Baby before marriage?

[TownTalkJewels]

Hi all,

Due to covid our wedding had been postponed multiple times and we decided not to wait before starting a family. The baby is due later this year.

We don’t know if it will be possible to get married before the baby arrives, due to a combination of covid (of course) and a long approval process to get married at the church we’ve chosen.

We are now trying to work out whether it will matter meaningfully if we are married pre baby or not. Anyone got experience of this to share? I know my DP wouldn’t be able to register the birth certificate, for instance. Anything else I should be aware of?

We’ve considered a civil ceremony now + a church blessing later, but our church isn’t keen on that and I don’t want to give up the option to get married there.

Thank you!

We got engaged then had to put the wedding on hold as we had our eldest. We put it on hold again to buy our house. Eventually got married when our eldest was almost 3.5yr, she was our bridesmaid.
We registered her birth together, I think you get 6 weeks to do it. You do have to go and reregister the birth as one of your marriage later on too.

What have you done about wills/finances etc?

I married after children. We were told we could change their birth certificates so they would have my married surname instead of my maiden name but we didn’t bother.

@Chelyanne you have to re register the birth?

@Shmithecat2 we’ll do our wills before the baby. Finances are less of a concern as they would be separate regardless. I’m not planning to take much maternity leave or give up work so that is less of a concern.

Yes you do.
We found this out when we registered our 2nd child who was born after our marriage and had to go back to have our eldest done again. Her birth certificates now have my married name on them.

You can get away with not re-registering the birth after marriage, I haven't done it for either of my two, I'm happy to risk the £2 fines. They were both registered with their father's surname.

Make sure you have a will in place and maybe a power of attorney, just in case the worst happens before you do get married (you won't be each other's next of kin in case of emergency).