What paperwork do we need to get married?

[Butterpie]

My Dad is coming up to visit and take me and the DDs back to his for a few days next week. While he is here he wants to take me and DP to the register office and book and pay for our legal wedding. What do we need to get together? Dp has been married before and I have changed my name. We have two children together.

Don't you need to give some notice of intention to marry so that the banns can be issued/read whatever? 3 weeks rings a bell.

Birth certificates and your Dp's divorce documents IIRC.

I think so, that is what I think we are doing next week. The actual wedding is Aug 28, but it won't be legally binding, and so we need a seperate register office thing, I suppose for legal purposes. Might make things easier if it was around the same time. For some reason, my mum, sisters, dad, nana, etc all want to come and watch the register office signing a form bit, even though we don't want to make a big deal out of it, so we might have to book it around peoples days off.

Do they even let so many people come in if you are going for the no frills, go in, sign a form, go home, thing? I alwasy thought it would be more like registering the baby or something. I know they CAN do the whole big wedding there, but that isn't what we want, our actual wedding will be on Aug 28 where we will do the standing up in front of people and proclaiming our neverending love etc.

in ours bbutterpie we could have 4 people for the no frills before we had to pay for the 40 people room - we had 2 in the end

Its not like registerign a baby though - you have to go along to an appt before hand and have a word with the registrar seperately and then go back for the actual wedding having agreed which version you want to use etc.

do you need birht certificate now? I got married 20 years ago and no birth certificate was needed

here is all about getting married and what you need to do

as he has been married before you will definitely need to take his Decree Absolute

Does that have "Decree Absolute" on it in big letters? He is useless at finding things, but I am not sure what I am looking for. I have a sinking feeling it has been chucked out (he is rubbish with filing, he thinks putting things near the to file tray counts as filing).

fingers crossed he hasn't chucked it out as you will need it. It will have Decree Absolute written on it and will set out the date that the marriage was disolved.
If he has lost it, you (he) will need to apply for a copy from the Court office where the divorce was. Hopefully if you have some of the documentation which will have the case number on it (usually top right hand corner) it will make it easier to trace it. If not, he will need to provide full names of him and his ex and approximate dates.

He has lost it. Luckily I am going to the town where the divorce happened next week anayway, apparently I can get a copy then.

The legal bit of your wedding in the Registry Office will not just be form signing. You will have to go through the whole wedding process. The whole "I do" bit.

You will need to prove who you are, so passports.

You will also need your Decree Absolutes.

Notice has to be served prior to the Registry Office wedding, I believe three weeks is correct.

And you can't just turn up. They will tell you when you can do it, it takes about half an hour.

And since this is the busiest time of the year, you could be in for a long wait.

And it might not necessarily be your nearest registry office either. Depending on where you live you might actually have to visit another one.

It is not that easy to "just do it" I am afraid, it takes some serious paperwork and preparation.

And checking of documents. They have to be very careful that people marrying are who they say are and are doing it for the right reasons.

Thats very true BBM (waves from across the sand dunes) When DH and I got married 5 years ago we were interviewed separately and it was like playing Mr and Mrs. I clammed up when they asked my dad's first name and simply couldn't speak. It wasn't because it was a scam marriage but because I'd lost him and it suddenly hit me that he wouldn't be there to give me away and I got a hard time about it as I sat there in tears.

oh MOS I am so sorry. That is one of the times when the loss of a loved one really hits home.

I remarried two years ago and it meant so much that my granny could be there. She is 82 now and it is lovely.

What is now hard is looking at the wedding pictures and seeing my BIL as best man looking so happy and fabulous, knowing he then took his own life a year later.

for BigBadMummy&Daddy