A little news from our registry office .....

[Dancefloorgirl]

Morning ladies,
I thought I would share a phone call I had with my registry office this morning. The registrar told me that they are expecting the government to allow small weddings from the 4th of July on wards. Nothing set in stone but that is the word on the street.

We've shifted our legal marriage 4 times(!) and we now have another date of mid July. We will only have 2 witnesses and do the wedding next year.

I hope this helps some of you who, at least, want the legal part done.

I have my fingers crossed....Crazy how we can all go to primark but not get married with 2 witnesses social distancing
x

Thanks @dancefloorgirl. My wedding is 1 July so it looks like we will have to get a new date. Do you know how easy/quick is it to get a new date? We want to get married ASAP, just 2 witnesses. Our notice runs out in September...

I take it you're in England, @Dancefloorgirl ?

Our wedding is at the end of July but we're in wales. Still waiting on tenterhooks for any news here...

Yes, we're in the East of England.

Willowcat77 ours runs out at the end of July so we are close to the wire!
In terms of how easy it was to reschedule, for us and our registry office it was very easy. Every time the date is coming up and it's clearly not happening they have phoned/emailed us to rearrange another date which we have taken.
This time round we were given a few specific dates but they still said they'd charge more for a Fri or Sat which I thought was cheeky!

Like you we only need 2 witnesses and we're lucky we can be flexible with work and pretty much do any time or day. If you're the same I would say you won't find it too hard to get a slot especially considering many couples will be having lots of guests and sadly have to cancel.
We have been told the whole thing will be sped up...no music...no readings...nothing! and I think this is to reduce risk but also get more couples through the doors.

Thanks @Dancefloorgirl, that's really helpful!

@Dancefloorgirl I've been through the same thing, wedding moved 4 times, we're now on our 5th attempt. The last was cancelled with a week to go. The registra was really disappointed, they genuinely thought they'd be allowed to go ahead, especially with shops opening.

We're booked in for mid July and keeping our fingers crossed. It's unbelievably disappointing when people are allowed to queue for hours to go to IKEA but weddings still can not take place.

One good thing is that we got a hefty refund as it's now a statutory wedding, just us, 2 witnesses signing papers and done.

I hope it works out for everyone this time.

So it looks like I might be getting married on 1 July if this news item from the BBC is correct:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-wales-53129408

Luckily I live in Wales!

I saw that willow!! 🎉🎉

Just waiting to hear from the registry office now to see what their plans are re numbers

SureTry oh wow, I could've written your post. Fingers crossed we both can get married next month!
It's insulting that MacDonalds can open and so can primark but not small weddings.

Wales have been far more sensible. Our families both live over in wales and we are welsh through and through and it's times like this I wish we were back there. Good luck!
Surely it makes far more sense to do it this way around

Fingers crossed to all brides xx

So I got my hopes up for 1 July but have just received an email from the Registry Office saying that it's church weddings only and that they are still waiting for guidance from the Government 😕

It’s so confusing. Looks like Church weddings for up to 30 people will be allowed, but no mention of registry office weddings at all! I’m supposed to be getting married in a registry office with just us and 2 witnesses on 8th August and I’m just not sure if it’ll happen or not, and neither is the registry office!

We have a registrar coming to a venue so I wonder what the rules will be around that. Its a small number of people but if we're still not able to mix more than two family groups by then then we will be in trouble.

Surely - and I apologise to anyone religious here but - legal weddings are more important than religious ones? To the government.

I think the registry offices will give the green light for small ceremonies. I think as of the 4th of July small weddings will take place. I don't think there is any distinction between religious or non religious weddings however I imagine the council will only permit perhaps 10 guests and not 30 because most churches and places of worship are big buildings.

legal weddings are more important than religious ones?

Religious weddings - in a church - are legal weddings, though. You don’t need to nip down to the register office afterwards to get the made legal. I wonder if it’s a venue thing - that churches are often quite big and you can socially distance in them.

Register Office or Registrar.

Oh I could have been clearer - what I meant was to be married "in the eyes of god" a civil ceremony plus blessing can count, whereas to be married in a legal sense, you can't chose the opposite. Does that make sense?

Surely it would be discriminatory to allow church weddings and not registry weddings.

The problem is the government. My registry office has been ready to go since early June, but they're are not getting any guidance from the government.