Registry wedding

[Picklesandbeans]

Looking at doing a registry office wedding. Weve been together years, couple of dc so no bug deal, just all want to have the same name.
So any tips? Any advice on how to make it nice? What do I have to do legally?

I did a registry wedding for exactly the same reasons. Legally you need to pay some money for the actual wedding and give at least 3 months notice, you need two witnesses and you need to turn up!

I’ll go through ours:
Walk in to own music with my 2 girls from outside the door. Guests were my parents and siblings and dh parents (we could have had up to 20 I think?)

We said our vows, exchanged rings, snogged, dd’s sat at the front, my dad and dh’s mum signed our witness things. I was wearing a lovely high street white lacy dress, kids in bridesmaids dresses bought online.

Different music for signing registers and walking out song, we could choose four and brought the cd with us. Then we went for some photos (taken by family and a lovely couple passing by!) in the grounds (top tip here is choose a nice registry with a park or something nearby!) I threw the bouquet at the girls (another tip get a nice bouquet! Not super spendy but adds a real wedding-y touch)

Lastly we all went to the pub, for a meal and drinks and a couple of weeks later I had a huge bbq for all my extended family and friends! ‘‘Twas fabulous

Oh final thing have a lovely night away or mini honeymoon planned. We went to a spa for a couple of nights the day after the wedding (mum had the kids) and it was BLISS!

Congrats

The registrar will tell you all that's needed on the legal side.

We invited a few of our nearest and dearest, wore our best clothes (nothing new) and then took everyone to the pub down the road for lunch.

We were allowed to bring music to play before/during the ceremony and we chose a couple of readings which our guests read for us - although the registrar had to approve them beforehand, no religious content is permitted. We picked readings which meant something to us.

You can also choose any register office you like - the one we used isn't in our council area but it's where DH is from, and is a really nice location.

A bit out of date now but my DM provided writeable CDs and pre-paid envelopes so that people could send us the pics they took - and I specifically asked a couple of people who take nice pics to make sure they took some for us.

I work for my local register office booking weddings. If you just want the legalities there is a basic statutory registration for £57. You also need to give notice which is £70. Some areas charge a booking fee. The statutory registration is for you and 2 witnesses and some areas do not allow anymore guests, rings, music etc. However you can always pay more to have extras. Best ring your local office or look on their website as every area differs.

We got married at bakewell registration office and it's so beautiful. Would really recommend it. Restaurants in walking distance so you can go out for a nice meal afterwards too.

We got married in Bristol registry office in august 2020 - still under quite heavy covid restrictions. Only 6 guests and then we went to a pub for a quick drink, kids went home with my mum (second marriage) and we went out to dinner a deux. It was lovely. No fuss, nothing but us.

Oh thank you so much everyone, it sounds lovely! I'm not really one for a big fuss so low key is my style and you've given me some lovely ideas. Sounds like exactly what I would like @theGirlWhoLived