Marriage and civil partnership bookings terms and conditions

Civil marriage and civil partnership (hereafter 'event') bookings

Effective for all Civil Marriages & Civil Partnership ceremonies booked from 1 April 2023

Your event booking is accepted on the condition that:

No legal impediment exists;
Legal civil preliminaries (Giving Notice) are duly completed, as required by statute;
Any foreign divorce/dissolution papers are accepted by the General Register Office (GRO), where appropriate; and
All fees due are paid in full.

Civil marriage and civil partnership pre-event interview

It is our legal duty to verify the information to be entered into the legal record of the marriage or civil partnership immediately prior to the event. East Sussex Registration will require both parties to the event to be interviewed separately, on the date of your event, and at the venue booked for the event. Interview times are as follows:

Where the event is taking place at one of our Register Offices, party 1 should arrive 20 minutes before the start time of your event, and party 2 should arrive 10 minutes before the start time of your event.
Where the event is taking place at a licensed venue, party 1 should be available 30 minutes before the start time of your event, and party 2 should be available 15 minutes before the start time of your event.

Any exceptions to the above will only be considered in extenuating circumstances and will be at the discretion of East Sussex Registration.

Fees

Fees must be paid in full at the time of booking:

We will accept your booking at the price subsisting on the date you make the booking, regardless of the date of your event. We will accept bookings for any date up to 3 years into the future from the date you make your booking. We regret that we are unable to accept bookings more than 3 years into the future.
When you make your booking, we will include in the price we charge you the cost of 2 marriage/civil partnership certificates and 1 commemorative certificate. If you would like these to be removed from your booking please inform us and we will be happy to do so.
Fees are subject to change on 1st April each year.
All our current fees are detailed on our fee pages.

Postponement, cancellation and refunds

View this page to see how we manage changes, cancellations, and refunds for ceremony bookings.

Cancellation of a booking by East Sussex Registration

Your event will be cancelled if:

Civil preliminaries have not been, or cannot be, completed in good time.

Liability

East Sussex Registration will not accept liability for:

The failure of any music provided by you or a third party;
Any delay or loss caused by your late arrival;
Any loss caused by a request from you or your representatives to delay the event; or
Any loss or compensation where an event is stopped from proceeding because
- It would be void if it went ahead; or
- An offence under the Marriage or Civil Partnership Acts would be committed; or
- Where it would be against the public interest for the event to proceed.

Licensed venues

Approval of the venue is granted only in connection with the provision of Civil Marriages and Civil Partnerships. East Sussex Registration cannot accept liability for the failure or neglect on behalf of the venue, of any agreement between you and the venue, and for the use or provision of any service and/or facilities at the venue.

Room capacity

For fire safety and comfort, if the number of guests exceeds the capacity of the room which is stipulated in the venue's licence, some guests may need to be excluded from the event.

Registration staff

East Sussex Registration will allocate registrars to attend your event and reserves the right to change which registrars will attend any particular event in case of absence or other unforeseen circumstances.

Civil marriage and civil partnership content

East Sussex Registration will provide registrars to conduct your event:

We will not use scripts provided by other sources.
These events may be personalised to include music, readings and additional vows, and whilst every effort will be made to include these within the event, please remember that the event must remain ‘solemn and dignified’ by law and must contain no religious content or reference.
East Sussex Registration will make the final decision on any wording that is used and will not accept liability for any omission which may be caused by reasons beyond its control.
Religious blessings may not be included as part of the event and any such blessing following the event must be separate and may only take place after the registrars have left the room.
East Sussex Registration will not be responsible for any breaches of copyright law for any music or readings used within the event.

Timings

The time booked for the event is the time the event must commence:

If the event should commence late East Sussex Registration reserves the right to amend or shorten the event in order to reduce its duration.
- Should the event not be ready to start by 20 minutes after the scheduled start time, and the delay is not the fault of East Sussex Registration, we reserve the right to defer the event until later that day, or cancel the event if there is no registrar availability. Where the event is cancelled in such circumstances fees are non-refundable.
East Sussex Registration reserves the right to charge an additional fee to cover its reasonable costs if the event takes place more than 20 minutes after its scheduled start time.
Any decision to delay the event is strictly at the discretion of East Sussex Registration.

Animals

East Sussex Registration does not permit animals or wildlife within Register Offices, except for registered assistance dogs.

If an approved venue permits a couple to have animals or wildlife at the event, the venue is entirely responsible for the health and safety of the guests and any housekeeping issues which may arise as a result. East Sussex Registration must be informed of these arrangements in advance of the day of the event.

Force majeure

In the event of a ‘force majeure’ East Sussex Registration will endeavour to perform your event on your chosen day, but this cannot be guaranteed:

‘Force majeure’ means war, civil war, armed conflict, terrorist attack, governmental action, fire, flood, severe weather conditions, pandemic or epidemic or any other act or matter which, notwithstanding the reasonable diligence and foresight of East Sussex Registration, is beyond their reasonable control.

Insurance

We strongly recommend that you take out insurance to cover any losses.

Polling stations

Southover Grange (Lewes Register Office) and Eastbourne Town Hall are registered polling stations. If we become aware of an election or referendum on the date you have booked your event, we will give you the option to amend your date at no additional cost (subject to availability) or cancel with a full refund of all fees.