Marriages & civil partnerships

If you would like to get married in Reading, contact us to request a booking on 0118 937 3533.

If you want to get married, or form a civil partnership, you must:

• be over the age of 18
• have lived in your registration district for at least nine days
• be legally free to get married
• attend a notice of marriage or civil partnership appointment at your district Register Office

You must give notice to marry or form a civil partnership at least 29 clear days before your ceremony. For further information, please see our Notices of marriage or civil partnership page.

Approved venues

List of approved venues in Reading

If you want to get another venue approved for your ceremony you should contact us. We do not usually approve open air venues or temporary structures. It should not have a religious connection and should be a public venue.

Planning the ceremony

After you have booked your marriage ceremony with us and given your notice of marriage, please complete the online marriage and civil partnership planner. You need to do this at least two weeks before the date of your ceremony. The planner helps you to decide on the style of ceremony but it also helps the Registrar to know what you want for your day.

Copy marriage or civil partnership certificate

You can only use this service for marriages or civil partnerships registered in the borough of Reading. If your marriage or civil partnership took place elsewhere, please contact the relevant local authority for information on how to order.

Copy marriage or civil partnership certificate application form

The marriage or civil partnership ceremony

In line with fire safety legislation, our ceremony room has a maximum capacity of 47. This includes the couple, witnesses and photographer.

Before the ceremony can take place, you are required to have a private interview with the Registrar, during which you will be asked to confirm/update the details given at your notice appointment. You must both arrive, to be seen together, 15 minutes prior to the start of your ceremony. 

You may wish to enter the ceremony room to music of your own choice, which must be played from your own mobile device. We have a speaker system which you can connect to via Bluetooth speaker.

During the ceremony the Registrar will ask you to repeat the declaratory words, or to sign the civil partnership schedule. If you are making additional vows or giving rings, you will be able to do this after the formal requirements have been fulfilled.

Once the marriage or civil partnership has been registered, we can issue certificates. Unfortunately due to the change in the way in which marriage and civil partnerships are registered, we are not usually able to issue certificates to you on the same day as the ceremony, so we will send your certificate out to you by post as soon as possible.

Please, note that we do not permit animals at ceremonies within the Reading Registration Service premises, except for registered assistance dogs. If an approved venue permits a couple to have animals or wildlife at the ceremony, the venue is entirely responsible for the health and safety of the guests and any housekeeping issues which may arise as a result. Please, let us know about the arrangements in advance.

Converting civil partnership into marriage

You should read the information on Gov.uk and contact the Register Office to make an appointment, if you want to convert your civil partnership to marriage.

You may want to hold a conversion ceremony where you sign a declaration, which legally converts your civil partnership into marriage. Find out more about civil partnership conversion.

Urgent or ‘deathbed’ marriages and civil partnerships

The Registrar General can authorise marriages to take place at short notice in some circumstances. This will be where one of the parties is so ill they are not expected to recover and cannot be moved to a place where a marriage could normally take place. This is known as a marriage by Registrar Generals Licence.

Please contact the Registration Service on 0118 9373533 for further advice Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm or 0118 937 3737 outside these hours.