Planning your civil partnership ceremony
1. Choosing a venue
Congratulations on your civil partnership!
At Wakefield Registration and Celebratory Services, we aim to provide all the information you need to begin planning your special day, whether it's in one of our Ceremony Rooms or an Approved Venue.
Either way, we have many wonderful venues to suit your needs.
Choosing the venue for your civil partnership will be one of the most important decisions you will make.
Do you want a small, intimate ceremony with just yourself, your partner, and two witnesses?
Maybe you want a big ceremony, to celebrate with all your family and friends?
Not sure what to ask?
Planning you ceremony can be daunting right from the get go. To help with this we've made a list of useful questions for you to ask potential venues, so you can make the right first step, and get the best out of your big day!
2. Reserve your ceremony date
What is a Registrar?
A Registrar (also known as a Civil Registration Officer or Deputy Superintendent Registrar, Deputy Registrar) is a person appointed to legally perform and record marriages and civil partnerships. These take place at Approved Marriage and Civil Partnership venues in the Wakefield district.
What is a Celebrant?
A Celebrant is an independent person who performs non-legal ceremonies in any location.
Celebrate your ceremony with us
At Wakefield our team of Registrars are trained to not only provide a legally binding marriage or civil partnership. They can also provide bespoke, personalised ceremonies that are unique to you as a couple.
Our only restriction is that civil ceremonies cannot be religious in nature. Therefore we are unable to include hymns, prayers or other religious rituals or symbols.
Once you have chosen your venue you need to book a ceremony date and time using our online booking form. Your booking will be confirmed within 5 days of submitting the form.
You can also use this form to reschedule an existing booking.
For information about Relevant and Foreign Nationals, please see the first page of the reserve or reschedule your ceremony form. This information can also be found on our Giving Notice of Marriage or Civil Partnership page here.
Please see the following link for more information if it applies to your situation:
3. Give notice of civil partnership
Once you've confirmed your ceremony booking, the next step is to give notice of your ceremony, which is a legal requirement.
All terms and conditions for giving your notice of your ceremony are covered on the first page of the form. Please read these carefully before completing the rest of the form. Please also note the form will take around 20 minutes to complete and make an appointment.
Please see the following links for information if they apply to your situation:
For more information on giving notice, please see our Giving Notice of Marriage or Civil Partnership page.
Once you have given notice of your ceremony, we will send/issue you our Ceremony Guide, which will include our ceremony arrangement form and help you plan your day.
These will be covered in more detail in the next step of the process: personalising your ceremony!
4. Personalise your ceremony
Now that you've given notice of your ceremony, it's time for the fun part: figuring out the details of your special day!
You can choose the music, readings, poems, or stories that you'd like to hear. You might want to perform a ring warming, or combine sand.
Civil partnership information
Please use our civil partnership ceremony guide to help you plan your day.
Statutory ceremony appointment card
Information to consider
Your provisional ceremony booking is confirmed when you have both given your notice of civil partnership.
The Registrar will provide you with a guide for your ceremony at your appointment to give notice. If you live outside Wakefield and give notice in another District we will send a guide to you in the post when we receive confirmation that you have given notice at your local Register Office. The guide provides all the information you need in respect of your ceremony.
We provide you with many opportunities to enhance and personalise your ceremony so that it is unique to you. You can include personal vows, readings, and music. You can share your story, how you met, and your shared hopes and aspirations. You can also choose to combine sands, which symbolizes the two of you and your families joining together as one. If there is anything additional to this that you would like to include in your ceremony please contact our Ceremonies Co-ordinator by email at: ceremonies@wakefield.gov.uk.
If at this point you would like to meet a dedicated member of our ceremonies team to discuss all aspects of your marriage ceremony, you can learn more about our bespoke ceremony meetings here.
Your ceremony will be delivered by a qualified, experienced, and dedicated Registrar.
Bespoke ceremony meeting
You can also contact our registrars team at ceremonies@wakefield.gov.uk, or book a bespoke ceremony meeting to discuss the ceremony arrangement form, or any other details with us.
5. About paying for your ceremony
Once you have decided on the content of your ceremony and the people you will involve, you will need to complete the ceremony arrangement form and make payment.
You can find more information about pricing on our Paying for your ceremony page, but here’s an overview:
- non-refundable booking fee – a fee to secure your ceremony date and time
- notice of civil partnership fee – a statutory fee for each person to give their notice of intention to marry
- ceremony fee – is subject to the venue, day and time of your ceremony
- certificate fee – statutory fee of £12.50 for each certificate you require
- postage fee – fee to send certificates purchased, by first class signed for post after the ceremony
All other fees contained in the paying for your wedding ceremony page are for additional non-essential services.
Your ceremony fee, certificate fee and postage fee should be paid full 8 to 10 weeks in advance of your ceremony. Payment can be made online (except for statutory ceremonies) when completing your ceremony choices.
6. Happy Couples
Want to see what other couples did for their special day?
Hear about how they used our services to celebrate their, day their way!
7. After your ceremony
Civil partnership certificate
Your civil partnership certificate will be posted to you seven to ten working days after your ceremony.
Re-registration of the birth of your child after your civil partnership
If you and your partner got married or formed a civil partnership after your baby's birth and want the birth record to show your child as part of your marriage/civil partnership, follow these steps:
- download and fill out the LA1 form
- send the form by email to wakefieldregistrars@wakefield.gov.uk or mail it to Wakefield Register Office, Wood Street, Wakefield, WF1 2HQ
- once we receive the completed form, we'll contact you to schedule an appointment. Only one parent needs to attend, bringing the signed LA1 form and required documents
- if your marriage occurred outside the UK, your application will need approval from the General Register Office. Let us know before booking your appointment
- at the appointment to re-register you can buy a new birth certificate
It is free to re-register a birth. If you wish to buy a copy of the new birth certificate, it costs £12.50 per copy.
Changes to your passport
If you are planning to amend your passport into your married name before your ceremony - to become valid on the date of your ceremony - you need to complete a standard application form along with a form PD2 which you can obtain:
- from any Post Office that offers a check send
service - from any regional passport office
- by calling His Majesty’s Passport Office
- passport advice line on 0300 222 0000 who will send it to you
- by downloading it from the www.gov.uk website
Please note: the new passport will be dated to become valid on the day of your ceremony and therefore cannot be used before. Similarly, when His Majesty’s Passport Office cancels your old passport, any visas on that passport may become invalid.
There is also a leaflet (PD1) entitled ‘Passports for Newly Weds and Civil Partners’, which explains exactly what to do. After you have completed your section of the PD2 form, the Superintendent Registrar will also need to complete part of the form. Please contact our office to book an appointment.
If you decide to change your name on your passport after your marriage, you need only complete and send a standard application form along with the required documents to His Majesty’s Passport Office. The form PD2 is not required.
Name change after civil partnership ceremony
To change your name after your marriage ceremony, please view the guidance page on gov.uk here.
Give us feedback from your ceremony
If you'd like to give us feedback from your civil partnership ceremony, please visit our customer feedback, consultations, and news page.