Your ceremony

Your ceremony will be in either a register office in Westmorland and Furness or in an approved premises in Westmorland and Furness.

A register office ceremony

To make sure everything runs to time on the day, please arrive at the register office on the day of your ceremony 30 minutes before your start time.

The ceremony is conducted by the superintendent registrar and registered by the registrar. The registrar is also responsible for ensuring that all information which is to be entered into the marriage register is correct on the day.  

They will see you and your partner in private to check the details and will be happy to answer any last minute questions you may have about the ceremony or any of the other arrangements.

What you will be asked

You will each be asked:

• your full name, age, marital status, occupation and the address of your residence on the day of your marriage or civil partnership
• the full name and occupation of your parents, and whether they are retired or deceased      
• to confirm that the information is correct as this will be the information that will be recorded into the register

Witnesses

You will need to ask two people, who may be friends or relatives, if they will witness your marriage or civil partnership. Your witnesses must be old enough to understand the ceremony and their role in it, preferably over the age of 18. All they will have to do is watch and listen to the ceremony and sign the schedule. 

Should the services of an interpreter be required, please contact the superintendent registrar of the district where the marriage is to take place for advice. 

Checking and signing the schedule

Once the marriage or civil partnership vows have been exchanged, the registrar will ask you to check that your details have been correctly recorded in the marriage schedule. 

Once you are sure that everything is correct you will both be asked to sign the schedule. You should sign using the names you are using and known by at that time, not the names you will use after the ceremony. Your witnesses will then be asked to sign.

If however there are mistakes or out of date information, please let the Registrar know before you sign, and they can usually easily make the correction there and then. 

Once the Registrar has signed the document any errors identified would need to be corrected at a later date and will incur a fee so please check this carefully.  

Electronic marriage registration

As of 4 May 2021, changes were introduced to marriage registration. This provides a more secure system for keeping marriage records and allows you to add more than just your father's name to your registration.

These changes apply to marriages only and not civil partnerships. Find out more about electronic registration of marriages.

An approved premises ceremony

To arrange a wedding in an approved ceremony venue you must first contact the manager or owner of the premises of your choice to make provisional arrangements. You must then contact the registration service to check if a registration officer is able to attend your ceremony on that date and time.

Ceremonies at approved premises will follow a similar format to that in register offices, so please arrive at the venue 30 minutes before your start time. 

Please note we cannot guarantee to reach your venue during periods of extreme weather. We will however endeavour to attend as soon as it is safe to do so and regret we will not accept liability for any loss in such instances. Please take this into account when choosing the venue and date for your ceremony.

Registration service

Email: registration.service@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 373 3300

How to get a copy of your wedding or civil partnership certificate

You will not receive your marriage certificate on the day but will be asked to sign the marriage schedule. After your ceremony, you can order copies of your certificate.