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How the process works

1. You give notice by completing an application for both parties.
2. You pay the application fee.
3. The registry verifies your payment.
4. Your notice is published for 21 days so that anyone with a lawful reason to object may do so.
5. If no objection is upheld, your marriage is approved and the ceremony is scheduled.
6. After the ceremony, the registry records the marriage and issues your certificate.

You can follow all of this from the track your application page.

Saving and coming back later

You do not have to finish in one sitting. Each step is saved as you complete it, and we email you a link that brings you straight back to your application.

That link expires after 72 hours. You can ask for a new one at any time from the resume an application page. Links are cancelled if the contact email on the application changes, so a link sent to an old address stops working.

An application that is never submitted is deleted after 30 days.

Photographs

Each person needs one passport photograph. The requirements, and the reason they are stated in pixels rather than inches, are on the what you will need page.

Photographs are checked before they are stored, and information your camera embedded — including the location where the picture was taken — is removed. We keep the photograph itself and nothing else from the file.

Paying the fee

The fee has not been published yet — please contact the registry for the current amount. Your marriage date is held for you for 72 hours after you submit; if the fee is not paid in that time, the date is released to other applicants.

A payment is not treated as made because your browser said so. The registry confirms it independently, which is why a payment may show as pending for a short time after you have paid.

Published notices

Once your payment is confirmed, a notice of your intended marriage is published for 21 days. You can see every notice currently on display on the published notices page. Notices are removed from public display when their period ends.

Objecting to a notice

Anyone may object to a published notice while it is on display. Open the notice from the published notices page and use the form on it. You will need to give your name, a way of contacting you, and the grounds for your objection.

An objection is reviewed by a registry officer, who records a decision and the reasoning for it. A marriage cannot be approved while an objection is undetermined.

What we publish about you

A published notice shows:

• Both names and photographs.
• The proposed date of the marriage.
• The notice reference and the dates it is on display.

It does not show, and the public pages never expose:

• Your address.
• Your telephone number or email address.
• Your identification number.
• Anything about your payment.

Where our place names come from

The countries, states, local government areas and towns you can choose from come in part from GeoNames, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. If a place you need is missing, type it into the box beside the list — what you type is kept exactly as you write it.

If something goes wrong

If a page shows an error, it will give you a reference. Quote that reference when you contact us and we can find exactly what happened.

You can reach the registry on the contact page.