To be legally married in the UK, you must fulfil the following requirements:

• You and your partner must be 16 years old or over. In England and Wales, if either one of you is under 18, written consent to the marriage must be obtained from your parents or legal guardian.
• You must not be closely related.
• The marriage must take place in premises where marriage can be legally solemnised. These include register offices, premises that have been given a civil licence by the local authority, parish churches of the Church of England and other churches that have been registered by the Register General for worship and marriage. There are exceptions for military marriages or for those who are detained, or housebound.
• The ceremony must take place in the presence of a superintendent registrar, a registrar or an authorised person.
• The ceremony must take place between 8am and 6pm (except for Jews and the Society of Friends).
• Two witnesses must be present to witness the ceremony.
• You must both be free and eligible to marry.

Marrying abroad

Legal requirements vary widely for marriages abroad, so be sure you know exactly what you need to have. Also bear in mind that it can take months to organise the paperwork for an overseas wedding. The good news is, though, that if your marriage is considered legal in the country in which it was contracted, then it will be recognised in the UK.

For handmade wedding invitations that are as gorgeous as you are, look no further than The Designer Card Company - experts in personalised wedding stationery design.  A whole matching suite of designer wedding stationery is available, so what are you waiting for?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 8:01 am and is filed under Wedding News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.