When you and your partner decide to get engaged and start planning your wedding, there will be a lot of things you’ll need to do that you’ve never done before – one of which is most likely to visit your local registry office, which in my case would be the Ipswich registry office.

There are a few steps you need to take when having a civil marriage, be it at a registry office, or a licensed venue.

Here is what Advice Guide UK has to say on the procedure for getting married at the Ipswich registry office. Though of course no matter what registry office you use in England, the advice is still the same.

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Civil marriage ceremonies

You and your partner must give notice of marriage in your local Register Office, whether or not you wish to marry in that district. The Superintendent Registrar or Registrar in Northern Ireland then issues authority for the marriage and you may marry in any Register Office or local authority approved premises in any district.

If either you or your partner is from overseas, special rules may apply when giving notice to marry. If so, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by e-mail, click on nearest CAB.

In the period between the notice of intention to marry and the ceremony, anyone with strong grounds for objecting to the marriage can do so. Making a false statement is a criminal offence.

In England and Wales, both partners must be resident in England or Wales for seven days before notice is given (on the eighth day). A notice must state where the marriage is to take place. The marriage can then take place after 15 days have elapsed from the date on which notice of the marriage is entered in the marriage notice book. The fee for giving notice of the marriage is £30 per person. There is no requirement for the 15 day notice period if the one of the partners has been issued with a gender recognition certificate and was previously the civil partner of the person who they wish to marry. In this case, notice of the marriage and the marriage itself can happen on the same day.

In Northern Ireland, a marriage licence is called a marriage schedule. Couples do not need to have been resident in the country before getting married, provided they apply for notice from the General Register Office.

If you and your partner are visiting Northern Ireland to be married and are citizens of a country that is not a member of the European Economic Area, you may need to enclose special documentation.

Couples must submit their completed marriage notice forms and any other relevant documents to the Registrar of Marriages in the district where the marriage is to take place.

It is normal to give eight weeks notice. However, you can give a minimum of 14 days notice, although this may mean that the wedding ceremony will have to be postponed. The registrar will issue a marriage schedule. You won’t be able to get married without this. If you are having a religious ceremony, this must take place within 14 days of receiving the schedule. In addition to this, the schedule must be signed at the religious ceremony by the person performing the marriage.

The marriage must take place within 12 months from the date of entry of the notice (three months if one of you is housebound, detained or resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland). If the marriage does not take place within that time, the process must be repeated.

Procedure for marrying

You and your partner will be asked for certain information when giving notice of your intention to marry. Giving false information is a criminal offence. The information which may be required is:-

• evidence of name and address
• evidence of date of birth
• if one partner has been married before or in a civil partnership, documentary evidence that the marriage or civil partnership has ended, for example, a death certificate or decree absolute. Uncertified photocopies are not accepted. A certified copy of a decree absolute may be obtained from the court which decided the divorce. This can take about a week
• evidence of nationality.

A variety of documents can be used as evidence of the information required, but a passport, travel document or birth certificate is usually sufficient. You should contact the register office where you’re getting married for more specific advice on what they will accept.

People from overseas may be asked to show their passports. There is no legal requirement to show a passport before getting married and instead, they can produce a birth certificate (accompanied by a certified translation if necessary), an affidavit or other personal identity document.

If the registrar believes that a person is entering or has entered into a marriage for immigration purposes, the registrar has a duty to report this to the Home Office Border and Immigration Agency. The registrar must provide the Home Office Border and Immigration Agency with certain information, including the marital status and nationality of the person.

The marriage ceremony in the local Register Office or local authority approved premises will take approximately 10-15 minutes. The Superintendent Registrar or Registrar in Northern Ireland will make a short statement about marriage; you can ask the registrar beforehand to indicate what form of words will be used. It is not possible to use religious words in the civil ceremony. However, the ceremony may include readings, songs or music that contain reference to a god as long as they are in an ‘essentially non-religious context’.

Each partner is required to repeat a standard set of promises. These may not be changed, but may be added to, as long as the additions are not religious. Rings are not required but can be exchanged if the couple wishes to.

After the ceremony, the marriage register is signed by both partners. Two witnesses, who must be over 16, must also sign at the time of the marriage. Witnesses must understand the language of the ceremony and have the mental capacity to understand the nature of the ceremony. Register Office staff are not allowed to act as witnesses.

