Civil marriage ceremonies

Please do not attend our offices if you, or anyone with you has tested positive for Covid or any other infectious disease. This is for all registration appointments and ceremonies.

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 came into force on Monday 27 February 2023. The Act raises the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership to 18 years in England and Wales. This means from that date a person under 18 years of age will no longer be able to marry or form a civil partnership under any circumstances, including with parental or judicial consent.

From 1 July 2021 all register offices in England and Wales become designated meaning they can all accept notices for all nationalities. From 1 July 2021, EEA / Swiss citizens will no longer be able to use ID cards and biometric resident cards as proof of nationality and immigration status when giving notice to marry or form a civil partnership in the UK. 

Giving notice involves attending an appointment at a register office where you will declare:

• who you intend to marry
• where the ceremony will take place
• that you are legally free to get married

This is a legal requirement that must be completed at least 29 days before the ceremony. In certain cases, depending on your immigration status, this may be extended to 71 days. Your notice is valid for 1 year from the date given.

It is your responsibility to ensure that:

• You give your notices of marriage: your ceremony cannot proceed until you have completed your legal notices, within statutory time limits prior to your ceremony.  Making a ceremony booking does not guarantee that your ceremony can proceed as planned.
• You bring all necessary documents to your appointment.  All documents must be originals – we cannot accept documents in electronic format. You can find information on the documents that you need to bring, including confirmation of your ceremony booking.  Your ceremony booking confirmation can either be an email or letter, confirming the name of the venue where your ceremony (not your reception) will take place.

Please check thoroughly the list of required documents and ensure you bring everything that relates to your personal circumstances. If you are unable to produce all your documents at your appointment, or if you are unable to attend your appointment, you will have to rearrange the date of your ceremony. Due to the current high demand for notice appointments, we are unable to accommodate requests for urgent appointments or rebookings due to non-attendance or late attendance.

If you live in the London Borough of Bromley and you are a relevant national, you will need to give notice at Bromley Register Office.  Please telephone us to make an appointment.

If you are not resident within London Borough of Bromley, you will need to give your notice of marriage at the register office in the district(s) where you live.

If either or both of you is not a relevant national you must attend an appointment in the district where one of you lives. This could be Bromley if one or both of you lives in the borough. You must attend together.

From 01 July 2021 definition of relevant national will change from the EU based list to the following:

 (i) a British Citizen

 (ii) an Irish Citizen

(iii) a person who has been granted EU Settlement Status (EUSS) either settled or pre-settled or has a pending application for that settled status submitted before 30 June 2021 

If you are an EU citizen with settled or pre-settled status: you will need to provide a ‘share code’ at your notice appointment, then the registrar can go online and check your status. They will enter this along with your date of birth to bring up your details. You can retrieve the share code from the gov.uk website.

If either of you are not a relevant national, you will need to bring evidence of your immigration status with you to your appointment.

Foreign nationals wishing to marry in The Church of England

If you are a foreign national  (read definition of relevant national on this page and if you do not meet this criteria you are deemed to be a foreign national) wishing to marry in The Church of England, you must bring a completed copy of the Church of England approval form to your Notice of Marriage appointment. You can email us and we will send you the form for the church to complete.

A notice of marriage is valid for one year only from the date given, and is specific to the venue stated on the notice.

If you need to arrange an urgent marriage for someone who is dying, outside our office hours of 8.30am to 5pm, please telephone the emergency duty officer on 0300 303 8671.

Cost

The correct fee will be calculated and taken at the appointment.

Each notice of marriage costs £35 which is a non-refundable fee. 

The fee is £47 if it falls under the Home Office referral process.

£50-75 for consideration of foreign (outside British Isles) divorce/civil partnership dissolution documentation.