Random people as wedding witnesses

[NotTheQueensBirthday]

Has anyone done this or been one? Not into weddings and just having the most basic legal ceremony so was planning on asking passers by. But presumably they need ID (and to be willing!) so I'm not sure if it might turn out to be stressful finding people? Feel like inviting people we know already will turn it into a "thing" and that's before getting into who we'd pick especially as we haven't lived in our current city for long so it would either be people who we don't know very well or people who'd have to travel.

There have been several weddings where MNers have been witnesses! If you post date, time and location you will more than likely get willing volunteers.

Good luck!

Totally fine to post here, or to grab people passing by. (And if you're in SE London I'm happy to help!)

Don't rely on passers by, the register office may not marry you if you have no witnesses or delay things while trying to find them.
They do not need ID but they need to speak English and know what's going on.
We had witnesses off the street when we got married, it's great fun.

We eloped in secret and our photographer's husband worked just round the corner from the registry office so he popped over on his lunchbreak to be the second witness (photographer was the other witness). However, I'm not sure we would have been able to use random people off the street as registry office insisted on having the full names of the witnesses 30 days in advance of the wedding.... It might be worth asking the question to be sure, before you decide to go down that rout!

We had witnesses off the street too - registry office appointment was first of the day at 8.30am, not that many people about (which we hadn't actually thought through). DP went up the street in one direction and I walked the other way, met an elderly couple - he was wearing full kilt and the waistcoat/jacket - looked very smart. They were killing time before attending a church wedding in the area and were delighted to be our witnesses. The lady was beautifully dressed too and insisted I have a rose from her corsage (DP and I were in jeans and T shirts as our more formal church blessing was the following week). After the ceremony we all hugged and then said goodbye, never to see each other or have contact again. This was 27 years ago and I doubt they are still alive, but Mr & Mrs Batchelor live on as signatories on our wedding certificate!

Thank you so much for all the replies and happy stories here! I'll check our local office's rules about whether their names have to be given beforehand, and make sure if we do go for the random passers by option that we're there in advance.

My brother and his wife got married just the two of them. The registry office told them it can be hard to get passers by to do it at the right time, not as people are nasty but people have places to be so maybe cannot. So they organised 2 council staff working elsewhere in the building to be there.

Have a great day!

I popped out the office and got married in my lunch hour. Asked council workers in the town hall to be witnesses and asked the register for the most basic ceremony, but got a whole load of blather about ‘dear friends, it means so much to the couple that you are here’ I DON’T KNOW THEM! It was a bit shit tbh

I know someone who lives in Gretna and witnesses strangers weddings regularly!

I used to work in an office that was next door to the registry office. We got asked to be witnesses all the time. I remember one couple sent a lovely card afterwards with a photo of us (myself and a colleague) with the bride and groom. Usually we never heard from the happy couple ever again

I've been a random witness and happy to do it again

I've been a random witness - like LillithsFamiliar I worked next door to the register office at the time and I was asked just before ;) No ID required and in fact they didn't take my name down at all, my signature isn't very legible so God knows what they put on the certificate (I asked should I change it so it could be read and they said no, just my normal sig).