Get married in Hampshire, the perfect venue to celebrate your wedding

Where to get married?

You can have a civil ceremony at one of our registration offices or approved wedding venues or a religious ceremony at a church or religious building.

Civil marriages in Hampshire

To help you arrange your marriage you will need to speak to a Registration Officer tel 0845 603 5637 call charges
Phone lines open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday 9.30am - 4pm

Bride and groom during marriage ceremony

Religious marriages in Hampshire

To get married in a church or other religious building, you will need to contact the person in charge of the church.
More information on religious marriages

Getting married outside Hampshire

You can get married at any registration office or approved venue of your choice.

Getting married abroad

Find out the rules for marrying abroad.
If you need assistance or legal paperwork phone 0845 603 5637.

To arrange the date and time of your wedding at...

A Hampshire Registration Office

tel 0845 603 5637 call charges
Phone lines open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm, Saturday 9.30am - 4pm

A Hampshire approved venue

Contact the venue to check availability and agree a date, then contact us tel 0845 603 5637 to book the registration staff.

A non-refundable booking fee is payable at the time of the provisional booking of a Hampshire venue to secure your selected date/time. You will be charged a further booking fee if you subsequently change the date or time of your provisional booking. Although a provisional booking can be made well in advance of your proposed ceremony date, you cannot give notice of marriage more than 12 months before the date of your marriage. Once a notice of marriage has been given, any change of venue will result in a fresh notice having to be given.

A venue outside Hampshire

You will need to make arrangements with the local registration office and approved venue in the district.

Cancellation

If you need to cancel a ceremony for which you have already paid, you may still be liable to pay the fee subject to the period of notice you give:

Full refund requires a minimum of three calendar months notice in writing
50% refund requires between one and three calendar months notice in writing
No refund can be made if you give less than one calendar months notice in writing or fail to advise us

This advice is designed to provide basic guidance. It is not a complete or authoritative statement of the law. It is your responsibility to ensure you comply with the legal requirements.

Before a marriage can take place, the law requires that each person gives a notice of marriage, unless you are marrying in a Church of England and ‘banns’ are being read.

Notice must be given in the district in which you have had residency for the previous 7 full days.

Giving notice

It is a legal requirement for both the bride and the groom to give notice at least 15 clear days before but no more than one year before a marriage. A fee of £33.50 each is payable by cash, card or cheque made to Hampshire County Council

Explanation - What does 15 clear days mean?

If you both live in the same district, you should both attend your local registration office preferably together to give your notices of marriage. No one else can do it on your behalf.

The appointment takes about 45 minutes (per couple) or 30 minutes for a single notice. If you are subject to immigration control, appointments per couple can take in excess of an hour.

If you live in different registration districts then each of you will need to give notice separately in your respective district, ideally within two weeks of each other.

Your notice is publicly displayed for 15 days, after which the marriage authorities can be issued.

Explanation - What are Marriage Authorities?

Making an appointment

If you live in Hampshire (not Southampton or Portsmouth)

You will need to contact us, tel 0845 603 5637

Please arrive on time or your appointment will be re-scheduled. If you are unable to keep your appointment, please let us know. Please also ensure that you bring all the correct documentation. If the relevant documents are not produced it may be necessary to re-schedule your appointment.

If you live in Southampton or Portsmouth

If you live outside Hampshire but are getting married in Hampshire, you must ensure that your marriage authorities are sent to the appropriate Hampshire registration office.

Foreign Nationals subject to immigration control

Notice of marriage, must be given to a 'designated' registration office, for Hampshire this is Winchester Register Office.

We have a statutory duty to report any marriage we suspect has been arranged for the sole purpose of evading statutory immigration controls.

Explanation - What are the Immigration Control rules?

Urgent weddings (Registrar General’s Licence)

In the event of someone who is terminally ill wishing to marry, it is possible to do this in a short time scale. Contact your local registration office on tel 0845 603 5637.

Document checklist

Proof of Identity/Nationality
If you have a passport – please bring this with you to your appointment as it is required to prove your identity/nationality.	Please note if the passport is not in the name you are currently using, you will need other documents to link you to the name on the passport. We can usually accept an expired passport for a British national but only if it has expired within the last five years. Further evidence of nationality will be required if the passport has expired beyond this i.e a full birth certificate and linking documents (if appropriate).
If you do not have a passport, you will need to produce a 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).	Please note, if you were born on or after 1 January 1983, are British and are producing a birth certificate as your form of identity/nationality, you will also need to produce either your mother’s or your 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 identity/nationality.
Marital status (if divorced or widowed)
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 Directgov website for civil partnership dissolution	If the name you are currently using is different to that on your Decree Absolute or Civil Partnership dissolution document, please also bring documents to link you to the previous name, e.g. marriage or civil partnership certificate.
If widowed: death certificate of late spouse.	If you did not register the death you will also need to produce your marriage or civil partnership certificate.

