Has anyone ever grabbed witnesses for a marriage from the street?

[BoomaDooma]

We want to get married, just the two of us, but I’ve no idea what we would do about witnesses?!

You could ask on Mumsnet. I and another volunteer acted as witnesses for a MNer neither of us had ever met before, in response to a request she put out a few days before. It was lovely.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

You could ask on Mumsnet. I and another volunteer acted as witnesses for a MNer neither of us had ever met before, in response to a request she put out a few days before. It was lovely.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g Wow! I bet that was an experience!

I read that thread. It was lovely!

Was that the family with the young children and then the MNetters went for coffee afterwards? If that was you, did you stay in touch?

Not quite dragged off the street, but asked 2 people who worked at the venue to be ours.

I used to work at a tourist place where they also held weddings. I was asked to be a witness several times for weddings. It was lovely. But yes, you can simply ask people off the street!

I was a mumsnet wedding witness last year - it was great fun.

Where are you OP? I would do it!

Im in scotland so might be different but we had to give the names of our witnesses ansd previous surnames they had been known by before hand when we were applying for the marriage license.

When dh and I eloped to Gretna, the piper and the photographer were our witnesses!

We had two lovely women from the housing department which was in the same building as the registry office.

I did, but in New York.

Grabbed a stranger and promised him several beers if he'd witness at City Hall for us.

It was brilliant!

We asked our two retired neighbours 😄

@RutlandVasey

Was that the family with the young children and then the MNetters went for coffee afterwards? If that was you, did you stay in touch?

No, that must have been another one - I think there have been a few over the years.

I got married at Gretna Green and the photographer was one witness and the other was a lady I tapped on the shoulder in the nearest shop to the register office. She was on her lunch hour and was happy to help. Turned out she went to school with the registrar, although they hadn’t seen each other for years until that day!

Honestly, I think it could be quite stressful — our registrar (central London) warned us that he couldn’t postpone the ceremony by more than a few minutes if we couldn’t get people off the street in time, as it would knock out all timings for the day. Apparently it had happened a few times that the bride and groom had been running up and down on the street in vain and missed their slot.

And when I worked near another city central register office I had to refuse several urgent requests as I was on my way to work.

It all looked a bit stressful.

Yes, we did this. Registry office ceremony was a week before a church blessing. Our slot was the first of the day. We'd assumed the staff could be our witesses, but nobody was available so rushed out of the building, I went one way and DH the other - his route was all offices and not really approachable. I popped into the garage next door and found a lovely elderly Scottish couple filling up the car before setting off to attend a wedding in a town nearby. He was wearing a kilt and she was very smartly dressed. They were delighted to help us out. Mr & Mrs Batchelor (yes, that was their name!!!) I wonder where you are now?

We did this in the US and then we were asked to be witnesses outside the register office in Gibraltar.

I've been a witness twice after people posted on here- once when one of the planned witnesses couldn't make it, and one where the couple married in secret. At that wedding the other witness was a MNer too. Both were lovely!

Oh I’d love to be stopped in the street and asked to be a witness to a wedding!

And if anyone would like a birthing partner I’m available for that too!