We need to get our certificate to say it's ok for us to get married. We're getting married in a Methodist church and it's different to Church of England. You have to go to the Registry Office, declare you want to get married, and they search to make sure you're not already married and then issue you with a certificate/license to say it's ok to go ahead.
We live in Hampshire but are getting married where I'm from in the Midlands, and H2B was born up north. The vicar didn't know where we needed to give notice, so I asked the registrar down here if it needed to be where we live now, where we're getting married, where we were born, etc.
The registrar said one of us needs to live in the marriage district for seven days and then give notice on the eigth day and show proof of address. She seemed a bit snappy (but maybe I'm just being over sensitive and emotional!) and said just cus I was Christened there doesn't give me a legal right to marry there. My parents don't live in the right district. My Nan does, but I obviously can't transfer all my documents to say her address just for a week!
My cousin got married at the same church and neither of them or thier parents live in the church district. I'm going to try and speak to someone else about it on Monday, but I'm so fed up! I want my church wedding, but it just seems so difficult!!!
Sorry it's a bit long, just getting really fed up now and any help gratefully received!! x
CommentAuthorSazzell23
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.
CommentAuthorSazzell23
When are you getting married? If you dont worship in Hampshire and go to the methodist church whenever your visiting family then it would be classed as your usual place of worship. The minister can write a letter to vouch that you have attended worship there. That would be enough for you and your h2b to both give notice in Hampshire stating that the Methodist Church is your usual place of worship as you worship nowhere else x
CommentAuthorstar12345
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
CommentAuthorSazzell23
Your welcome hunnie, even if your cousin went only a couple of times to worship at the Methodist Church and and didnt worship anywhere else then it would have been classed as her 'usual place of worship'. Either that or it was the usual place of worship for her H2B or he lived in the same district as the Church at the time. If i were you, I would go to worship at the church a few times when you're back seeing family and then you can tell the Registrar in Hampshire that it is your usual place of worship and you only worship there. Your notice of marriage is valid for one year but you dont have to give notice now. You could give notice in a few months time after attending worship at the methodist church, then you can confidently say it has been your 'usual place of worship'. On a separate note, you need to ask the new minnister at the methodist church if they have Authorised Persons. This is someone at the Church who is Authorised to register your marriage in the marriage registers on the day of your wedding. If they dont have Authorised Persons, you will need to arrange for a registrar from the Register Office local to the Church to come attend your wedding and register the marriage. Hope this helps xxx
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
CommentAuthorSazzell23
How did things go hun? did your dad speak to the Registrar? Hope you got it sorted xx
CommentAuthorstar12345
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
CommentAuthorSazzell23
that is strange........I would go along with it and hopefully it will all work out fine but be prepared in case the 'usual place of worship' question crops up. If it does and you can say you've worshipped at the Methodist Church when seeing family and you dont go anywhere else then I think they will accept that and take your notice of marriage. They may not have realised when you rang this time that the Church is not in the same district where you live. Maybe e-mail them and get it confirmed in writing hun as back up. This is kind of my job, thats why I know so much about it and the first person you spoke to was correct in what they were saying. So I would just be prepared when you give notice in case it comes up xxx
CommentAuthorstar12345
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
CommentAuthorSazzell23
hehe yeah I would be a bit of a geek knowing all that info wouldnt I ;-) good luck with it all hunnie, and keep me posted, if there's anything I can do to help with anything just give me a shout xxx
CommentAuthorstar12345
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
CommentAuthortweedwedding
Good that you're so close! I'm sure it doesn't matter that your job title is spelt wrong - as long as it's not your name that they've got wrong!! xx
CommentAuthorstar12345
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
CommentAuthorSazzell23
OOps only just seen this hun, did you get it sorted? You can notify the Register Office now and go in to them and amend it on the paperwork or it can be sorted on the day of the wedding at pre marriage questioning. Before you get married the Registrar will check through all the details with you that you told them when you gave notice to make sure nothing has changed. Make sure you do sort it though because otherwise it could be copied incorrectly into your marriage entry. On the day of the wedding scrutinise your marriage entry before you sign it. I know nerves and adrenalin will be bubbling away but take the time to check every column on your entry before you sign. If there are any mistakes point them out before you sign. If you sign the entry and there are mistakes it needs to go through a complicated procedure to have it corrected and you end up with a marginal note on your certificate. Hope this helps hunnie xxx
CommentAuthorsuzky123
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
cant wait to be Mrs Evans less than 3 weeks woooo
start weight 10st 1.5 lbs
weight now 8st 4.5 lbs
total loss to date: 24.5 lbs now need to maintain!
CommentAuthorstar12345
Thanks Suzky, we're sorted now - the registrar was completely confusing though telling us one thing then another, and then when the certificates arrived there was a spelling mistake on them just to top it off!
Sazzell - thanks for all your help! I spoke to the Registrar when I noticed it (which was straight away cus it's flippin' obvious, lol) and they double checked with someone else and phoned back to say it'll be ok as we can amend it with the vicar before he copies it on to the final certificate. I've told the vicar about it and he's going to double check with the local Registrar just incase it causes a problem, but hopefully it'll be ok! I'll definatley be checking the final one so thanks for the advice! I hadn't really thought about them getting it wrong, and you're right I'll be so distracted I'll just sign anything! They'll just have photos of the top of my head while I check every single letter, lol x
CommentAuthorSteffie
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
CommentAuthorstar12345
Talk to your registrar and they'll tell you exactly what to do - but I think our registrar gave us some incorrect advice to begin with! You need to register where you both live (seperately if you live in different areas) and the Registrar will then send the information off to Gloucester, and if there are no problems it'll be back to you within a few weeks. You can do it from when you've got 12 months to go though, so give them a call. But that's how ours was anyway - after my initial panic from being told I'd got to live 150 miles away for a week, lol x
CommentAuthortweedwedding
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!!
CommentAuthorstar12345
We'd just gone over the "one year mark" when I made our appointment so we only had to wait just over a week for our appointment. I'm so impatient about wedding stuff so it was a good job! x
CommentAuthortweedwedding
I know, we've been bugging them since January!! ha ha
CommentAuthorstar12345
Ha, that is a long time! You'll be like old friends when you finally get to go!! x
CommentAuthortweedwedding
Ha ha fingers crossed they give us a discount then! x
CommentAuthorstar12345
Ha, do the words "discount" and "wedding" generally go together?! ;-)
CommentAuthortweedwedding
Ha ha NOPE! Still I've been dreaming about so much stuff, I might as well dream about this too!! :-)
CommentAuthorstar12345
Oh yes now "dreaming" and "wedding" are two words I definatley know! Lol ;-) x