Proof of address (in order of preference)
A recent bank statement or utility bill or council tax bill.	Or, failing these, driving licence showing current address.

Change of name
Change of name document (if you have changed your name by deed poll or by any other legal means)	If you are currently using a name that is not shown on any of your paperwork you will also need to provide evidence linking the names

Consent if under 18 years
If either party to a proposed marriage is under the age of 18, consent is legally required before that marriage can go ahead.	The only exception 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.

It is a pre-requisite of taking a notice of marriage that we are able to satisfactorily prove your nationality and that you are free to marry. Therefore we must be able to link any documents that you are producing to prove nationality and marital status to you in the name you are using on the day you give notice. So for instance if you are producing a birth certificate as proof of nationality and the name you are currently using is different to that shown on the birth certificate, you must produce a document showing how you got from your birth name to your current name, which might be in the form of a marriage certificate or perhaps a change of name deed.

If you are producing a Decree Absolute or a Death Certificate for a late spouse, which is in a different name to the name you are currently using, you must again be able to prove the link between the two names.

If you were born after 1983, do not have a passport and are producing a document to prove nationality of a parent, which is in a different name to the one shown on your birth certificate, we will also need to see a linking document (i.e. marriage certificate or change of name deed) to prove the connection. For instance if your mother and father are divorced and your mother is re-married, her passport may well be in her new married name, which will not be the name shown on your birth certificate. So we would need to see the marriage certificate for her second marriage in order to link her to her previous name as shown on your birth certificate.

The Ceremony

Marriages must normally take place between 8am and 6pm, except for Jewish and Quaker ceremonies or those authorised by a Registrar General’s licence.

After you have given notice of marriage, you will receive a pack which will include additional information to help you plan your ceremony. Staff at our registration offices will be happy to discuss any aspect of your ceremony to make sure the day is perfect for you. We will be on hand to guide you through the ceremony so there is no need to worry about a thing!

Once you, your guests and witnesses are seated, the ceremony will begin with a welcome by the Registrar. You will be asked, in turn, to repeat solemn legal declarations and your vows. You can find the options detailed in your marriage pack.

After you have made your marriage contract, you and your witnesses will sign the register. The registration officers will then also sign and present you with your marriage certificate.

Order of Ceremony

Background music of your choice can be played as your guests are seated
Entrance of the Bride and Groom
A welcome and introduction
A reading by a member of your wedding party (optional)
The definition of marriage according to the law
Declaratory Words
The Bride is ‘given away’ (optional)
Contracting Words (vows)
Any personal vows or promises (optional)
The exchange of rings (optional)
Another reading by a member of your wedding party (optional)
Announcement of couple as husband and wife
The Signing of the Marriage Register
Presentation of Marriage Certificate
Photographs
Exit of the Bride and Groom

Any music, readings or additional vows should be of a non-religious nature, and must be confirmed in advance to ensure their suitability for a civil ceremony.

Important - Please read before choosing your readings.

We have a Suggested Reading Pack 136kb pdf, to give you some ideas.

Costs

Legal preliminary costs

A fee of £33.50 each is payable for Giving Notice.

Marriage and Civil Partnership ceremony costs

Fees quoted include the cost of one certificate and the non-refundable booking fee. For costs of extra certificates please see below.


2011/2012	Mon/Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun/BH
Statutory Ceremony Room in Winchester	£43.50	£43.50	£43.50
Main Ceremony Room in any Registration Office	£133.50	£143.50	£203.50	£383.50
Goldings, Wellesley Suite, Basingstoke	£223.50	£283.50	£483.50	£523.50
Approved Venue	£363.50	£423.50	£483.50	£523.50

2012/2013
Statutory Ceremony Room in Winchester	£43.50	£43.50	£43.50
Main Ceremony Room in any Registration Office	£133.50	£143.50	£203.50	£393.50
Goldings, Wellesley Suite, Basingstoke	£233.50	£293.50	£493.50	£533.50
Approved Venue	£373.50	£433.50	£493.50	£533.50

Basic ceremony

A basic ceremony for limited number of guests is available at Aldershot, Basingstoke, Fareham and Ringwood Registration Offices on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 9.15am or 9.45am for £43.50.

Marriage Certificate

You will receive one marriage certificate on the day included in the ceremony fee. Additional certificates requested on or before the ceremony day are £3.50 each and posted to you within one week of the ceremony.

Civil Partnership certificate

There are two types of Civil Partnership certificate, the standard certificate which shows all the details, and the extract which shows everything except the couple's addresses. Certificates of either type requested on or before the ceremony day are £3.50 each and posted to you within two working days of the ceremony.

If you need additional copy certificates after the day, the cost will be £7 whilst the register is still current, and £9 when the register archived.

Hampshire Registration Service

Getting married in Hampshire