How Much Does a Registry Office Wedding Cost?

Having council registrars marry you at a wedding venue on a weekday costs £320 to £845 in England and Wales, depending on the council, and typically £577.50. A Saturday typically costs £674. The cheapest legal wedding, a short ceremony at the register office with two witnesses, costs far less, but most councils only offer it on certain days. We read the fee lists of 157 councils on their own websites; the table is below, and every figure links to the page it came from.

What you pay the council

There are two council charges for a civil wedding or civil partnership. First, each of you gives notice at the register office. Giving notice of marriage or civil partnership costs £46.50 a person in England and Wales from 6 April 2026 (£63 with a Home Office referral). The fees regulations. Then you pay for the ceremony itself, which is where councils differ.

• At an approved venue (a hotel, a barn, a stately home): you pay the venue for the room and the council for the registrars who conduct the ceremony. The council's part is the figure in the table.
• In a ceremony room at the register office: one price to the council, which often depends on the day.
• The statutory ceremony: the simplest legal wedding, at the register office with two witnesses. Its fee is set nationally, £62 in England and Wales from 6 April 2026, but councils print it with or without the marriage certificate and some add a booking fee, so the column shows each council's own figure. A dash means the council prints no statutory fee, or its page still shows an older amount. Many offer it only on one weekday morning.

Each figure is the price the council prints, with VAT included where the council charges it. Where a council adds a booking fee to every ceremony and says it is not taken off the fee, it is added in. Where a council lists a booking fee but does not say whether it comes off the ceremony fee, the figure is shown without it, so the full cost may be a little higher.

What each council charges

Registrars at an approved venue on the council's cheapest weekday rate and on a Saturday, and the register office's statutory ceremony, from each council's own fee list. A few councils price Monday to Friday together, or one rate for every day. The line under each name is the year the council's prices are for, or "current prices" where the council prints no year.

The cheapest and the most expensive

Cheapest: Hull (£320), Hartlepool (£350), Caerphilly (£355), Walsall (£374), North Lincolnshire (£387.50).

Most expensive: Southwark (£845), Cornwall (£790), Darlington (£785), Warwickshire (£770), Oxfordshire (£760). The same registrars' service costs 2.6 times as much in one place as in another.

No single approved-venue fee published: Bury, Cardiff, City of London, Gwynedd, Bromley, Lambeth, Waltham Forest, Neath Port Talbot, Redcar and Cleveland, Westminster. Their registration services will tell you the cost when you book.

What else a registry office wedding costs

A marriage certificate on the day is usually £12.50, and some councils include one or two in the ceremony fee. Rings, outfits, photographs and a meal afterwards are where the rest of the money goes: see what wedding venues charge, wedding photographer prices and wedding catering costs, or what the average UK wedding costs in all.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

In Scotland the councils set their own ceremony fees, and many print one total that includes the notice fees and the statutory marriage fee while others do not, so they are not ranked with England and Wales. Across the 28 Scottish councils we read, a weekday ceremony at an approved venue runs from £250 (Stirling) to £544 (North Ayrshire); type your town in the box above for your council's figure and what it includes.

In Belfast, registrars at an approved venue cost £463 on a weekday and £680 on a Saturday, including the notice fees and the ceremony fee. Belfast City Council.

Getting it photographed

A register office ceremony is short, and many couples book a photographer for the ceremony and a few portraits rather than the whole day, which costs far less than full-day cover. Compare a few local photographers and ask for a ceremony-only price.