednesday 4th February because he or she has only been resident for part of the Tuesday. Wednesday 4th February would be Day 1 and the following Tuesday 10th February would be Day 7, so notice could only be given on or after Wednesday 11th February. If you are setting up a residency in Hampshire (because you normally live abroad for instance) you must give the notice immediately after the residency period has been completed, and before you return home. It does not matter if you move from the area after you have given notice.
How do I make an appointment to give notice?
You will need to contact the Registration Service to book an appointment at a Register Office of your choice. Please ensure that you take all the correct documentation with you to the appointment. If the relevant documents are not produced it may be necessary to re-schedule your appointment.
If you give your notice of marriage outside Hampshire for a wedding to take place within Hampshire, it is your responsibility to make sure that your marriage authorities, when due, arrive at the appropriate Hampshire register office i.e. the one dealing with your wedding arrangements. Most other registration districts will send these authorities straight to the relevant Hampshire office when they are due. Alternatively you may prefer to collect them yourselves and deliver them by hand. These should be delivered as soon after the due date possible - your marriage authorities are vital and if they are not received in the appropriate office, you wedding may not be able to go ahead as planned.
What documents do I need to bring?
Identity/Nationality:
current passport and/or full birth certificate (if you are British and supplying your birth certificate, another form of identification is also required with photo ID if possible e.g driving licence). If you were born after January 1st 1983 and are British you are producing a birth certificate as your form of identity, you will also need to produce your mother’s or father’s birth certificate or passport (if they were married to each other at the time of your birth) or your mother’s birth certificate or passport (if they were not married to each other at the time of your birth) in order to prove your nationality. This does not apply if you are supplying a passport as proof of identity because a passport automatically proves your nationality.
Marital status:
If divorced: decree absolute [original or court stamped copy only] or proof of dissolution of previous civil partnership. The following link for Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) gives the addresses of the courts from which copy divorce decrees can be obtained, or visit the General Register Office Website for civil partnership dissolution.
If widowed: death certificate of late spouse (if you did not register the death you may also need to produce your marriage or civil partnership certificate).Proof of address:
Current council tax bill/driving licence/ or a recent bank statement or utility bill.
Consent if under 18 years:
If either party to a proposed marriage is under the age of 18, consent is legally required from certain quarters before that marriage can go ahead. The only exceptions to this rule is where the young person will be 18 before the marriage authority becomes due (e.g. they will be 18 within 16 days after giving the notice of marriage), or the young person has been married before and is a widow or widower. Consent is still required if the young person has been married before and is divorced.
Change of name:
Change of name document [ if you have changed your name by deed poll or by any other legal means]
Additional information - please read
You will both need to pay a statutory fee for the notice of marriage
Notices of marriage must be given in person to a registration officer by you and your partner. No one else can do so on your behalf. If you both live in the Hampshire district (excluding Southampton and Portsmouth) where possible, you should attend together to give your notices.
Once you have both given notice, you must wait at least 15 clear statutory waiting days before the marriage can take place. “Statutory waiting days” are the 15 consecutive days between the giving of the notice and the issue of the authority. So a person giving notice on the 2nd January, would then have to wait 15 clear days i.e. from the 3rd to the 17th, before the authority was issued on the 18th, which would also be the first day that that person was able to legally get married.
The authority for marriage is the legal document which allows your marriage to take place and is produced 15 clear statutory waiting days after notice is given. It is usually valid for 12 months from the date that you gave the notice. The authorities are normally sent to the Register Office in the district in which the ceremony is due to take place, Alternatively they can be collected by you from a Register Office of your choice, or sent to your home by post.
If you are getting married outside the Hampshire district, you will need to contact the relevant district Register Office for further advice.
Although a provisional booking can be made well in advance of your proposed ceremony date, you are unable to give notice more than 12 months before the date of your marriage. You are advised that once a notice has been given any change of venue will result in a fresh notice having to be given.
Urgent wedding (Registrar General’s Licence)
In the event of someone who is terminally ill wishing to marry, there are procedures in place to do this within a very short time scale. Please contact your local Register Office for further details.