Legally recognised eloping in England with witnesses

[MintGreenWalls]

Hello
I would appreciate some advice on eloping for a marriage that is legally recognised in England. We live in London and would prefer a venue that provides witnesses. We could have a registry wedding but we feel nervous about asking strangers in case they don't turn up and don't want the politics of who to ask and any potential hurt feelings from friends and family...

I saw lovely venues online but they were 'just' a ceremony and not legally recognised.

Come to Scotland - you can get married anywhere you like, as it's the celebrant or registrar who holds the licence, not the venue. The National Trust for Scotland offers elopement packages and it says on the website that you can ask their staff to act as witnesses.

What do you really mean by "Eloping"? - is your intention just to get married without having to host a big wedding event? Do you want it to be part of a holiday package somewhere exotic? Do you want it to be in some sense "spontaneous" ie not pre-booked? If you just want to be legally married under UK law without any of the fuss of weddings, this is very easy to arrange via a quiet civil ceremony to which you do not have to invite any guests. You can book witnesses at myweddingwitness.co.uk/ to avoid the stress of relying on pulling random people off the street.

If you particularly want it to be abroad, the best destinations to look at are Denmark, Gibraltar and Cyprus for countries with the least onerous requirements and most likely to be able to get the marriage certificate issued in English. Marriages legally performed abroad are automatically recognised in the UK, provided it was valid under the local laws of that country - destinations that are advertised as "ceremony only" would be invalid in that country too without additional legal procedures which the venue isn't supplying - whichever country you are in, you'll need to complete the appropriate forms, show required IDs etc

I was going to say "elope" to scotland you still have to post your banns though but you might get the legal wedding /marraige you want,

You probanbly need to contact the registrar for the places in England you want.

You don't have to post banns in Scotland any more, you just have to fill in marriage notice forms and provide ID etc.

Oh im ancient 😂 but saying that when my dd got married she did say about the marraige notice i probably just assumed it was the same thing.

do you still have to register in person though and 28 days before ?

No - though the NRS website does say to contact your local registrar for more information, so maybe some districts do like you to. I did it during Covid and we did have a chat with the registrar on Zoom but I think that was mainly to meet her and talk about what we'd like. The official stuff was just sending in the documents in the relevant timeframe.

By contrast, pre-Covid, we were going to get married in England and that was a bit of a mission coming from Scotland. You have to actually go and live there for 8 days and meet the registrar in person.

Thank you everyone, your replies have been extremely helpful ❤️👏👏💐💐💐