Effective for all Statutory Civil Marriages & Civil Partnerships booked from 3 June 2024

Statutory Civil Marriage & Civil Partnership (hereafter 'event') Bookings

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.

Statutory Civil Marriage & 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 together, on the date of your event, and at the Statutory Register Office. Interview times are as follows:

• Both parties should arrive 10 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. The current statutory fee for a marriage is detailed on our page Statutory Marriage Registration and for a civil partnership is detailed on our page Civil Partnership Office Signing.
• If the statutory fee for civil marriages, civil partnerships and legal certificates increases after you have made your booking, but before the date of your event, you will be contacted to pay the difference in fees. If the fee difference hasn't been paid by the date of your event, your booking will be cancelled and a full refund issued. 
• When you make your booking, we will include in the price we charge you the cost of 2 legal 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 for statutory services are subject to change by the General Register Office at any time. Fees for commemorative certificates are subject to change on 1st April each year. 

Amendment Fees 

An amendment fee will be payable on each occasion that you change the details of your booking up until the date of your event.  This includes changing the time, date or venue of an event:

• All details changed at the same time are only subject to one amendment fee.
• Where applicable this may require an updated or additional event fees to be paid. It may also require you to complete fresh civil preliminaries (Giving Notice) if the venue changes or if there is a significant change to the date of the event.

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.

Cancellation of a booking by the couple 

If you need to cancel your event you will be required to notify us in writing.  You will receive a full refund including the costs of the legal certificates and commemorative certificate.

Any Amendment Fees will not be refunded.

Postponement of a booking by the couple

• A booking may only be postponed to the next time and date available for a statutory marriage or civil partnership. This will be treated as an ‘amendment’ and so will incur an amendment fee; as detailed above in the section entitled ‘Amendment Fees’.
• In the event of a postponement where no future date is proposed, East Sussex Registration will consider this to be a ‘cancellation’ of the booking and fees will be refunded accordingly, as detailed above in the section entitled ‘Cancellation of a booking by the couple’.

Liability

East Sussex Registration will not accept liability for:

• 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.

Room Capacity

For fire safety and comfort, strictly only the couple and 2 witnesses will be allowed. 

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.

Statutory 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.
• Only the basic legal requirements will be used for statutory civil marriage and civil partnership formations.
• Any embellishments to your event are not permitted including music, readings or ring words. 

Timings

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

• Should the event not be ready to start at the scheduled start time, and delay is not the fault of East Sussex Registration, we reserve the right to cancel the event. 
• 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 the Statutory Register Office, except for registered assistance dogs.

Force Majeure

In the event of a ‘force majeure’ East Sussex Registration will endeavour to perform your event on the next available day and time for statutory marriages and civil partnerships, 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.