Organise a marriage or civil partnership
On this page
Overview
If you’re planning to get married or form a civil partnership in England or Wales, you’ll need to:
- book the ceremony at your chosen venue
- give notice of marriage
By law, you must both give notice of marriage or civil partnership. This is a formal declaration. Without it, you won’t be able to get married or form your civil partnership.
Before you start
Check if you can get married or form a civil partnership.
There are different rules for religious ceremonies, ceremonies in other parts of the UK or overseas, and non-UK nationals.
When to give notice
You’ll need to allow at least 30 days between giving notice and holding your ceremony.
Notices expire after 12 months. If you don’t marry or form your partnership during that time, you’ll need to give notice (and pay) again.
How to give notice
To give notice in Walsall, you must both have lived in the borough for at least seven days. You must include the name of your venue on the notice of marriage, so you’ll need arrange that first.
You’ll need to book an appointment to give notice. There’s a fee for this.
We'll ask you questions about your nationality, where you live, and if you’ve been married before. You’ll need to bring all the evidence for your answers to your appointment.
We need to collect this information to complete legal preliminaries.
Fees and how to pay
You can pay by card over the phone. We'll take your payment when you call to make your appointment.
You can cancel your appointment up to two working days before with no penalty. If you cancel it any later, or if you don’t turn up for your appointment, you’ll lose your fee.
Contact us by email or phone if you need to cancel your appointment.
If you change your venue after giving notice, you’ll need to start the process again and pay another fee.
What happens at your appointment
You’ll need to present your supporting documents and answer questions about yourself, your partner and your parents.
You’ll need to bring evidence of your name, date of birth and nationality.
They should be the original printed documents. We can’t accept photocopies, scans or information on a mobile device.
If you don’t bring all the evidence required, you’ll need to book another appointment and pay again.
You can find the list of acceptable documents on gov.uk.
The questions will be about your name, age, nationality, where you live and what you do. We’ll also ask about the person you’re marrying or forming a civil partnership with.
We will ask you and your partner separately. No-one else can give notice on your behalf, it must be done in person.
We will ask for the full names and occupations of your parents. They can be your birth parents, step-parents or adoptive parents. This is for family history purposes.
We will need their names and former occupations if they are retired or deceased.
If your ceremony is in Scotland, Northern Ireland or abroad
You don’t need to book an appointment with us. Find out more about getting married or forming a civil partnership:
If you’re from outside the UK or Ireland
You’ll need to make sure you’ve got the right visa before you book an appointment to give notice.
What happens next
When you’ve given notice, we will display the details on our public notice board for 28 days. This is a statutory waiting period.
If there are no legal objections during this time, we will issue a schedule for marriage.
If you’re marrying at a licensed venue in Walsall your schedule will be taken to the venue on the day of your ceremony.
For all other ceremonies, we'll post the schedule to you. You'll need to take it to the authorised person at the religious venue where your marriage will take place.
