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Ceremony planning guide

Five easy steps to planning your wedding

With so much to think about, planning a wedding can be stressful. If you are considering having your marriage or civil partnership ceremony in Nottinghamshire, we've put together this brief five-step guide to help you plan your hassle-free day. 

There are a variety of options to choose from in Nottinghamshire with nine ceremony rooms across five registration offices and over 60 licensed venues to suit all styles and budgets. For more information you can either:

In order to book your ceremony with the Nottinghamshire Registration Service you must:  

As part of the legal formalities, you must each give notice of your intention to marry or form a civil partnership. 

  • If you live in Nottinghamshire, you can do this at one of our registration offices.
  • If you live outside of Nottinghamshire, you will need to make an appointment with your local registration office [GOV.UK].
  • You can give notice up to one year in advance of your ceremony date (we recommend at least three months before).
  • Once you have given notice, there is a minimum waiting period of 28 consecutive days before the ceremony can take place (this can be longer, dependent on your circumstances).

For more information on giving notice, visit our giving notice page.

Visit our civil ceremony payments page for more information on: 

  • paying your civil ceremony balance, pre-order marriage or civil partnership certificate and order extras
  • booking your ceremony rehearsal discussion.

You can also browse our suppliers page for a list of local wedding suppliers. 

Approximately two months before your ceremony is the time to finalise and check all arrangements:

Why not book a ceremony rehearsal discussion to agree any personalisation such as personal vows, readings, music and finalise all the details?

Your final choices should be decided before attending this rehearsal discussion as it may not be possible to accommodate late requests. 

If attending a ceremony rehearsal discussion please bring your completed ceremony choices sheet, which will either have been given to you at your notice appointment (if you live in Nottinghamshire) or sent to you if notice was given elsewhere. 

Also, don't forget these final ceremony considerations on the day