Getting married in the United Kingdom

Before any legal wedding

First, the visa: anyone who isn’t British, Irish or settled in the UK needs a Marriage Visitor visa to give notice and to marry — £135 each, applied for up to three months before you travel; an ETA doesn’t cover it. In Scotland you each send an M10 notice (£45) to the registrar of the district where you’ll marry, at least 29 days before — ten to twelve weeks is better — with passport, birth certificate and, if you’ve lived in the UK less than two years, a certificate from home that you’re free to marry; for a religious or humanist ceremony, one of you collects the Marriage Schedule in person in the last seven days. In England and Wales you first stay seven days in one registration district, then give notice together, in person, at its register office (£46.50 each), and marry at least 28 days later: count on five weeks in the country. In Northern Ireland, a notice each (£22) at least 28 days before — eight weeks is usual — and one of you sees the registrar before the day. Everywhere: two witnesses, translations of anything not in English, a final divorce decree — and without the right visa, the Home Office can stretch the wait to 70 days or stop the wedding.

Rules, documents and fees differ between England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, change, and depend on your nationality: always check with the register office or registrar where you’ll give notice — or, for a religious or humanist wedding, with your celebrant — with UK Visas and Immigration for the visa, and, for photos at a heritage site or in a royal park, with the site, before you set a date.