Hi hun,
You have to give notice of your intention to marry in the district where you live. To marry in a Methodist Church (or any other religious denomination APART from Church of England), it must either be your usual place of worship OR you need to live in the district for a minimum of 7 consecutive days.
So you have two options if you want to marry at that particular Methodist Church -
1) Do you worship at a church where you live in Hampshire? If not, and you do worship at the Methodist Church when you are visiting your family then you can say that it is your usual place of worship and therefore you have qualification to marry there.
2) One or both of you will need to stay in the district where the church is situated for 7 full consecutive days. You could stay with your Nan and then she would have to vouch for you that you have been staying with her. The Register Office where your nan lives may ask you to see them the first day you are in the district and they may ask for a signed statement from your nan to confirm you have stayed the 7 full nights. If she lied for you she would be comitting perjury. You can travel out of the district during the day, but you must sleep at your nans every night.
Its a real pain, the laws are very out dated (from 1837 !!) but this is what you have to do. Church of England have different rules if you wanted to look into that but if you have your heart set on the Methodist Church you only have the two options above.

We're getting married June 2012. Thank you for your help - you've explained it much more clearly than the registry office! I just don't understand how my cousin managed it as she doesn't go weekly or live in the right place, so I may have to pick her brains and see how she got round it! We've recently had a new vicar who I don't really know yet so that's made it more difficult as I don't suppose he can really vouch for me yet. It's my family church so I've got my heart set on it being there. It's not particularly pretty or picturesque, but it's not about that is it! It's special to me, and I never thought there'd be this problem! Might have to have a week of a 300 mile round commute from my Nan's to work then - fun hey!! Things were obviously much easier in 1837 ;-)

Thanks so much for you help :-) x

Arrrr, thank you so much! I already know the vicar is ok to do the legal bit, so we're covered there at least! :-)

It's our family church, but "the cousins" don't go as often as we should (tut tut). My cousin's husband definately wasn't the one who would have been the regular and they both lived in the same place so can't have been that, so I can only think it was ok-ed by it being her place of worship.

My Dad is going to phone the registrar for the area church is in tomorrow and just double check what they say on the off chance there are some local oddities we don't know about!!!

Thanks again for your help, you've been a star :-) x

Hmmmm, bit strange really! My Dad spoke to their local registrar and they said all we needed to do was declare our intent at our local office and they'll do the rest. He asked if there were any residency rules and they said no. So today I called our office to check again and they said exactly the same thing this time - just make an appointment where we live, and they'll do the rest no matter where we're getting married.

I'm still not completely convinced they're not going to change their minds though and tell me something different yet again!

How strange!! x

I guessed it must be your job - or you just had a very strange hobby ;-)

i'm definatley going to go prepared for all outcomes as I've been told so many different things! We're not making the appointment for a few weeks, but I'll let you know how it goes!! x

Thought I'd update you!

Went to our local registrar and gave all the details. They then sent it off to the district we're getting married in, and they displayed it, and the two certificates for marriage have arrived in the post today - one for me, one for h2b. Yippee.

Slight problem though - they've spelt my job title wrong! It spelt the same on each certificate, but it obviously won't match anything in future that has it spelt correctly! Always something!

It's too late to call them now so I'll do it tomorrow, but with your expert knowledge do you think it's going to have to be re-issued?! Can't believe it!!!! x

I thought the same about it not being my name! Just couldn't believe it! Thought they'd have spell checked it first, lol x

we just gave notice. We live in ellesmere port which is cheshire west. We thought that crewe was covered by cheshire, and it is but not the right part as it is cheshire east. Therefore, since we both live in ellesmere port, we BOTH had to give notice of marriage in ellesmere port or chester. If hubby to be still lived in wrexham, then he would have to give notice there and I would give notice where I live.... it is where you both live NOW! not where you were christened and is not dependent on any other family member (though we were asked about our fathers names and occupations just to check they had the correct two people in front of them for their search incase more than one susan locker came up). After 16 days you can go to get your certificates and then you need to send these to the registrar in the area where you are getting MARRIED. x

OMG!!!! we lived in Warwickshire but we're getting married in Gloucestershire!!! Does this mean we'll have to live in Gloucestershire for 7 days??? xxxx

Our registrar is being really annoying, every time I phone they tell us that the register isn't open for that far in advance - I want to book for us to go in on the 29th of Septemeber - it's not that far away! Grrrr so irritating!!

I know, we've been bugging them since January!! ha ha

Ha ha fingers crossed they give us a discount then! x

Ha ha NOPE! Still I've been dreaming about so much stuff, I might as well dream about this too!! :-)