How Much Does It Cost to Get Married at a Register Office?
Weddings · 7 min read · By Kaushik Bathia · Updated 2026-07-30
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Key takeaways
- The legal minimum to marry in England and Wales is about £127: a £57 statutory ceremony plus £35 per person to give notice.
- A marriage certificate is £11 per copy and is not included in the ceremony fee.
- Statutory ceremonies are the cheapest option but come with real restrictions, often a set room, a set day and very few guests.
- Larger register office ceremony rooms and weekend dates cost considerably more, in some councils several hundred pounds.
- Fees are set by each local council, so always check your own register office rather than relying on a national figure.
Getting legally married in England and Wales costs about £127 at the absolute minimum: a £57 statutory ceremony at a register office plus £35 per person to give notice, which is £70 for the two of you. That is the floor, and very few couples pay only that, because the statutory ceremony is a deliberately basic product. Here is what each fee covers, what pushes the total up, and the costs people routinely forget.
What does a register office wedding actually cost?
The statutory ceremony fee is £57, and giving notice costs £35 per person, so a couple marrying with the bare legal minimum pays around £127. A marriage certificate is a further £11 per copy, which most couples want at least one of, taking a realistic floor to around £138. These are the fees for the legal act of marrying, and nothing else.
Fees are set locally, though, and that matters more than any national figure. Some councils charge more than £57 for a statutory ceremony, restrict it to particular weekdays, or price their larger ceremony rooms into the hundreds. Bridebook reports register office ceremonies ranging from £57 to around £100, reaching roughly £260 in some councils. Check your own register office before budgeting.
What the notice of marriage fee covers
Giving notice is a legal requirement, not an optional extra. Both of you must give notice in person at your local register office, and the fee is £35 each. The notice is then displayed publicly for a statutory waiting period before you are allowed to marry, so it has to be done well ahead of the date, not in the final weeks.
If either of you is subject to immigration control, the notice may be referred to the Home Office and both the fee and the waiting period can be higher and longer. If that applies to you, ask the register office directly rather than working from any published national figure, including this one.
Why a statutory ceremony is cheaper, and what you give up
A statutory ceremony is cheap because it is stripped back. It typically takes place in a small designated room, on days the council chooses rather than days you choose, with a strict limit on guests, sometimes as few as two witnesses. There is usually no music, no readings and no photography inside the room beyond the signing.
That is a perfectly good way to get married, and a growing number of couples do exactly this and hold the celebration separately. What it is not is a small version of a wedding day. If you want a room that seats your family, a Saturday, or any say over how the ceremony runs, you are buying the council's larger ceremony product, which is priced accordingly.
The costs people forget
The certificate is the most commonly missed one, at £11 per copy. You will need it to change names on passports, bank accounts and other records, and many couples order two. It is not issued automatically as part of the ceremony fee.
Beyond that, the ceremony fee covers the ceremony and nothing around it. Photography, flowers, a meal afterwards, transport and anything you want to wear are all separate. Couples who budget only the statutory fees are often surprised by how quickly a register office wedding stops being a £127 wedding once a lunch for twelve is added.
How far ahead do you need to book?
Further than most couples expect, because the notice of marriage carries a statutory waiting period. You cannot give notice and marry the same week, and you must have your ceremony booked before you give notice, since the notice records where the marriage will take place. In practice that means securing the ceremony slot first and then giving notice, rather than the other way round.
Popular register offices book out for Saturdays and school holidays a long way in advance, exactly as wedding venues do, while a Tuesday morning in February may be available at short notice. If the date matters more to you than the day of the week, you have far more room. If a Saturday matters, treat the register office like any other venue and book early.
Register office or approved venue?
An approved venue licensed for civil ceremonies is a different price bracket again, because you are paying the venue for the room as well as the council for the registrar's attendance. The registrar attendance fee at an external venue is set by the council and is typically several hundred pounds, on top of whatever the venue charges. The decision is usually less about money than about what you want the day to be. A register office ceremony followed by a restaurant lunch and photographs somewhere you love can be a genuinely lovely wedding for a fraction of the £20,604 UK average, and it photographs beautifully precisely because nothing about it is stretched. A register office wedding is not a smaller version of a big wedding, it is a different thing entirely, and it can be a genuinely lovely one. Fix the legal part cheaply and deliberately, then spend what you have on the part you will remember.
Related: wedding photography, what the average UK wedding costs, what a wedding photographer costs, get in touch.
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Frequently asked questions
About £127 at the legal minimum: £57 for a statutory ceremony plus £35 per person to give notice. A marriage certificate is £11 per copy on top. Fees are set by each council and larger ceremony rooms cost considerably more.
£35 per person, so £70 for a couple. Both of you must give notice in person at your local register office, and it must be done ahead of the statutory waiting period, not in the final weeks before the date.
No. A certificate costs £11 per copy and is ordered separately. You will need it to change names on passports, bank accounts and other records, so most couples order at least one and often two.
Because it is deliberately basic: a small designated room, days chosen by the council, a strict guest limit that can be as low as two witnesses, and usually no music or readings. You are paying for the legal act of marrying and nothing else.
Usually only limited photography inside the ceremony room, often just the signing. Rules vary by council, so ask yours directly. Many couples take their photographs immediately afterwards outside or at a nearby location.
At a statutory ceremony, often very few, sometimes only the two required witnesses. Larger ceremony rooms take more guests but are a different, more expensive product. Guest limits are set by the individual register office.
Considerably. At an approved venue you pay the venue for the room and the council a registrar attendance fee, typically several hundred pounds, on top of the notice fees. A register office ceremony avoids both.
These are the fees for England and Wales, and they are set by each local council so they vary. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems. Always check your own register office for current figures.
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