Has anybody here got married in a registry office without having a Ceremony?

[BoredAdminGirl]

We are thinking of doing it, just doing the legal stuff.

We don't really want any kind of ceremony, just a little celebration afterwards? Is that sad? We are both quite shy people and hate the idea of saying vows in front of everyone!

Thoughts?

Did it last year, with two witnesses. From getting in the room it took about 7 minutes. We dressed smartly but not in trad wedding attire. Went for a nice lunch afterwards. It was perfect for us, at the end of the day you are just as married as anyone else who spends more / has a bigger event!

No Ms. OP, it not sas. AT LEAST you have your parents blessing. At least you ahave an engagement ring right?

I did not have my parents blessing. I pretty much lost my whole family.
I only have my husband left, and he doesn't mind being my only family member.

I'm in the US, so I'm not sure what it called in UK but here in the US two people can get married legally/lawfully at the City Hall/Courthouse.

I got married with my then boyfriend now husband at the Los Angeles Courthouse in the state of California, USA

I married him with nothing. No engagement ring, No wedding reception, No honeymoon. With 2 witnesses: my older brother and my mother in-law.

The reason why I choose the quick and simple Courthouse to get married is because my Chinese mother discriminate against my husband becasue he's Black.
There was no point of me have a wedding because NOBODY on my side of the family going to come. My parents didn't give me their blessing, I don't see any point of have a wedding when nobody on the bride side family going to show up.

Anyways, we are married and we both happy. He sure have baby fever though, but uh.. I'm not really having baby fever.
We only married for 3 months, I want some more time as a couple with him before we bring in a child.

I don't know what UK called it, perhaps it called "registry office"?

Anyways, what matter is two people love each others. A big wedding, a small wedding, or get married at the City Hall/Courthouse, "registry office", it doesn't matter. What matter is the commitment between two people. Wedding is only one day, but a marriage is a life time.

We did it that way. We wanted to get married, but didn't fancy the idea of a wedding iyswim. So it was just us and our 2 closest friends as witnesses.

I wore a pretty grosgrain dress, 1950s style, you know the type that's nipped in at the waist with a netted floofy petticoat to make it flare out. He wore a blue velvet suit.

We went for bloody marys before the ceremony, to settle the old nerves.

We walked into the registry office together, (a really beautiful and old building) just beaming at each other. For us, it was all about saying the vows, and meaning it. And exchanging rings. That was quite a moment for us. My best mate took photos, and in every single one, we're smiling and laughing and doing a bit of the old eye-gazing in all of them.

Then we went back to a beautiful hotel, where we'd booked a room. Friends and us drank copiously, ate some delicious food and got politely raucous.

I have some awesome photographs of hubby lying back on one of those shaggy (mongolian wool?) cushions, in such a way that it looks like it's his hair. Therefore transforming him into King Charles the II.

The next morning, we went out onto the balcony for a cigarette in our dressing gowns. He held an umbrella over me, because it was raining. There was a double rainbow! we didn't steal the lovely floofy dressing gowns

It was a perfect and brilliant day. It should be exactly as you both want it. Not what other people think it should be. It's your's and future hubby's day. No-one else's.

*A few months before we actually got married, hubby and I drove through the night, from the south, to Gretna Green. We believed all the hype that they would marry us on the spot. We would buy rings when we got there. (I didn't even know they have to be fitted, thought you could just buy them ready made.)

To our dismay, no, that doesn't happen anymore. By the time we left, word had got round that we were that daft couple who'd driven 14hrs expecting to get married without even checking first.

We enjoyed our road trip though. Was like being in an American movie. Romantic, like.

Awwww rubbishmantra it sounds so lovely! Even the trip to Gretna green!
It sounds like a romantic film. How long have you been married?

18 months binspin, so newlyweds.

and apologies AdminGirl* for jumping to the conclusion you were marrying a bloke! I should've read whole thread before leaping in with a reply.

Can I be you please? It sounds perfect. Congratulations!

If we'd had a big wedding, we would have chosen as our first dance. It's 'our' song

But we are a little peculiar...

oooooh. It is a little peculiar and certainly not what I was expecting .
Do you sing it to one another?

We do, in hilarious and camp high pitched voices. It has us in stitches. DH's really deadpan usually. Sometimes he just quotes it, in a purposefully flat and deadpan voice.

I did it.

2nd marriage and I couldn't face the whole shebang again. Hated the pomp and circumstance enough the 1st time!

Just me, DH, and 2 witnesses, his granddad, my brother.

Took ourselves off to a posh hotel afterwards as a treat for lunch, and that was us, done and dusted.

We had a few sulkers, family wise, but to us it was getting married that mattered, we just didn't need the rest.

That's why i didn't invite anyone to our wedding. Just us. So If one say how come you didn't invite me, I would say "don't feel bad, I didn't invite my mom or my siblings nor any my husband's family either. "