Before signing the register, you should check the information in the entry is correct. It is possible to get incorrect information in the register on marriage certificates changed if there is proof that the errors were notified at the time of the marriage. When trying to correct information at a later stage, you will have to explain in writing how the incorrect information came to be recorded at the time of the marriage and may need to provide documentary evidence to prove any statements. The process may take a long time.

A fee must be paid for the ceremony. A certified copy of the entry in the register may be obtained at the time of the marriage for a fee. Additional copies may be obtained for a further fee.

For details of the fees, contact your local Register Office or Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your local CAB, including those that can give e-mail advice, click on nearest CAB.”

The Ipswich Registry Office can be found at:

St Peter House
16 Grimwade Street
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP4 1LP

Open 9am -4pm weekdays

map

If you are planning on having your wedding at the Registry Office in Ipswich and need a photographer to cover your wedding – then contact me today at my wedding photography website.

Here is an excellent article from the “weddingsbyzoelingard“‘ blog.

Over the last few weeks as I’ve been thinking about 2008 and going over each of our weddings with a fine tooth comb, I’ve been considering the traditional timings of group and portrait photography at weddings. Most couples tend to arrange for these kind of photos during their drinks reception but there are a number of reasons why this doesn’t work perfectly and so I’ve been wondering whether taking pictures of the bride and groom together prior to the ceremony (as is frequently done in the US and elsewhere) is actually a better alternative.

Very often group and portrait photography is the first thing to overrun at weddings and although keeping to time might sound simple, invariably it is not. Following the ceremony, couples are excited to see their guests and reluctant to leave the party just as it’s getting started whilst guests begin to disperse themselves across the venue.  Ensuring ushers get the right people in the right place at the right time can be a tricky exercise (especially when they don’t know who’s who) and asking a friend to bellow out the names of those needed for each shot is functional but can give your wedding a school-trip meets boot camp feel.

Taking time for some photography before the ceremony not only means you bypass all of these problems but you also gain some significant benefits:

•    You’re photographed looking your absolute best, sans smudged eyeliner and crumpled buttonholes.
•    You get to spend the entire of your drinks reception chatting to your guests and soaking up the atmosphere rather than watching from afar as all the champagne gets guzzled.
•    Your drinks reception will be more relaxed and enjoyable as you’ll be free from the worry that you need to get those all-important shots before dinner is served.
•    You’ll get better photographs. Not only can you dedicate longer to getting some really creative images, without the pressure of time you’ll be more relaxed so look better and happier in the shots.
•    Your drinks reception needn’t be hours long in order to accommodate a long photo session; you reduce the risk of bored guests and a flat atmosphere.
•    You get the chance to start celebrations early, spending some quality time with your closest friends and family before the ceremony.

The major drawback to scheduling photography prior to the ceremony is that the first time you see each other won’t be as the bride walks down the aisle. However, this needn’t mean loosing the magic of seeing each other for the first time and does in fact have its own advantages. Seeing each other prior to the ceremony means you get the chance to talk to each other, calming your nerves and giving you the chance to really soak up the ‘we’re getting married feeling’ without being distracted by the wedding planning or ceremony proceedings.

Meeting each other before the ceremony needn’t be a negative thing either – you can make it into a really special moment, perhaps meet somewhere really special or get the chance for 5 minutes alone.

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Good advice there.

I’ve have shot a number of weddings where the classic images were shot before the ceremony. Obviously it’s not everyones cup of tea, but if you are worried about the timing of your wedding day, it’s something to consider when discussing your plans with your wedding photographer.

It’s always at the forefront of my mind, that the bride and groom should be as relaxed as possible on their big day. Please give me a call or drop me a line if you have any questions about hiring a suffolk photographer.

No doubt by now you’ve visit tons of bridal sites, read hundreds of magazines and been confronted by a whole heap of hints and tips regarding sourcing your wedding photograper.

They are all full of great advice about what your photographer should do on your wedding day, but offer scant advice as to what they shouldn’t do. There is one very very important thing that no proper wedding photographer should ever do under any circumstances at all.

Take over your wedding.

You don’t want a photographer who will treat you and your guests like cattle, you want someone who works in conjunction with you to create beautiful images on your wedding day.

