Marriage

Arranging a civil marriage

Civil marriages can take place at a number of venues in Wirral:

Fees for certificates, notice of marriage and corrections are statutory charges set by the Registrar General for England and Wales. You can view these on the GOV.UK website.

Booking a marriage date

All bookings and enquiries must be made by email. Customers will no longer be able to provisionally book a marriage, make a notice of marriage appointment or make marriage payments in person. 

To book please email rbdm@wirral.gov.uk with:

  • your proposed date
  • your chosen venue
  • preferred ceremony time
  • your telephone number

You can book up to two years in advance.

Booking fee

  • a £50 non-refundable booking fee is required to secure the date and time
  • this fee is not a deposit and is not removed from the final balance
  • your provisional booking will be held up to 3 months before the date of your ceremony
  • once both partners have given notice, your booking will be confirmed

Statutory ceremonies at Wallasey Town Hall

Statutory marriage ceremonies are held at Wallasey Town Hall on Wednesday afternoons, every 20 minutes between 1:30pm and 3pm (subject to availability).

To book, email rbdm@wirral.gov.uk with:

  • your proposed date
  • preferred time
  • your telephone number

Venue information

Wallasey Town Hall is a Grade II listed building. It was built from sandstone between 1914 and 1916 and is a landmark well known for its wide stone steps leading down towards the River Mersey with views across to the Three Graces in Liverpool. Within the building, the entrance hall from Brighton Street is marble with a large traditional feature staircase with galleried landing, which is just one of the places you will be able to have photographs taken.

This type of ceremony is a simple administrative process for you to be legally married. It takes place in the statutory ceremony room, located on the ground level in the register office, which is a working office.

Statutory ceremony fees

  • £68.50 statutory ceremony fee (non-refundable and non-transferable)
  • £50.00 provisional booking fee (non-refundable, non-transferable fee which doesn’t come off your final balance) to secure a date and time for a statutory ceremony
  • £100 additional fee if you would like to bring up to 10 guests (including witnesses)

Each couple is allowed only one witness each over the age of 16. Office staff are unable to act as witnesses. There is no provision for music, or ceremony embellishment. 

Giving Notice of Marriage

Notice of intention to form a marriage must be completed through your local council 4 to 5 months before your ceremony. Once notice is given, the date and time of the marriage will be confirmed.

We are dealing with an extremely high volume of emails to book notice of intention to marry-civil partnership appointments. We are prioritising marriages and civil partnerships taking place in the next 6 months. Please only email if your marriage date is within 6 months.

Include in your email:

  • full names
  • date of marriage
  • venue
  • contact numbers

Notice Fees

  • £84 per couple (£42 per person) and is in addition to the £68.50 ceremony fee

If you or your partner do not have the appropriate immigration status the Home Office will automatically be notified, the notice period could be extended to 70 days while they investigate. The notice fee is £114 per couple. The government website provides information about this.

Documents you will need

When you give your notice of marriage you will need to provide a number of documents:

  • a passport (or a birth certificate if a passport is not available)
  • if you were born after 1 January 1983 and you are providing a birth certificate you must also provide your mother’s birth certificate
  • proof of address (a current driving licence, a current council tax bill, bank statement dated no more than one month before the date of notice or a utility bill dated no more than three months before the date of notice)
  • if either party has been in a marriage or civil partnership previously, you will need to provide evidence of the dissolution (a certified copy of the decree absolute)
  • if either party is widowed, you will need to produce a certified copy of the death certificate
  • special rules apply if one or both partners are subject to Immigration Control

For marriage ceremonies at council venues, and approved marriage and civil partnership venues

Marriage certificates will be processed by the Register Office within seven working days and posted out to the couple.

For marriages in religious buildings (including The Church of England)

Couples are expected to return the signed schedule to the Register Office in the District where the marriage took place within 21 days.

For marriages that took place in Wirral, an online application will need to be completed and payment made for the number of certificates required. The Register Office will then process the marriage certificates within seven working days from the date of application.

Marriage authorities can no longer be used from Tuesday 4 May 2021.

If the certificates for marriage (blue authorities) have already been collected before Tuesday 4 May 2021 then couples will need to arrange replace these with a marriage schedule.

EU Settle Status, EU Pre-Settled Status, pending application for EU Settled Status

In addition to the documents listed above, if you have applied for EU settled status (EUSS) you will need to prove this by:

  • providing the unique code generated when you applied, you can access your code by visiting “view and prove your immigration status” on GOV.UK
  • the code is only available to those people who have EU settled or EU pre-settled status
  • you must provide this code at the time of your notice of marriage appointment
  • please note, the code is only valid for 30 days
  • if you have a pending application for EUSS you must provide your certificate of application (this can be a paper or digital document)

If you are not a British or Irish citizen and do not hold EUSS status

You must both attend together to give your notice of marriage at the register office in the district in which one or both or you reside. 
You should check on GOV.UK to see what documents you can provide to prove your immigration status, such as “Indefinite leave to Enter or Remain" on GOV.UK

If you are entering the UK to marry or form a civil partnership you must check with UKVI that you have the correct visa. This would normally be a marriage or civil partnership visa.

You will both need to provide passport photographs if one or both of you do not have Indefinite leave to enter or Indefinite leave to remain.

If you do not have the appropriate immigration status you will be referred to the Home Office under the referral and investigation scheme and your notice period could be extended to 70 days.

Special licences

If you or your partner has a terminal illness it is possible to get a licence to marry or form a civil partnership very quickly without having to give the usual statutory notices.

Call 0151 606 2020 for more information.

Marriage registration changes

From 4 May 2021, The Marriages, Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Death (Registration Etc) Act 2019 changed how we register marriages.

Paper marriage registers and certificates were replaced by marriage schedules and electronic registrations. Couples will no longer receive a marriage certificate on the day of the marriage.

At the marriage ceremony, couples will sign a marriage schedule (an A4 document). Couples can include up to four parents in the schedule and subsequently on their marriage certificate, that is, Mother, Father, Stepmother, Stepfather.