Destination Elopement in the UK

sarahfumiko

My fiancé and I are trying to plan a small destination elopement in London, just inviting our immediate family. My future father in law is a minister, so we wanted him to perform a small ceremony at Primrose Hill in London. Does anyone know if this is legal, or would we need a permit?

Jells2dot0

@LondonLisa

LondonLisa

Firstly, unless you or your Fi are EU citizens, the visa situation is very, very complicated. But even if you are legally allowed to be married here, in England, you can only get married in a registered building (a church, mosque, registry office etc) so outdoor weddings are not legal. A minister will only be able to perform a wedding if they are a registered minister in the UK which is through an affiliated parish and licensed to perform weddings in England. Getting married outside of a church in England in a religious ceremony usually requires very special dispensation from the Bishop/religious council and is usually only granted for extreme situations (like a wedding performed by a minister in a hospital room because of a terminal illness). I'm sorry, but I don't think this is possible. Why not get married at home and honeymoon in the UK?

CMGragain

You are not eloping.  Elopements do not have guests at all,  This will be a small destination wedding.  Are you willing to spend 15 days in England before your wedding?  It is required.

The legal requirements for getting married in the United Kingdom...

Notice must be given in person at a local register office at least 15 days before the marriage can take place. The couple must be resident in the catchment area for the register office for at least seven days prior to giving notice of the marriage. If the marriage is to take place in a different area, contact the register office in that area also before giving notice.

The notice is displayed for 15 days before the authorisation to marry is granted. Once the notice has been displayed, the couple have one year in which to get married in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and three months in Scotland. If there is a change of venue for the marriage, new notice must be given.

Your FFIL is legally able to perform marriages within the USA (assuming you he is from the USA).  Nowhere else!  Find a lovely hill in the USA, and have your wedding there.

SwissMs

Hi @LondonLisa you seem to know a lot about the UK wedding requirements - do you have any good recs for threads that have a good overview of getting married in the UK when one partner is not a UK/EU citizen?  My FI and I live in Switzerland, he's British and I'm American.  While from the legal requirements perspective the US would probably be the easiest, for family reasons the UK is the clear winner.   I've read the legal requirements on the official websites to death, but I'm trying to find something more practical - if only to be sure I've really gotten the steps correct.    I've tried searching but haven't been able to find anything helpful. We're still at least 18-24 months out, so we have lots of time!  Thanks!

LondonLisa

SwissMs said:

Hi @LondonLisa you seem to know a lot about the UK wedding requirements - do you have any good recs for threads that have a good overview of getting married in the UK when one partner is not a UK/EU citizen?  My FI and I live in Switzerland, he's British and I'm American.  While from the legal requirements perspective the US would probably be the easiest, for family reasons the UK is the clear winner.   I've read the legal requirements on the official websites to death, but I'm trying to find something more practical - if only to be sure I've really gotten the steps correct.    I've tried searching but haven't been able to find anything helpful. We're still at least 18-24 months out, so we have lots of time!  Thanks!

There are a lot of factors- Are you getting married in a church or a registry office? Where in the UK? Laws of Scotland are different than England&Wales, and NI is completely different. 

The U.K. purposefully does not want to be a DW place so it is going to be really hard, especially since you don't have residency. You also cannot get married in the UK on a tourist visa. 

SwissMs

And they are also very clearly trying to avoid sham marriages.  I know I need a marriage visa before giving notice (it would be a registry office in London most likely), 7 days residency in the UK before giving notice which has to be done in a special designated register office, with place and date of ceremony already established, the current notice period is 28 days and the Marriage visa needs to still be valid at the time of the wedding.  For us, this isn't a DW - but as a US native, a UK native and residents of yet another country, there's no easy way out, even if we only want immediate family to join.  At least with the UK, I won't have to have everything translated!

LondonLisa

SwissMs said:

And they are also very clearly trying to avoid sham marriages.  I know I need a marriage visa before giving notice (it would be a registry office in London most likely), 7 days residency in the UK before giving notice which has to be done in a special designated register office, with place and date of ceremony already established, the current notice period is 28 days and the Marriage visa needs to still be valid at the time of the wedding.  For us, this isn't a DW - but as a US native, a UK native and residents of yet another country, there's no easy way out, even if we only want immediate family to join.  At least with the UK, I won't have to have everything translated!

Well if you want to wait at least the 35 days to be married, then that is your decision but it just seems really complicated and could be a logistical nightmare. As a foreign national, for you it will be at LEAST 28 days notice after residency (and you don't know how many days after you give notice they will approve it, so it could be 35 or it could be 66), so you are much more likely to risk it being extended to 70 days if they don't think you will be leaving. It just seems a bit of a logistical nightmare to get people over here for a DW if you are stuck for 70 days of residency. You do need to remember that you also need to get special dispensation as a foreign national subject to immigration restrictions from an approved council.

From what I gather, it would be much, much easier to get married in the US rather than the UK.

CMGragain

Try getting married in Denmark.  Easiest country in the EU if you don't want a church wedding.

http://www.getmarriedindenmark.com/faqs/

http://denmark.usembassy.gov/getting--maried.html