Legal paperwork

Under 18

To be legally married, or enter into a civil partnership, in England or Wales you must now be 18 or over.

Urgent Legal Ceremonies

The Registrar General can authorise an urgent marriage or civil partnership, at a place where ceremonies cannot normally take place (e.g. a hospital or at home), when one party:

1. is seriously ill and not expected to recover, and
2. cannot be moved to a place registered for marriages and civil partnerships

This is an emergency provision that allows a ceremony to take place at short notice, 24 hours a day. Legal paperwork must still be completed.

Please contact the register office on 01325 406400 during office hours for more information. For urgent out of hours advice only, please call 07932 538910.

Passports and name change

On the day of your wedding after signing the Marriage Register your will be provided with two marriage certificates, the fees for which are included in the quoted ceremony fees.

These certificates are proof or evidence of the marriage and you should keep them safe. You may be asked to produce this certificate to notify people that you have been married providing them with an update of your current legal status.

Following the marriage you have a number of options in how express your surname:

• You can both keep your individual names as they were prior to the marriage (you are not obliged to change your name because you have become married).
• One of you can change your surname to that of the other (the bride most often changes her name to that of the groom but the groom may change his name to the bride's).
• One or both of you can change your name to a double barrelled version of the two surnames.

The marriage certificate should be sufficient evidence as an entitlement to use any of the surnames or combination of the surnames of the bride and groom. There is therefore no need to do a deed poll following a marriage if you are intending to use a surname or combination of surnames of the parties to the marriage.

If you are changing your name on a passport you can change your name after the marriage or up to 3 months before the marriage.