Marriage and civil partnership registration

You must sign a legal statement at your local register office to say you intend to get married or form a civil partnership. This is known as 'giving notice'.

You must give notice at least 29 days before your ceremony or, if you are subject to immigration control, at least 70 days before your ceremony. For example, if you give notice on 1 May, the earliest date you can get married or form a civil partnership is 30 May.

You must hold your ceremony within 12 months of 'giving notice'.

If you make an advance (provisional) booking for a marriage, you must give formal notice to the superintendent registrar once you are legally able to do so. You must do this within the time arranged with the superintendent registrar.

Where to give notice

You usually need to make an appointment to give notice at your local register office. You must have lived in that registration district for the past 7 days.

If you wish to get married or form a civil partnership in Thurrock, you will need to give a formal notice at Thurrock Register Office in Grays.

You and your partner will need to give notice separately if you live in different registration districts. You do not have to do this on the same day.

If one of you is from outside the UK

You and your partner must give notice together, unless you both have one of the following:

• British or Irish citizenship
• settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
• an application to the EU Settlement Scheme that you made before 30 June 2021, which you’re waiting for a decision on

You must give your notice together at a register office in the district where at least one of you lives.

If your partner gave notice separately before 1 July 2021, they must give notice again with you.

By law, we have a duty to report any marriage we suspect has been arranged for the sole purpose of evading the statutory immigration controls.

Exceptional circumstances

We have procedures to reduce the 29-day waiting period where there are compelling reasons to do so, or for a formation to take place at the residence of someone who is housebound, detained or seriously ill and not expected to recover.

After you give notice

Once the notice of marriage has been given, it will be displayed on the public notice board for 28 days, after which, if all documentation has been received and cleared, an authority for your marriage to proceed will be issued.

Next steps

Go to:

• documents you'll need for giving notice
• booking your appointment

Contact us

Contact us if you need more information.