It’s one of my proudest claims that I often hear from couples who use my services that their guests didn’t even know a professional photographer was at the wedding. I like to work around all the events and moments of the day, not stage manage them to suit my needs.  Some photographers feel their role at a wedding is to create some sort of universe where they are the centre and everything revolves around them. You very rarely hear magazines and websites warn against this type of photographer who can spoil your day.

From the first moment you contact me with a view to shooting your wedding photos I make it my number one priority to set you at ease, not only with myself but with the process of hiring a professional wedding photographer. Something most of us will only do once in our lifetimes.

The trick to getting the best wedding photographs you can is to be comfortable with the photographer. If he or she is a bossy boots who wants to dictate everything, then no matter how good they are, they are going to rub you the wrong way, and an unhappy bride is NOT what we are after here!

The rapport I have with my clients is one of the things that helps set my work apart from other wedding photographers in Suffolk. I make sure that you are at ease with the process of having your pictures taken and I can promise you that I will never treat you or your guests like cattle.

You wedding is a once in a lifetime event and you should enjoy every moment of it, including having me take wonderful images of you and your loved ones enjoying the day.

Something brides quite often ask me is – ‘what happens if it rains on my wedding day?’

Now that Autumn is on it's way and soon we will be in the winter, the weather is playing more of a role in planning for your wedding day. While everyone knows that the “Great British Summer” isn’t exactly the most stable of weather periods, people are less worried then about the chances of it being rainy on their wedding day.

Brides are naturally worried that if it rains on their wedding day that they won’t have any good images of themselves. After all, we generally picture sunny days and blue skies when we think of outdoor wedding photography.

A ‘proper’ professional will be able to answer any concerns you might have regarding the weather and how it will effect your images. Part of a professionals skill is to take conditions that aren’t all that favourable and turn them to the bridal couples advantage.  I have shot some wonderful images at weddings when the light has faded behind a huge cloud, or the wind has picked up and the rain has come down. Rather than throw my hands up in horror, I use the weather and create images that have a wonderful mood and feel to them.

A good example of this is rain.

I think it’s safe to say that most brides (if not ALL brides) would prefer it if it didn’t rain on their wedding day! The natural reaction is to move indoors and forget the outdoors photography. Granted, if the heavens have opened and it’s raining the proverbial cats and dogs, it may be a good idea to seek some shelter, but if it’s a light rain – crack out the brollies, chuck on some wellies and before you know it, you’ll have pictures from your wedding like no other! Another thing to consider is that after it has rained, colours are so much more vibrant – especially during autumn when the leaves are those wonderful shades of reds, yellows, golds, and oranges.

Just last week I was shooting a wedding at the Bury St Edmunds registry office here in Suffolk and the weather played a part in creating some amazing images.

Emily and Rory had booked me to cover their wedding. It was a lovely intimate affair, just themselves, family and the kids. For those of you who don’t know, the registry office in Bury St Edmunds is behind the cathedral and looks onto the Abbey Gardens. An amazing mix of wonderful trees, a whole range of buildings from Norman, Tudor and Victorian times and of course the Abbey itself. All in all, a perfect venue for wedding photography.

Unfortunately the weather decided that it was going to treat us all to a dull, grey day with persistent drizzle.  Not exactly the most ideal conditions that any bride has ever wished for. I knew that the weather was going to be like this all day so I arrived at the venue about an hour before I was supposed to to scout around and see what alternative plans I could make for the bride and grooms wedding photos.  Obviously I could shoot pictures indoors at the registry office, but I did want to try and incorporate some of the awesome backdrops into their album.

Taking that little bit of extra preparation paid off as I wandered around a corner that I hadn’t been round before and found an absolutely awesome Victorian doorway and staircase. Perfect as it was not only a fantastic setting, but also afforded the bride and groom some cover from the incessant rain while I shot beautiful pictures of them. Luckily my camera is what’s called ‘weather sealed’ – i.e it won’t freak out by being rained upon – unlike most lower end cameras, and I can be drip dried

When we got round to moving outdoors for the wedding photos, it was still raining, so I took Emily and Rory to my new ’secret’ venue along with some umbrellas and we got to shooting. It was great, the doorway and staircase framed them perfectly, the alcove kept them dry (no bride wants to have her hair get wet!) and the brollies provided a fun prop for them to play with.

All in all, a success.

If you’d like to know more about how to get the best wedding photographer in Suffolk, clicky click!