Planning a Wedding in London: Notice, Town Halls, Costs (2026)

England has no marriage licence. You give notice in person at a register office at least 29 days before the wedding, and the notice names one venue, so first decide where the legal part happens: a town hall, a licensed venue or a church. Couples flying in from the US or Canada also need a Marriage Visitor visa each and about five and a half weeks in London.

Fees and rules below were checked in October 2026 on GOV.UK and the councils' own pages. Confirm with the office before you pay.

Where you can legally marry in London

There are three legal routes, and a fourth that people assume is legal and isn't. Choose first, because your notice names the exact building.

A town hall. People search for a "registry office wedding"; the legal name is register office, and in London it often means a grand old town hall. Old Marylebone Town Hall, run by Westminster, is Grade II listed, has seven ceremony rooms for 8 to 100 guests and keeps a slot on its front steps for the confetti photo. Islington Town Hall on Upper Street also handles weddings for the City of London. Chelsea Old Town Hall on the King's Road has the Brydon Room for up to 38. You don't have to live in the borough: Westminster's wedding FAQ says anyone can marry at Old Marylebone, though you may give notice in your home borough. A registrar conducts the ceremony; friends can do readings.

A licensed venue. Westminster has more than 150 licensed spaces, Claridge's and The Goring among them; Islington and the City have over 40, from Stationers' Hall to Fortnum & Mason at the Royal Exchange. You pay the venue for hire and the council separately for the registrars. Since 2021 (made permanent in April 2022) an approved venue can also have approved outdoor areas, so a hotel garden can work if that exact spot is covered. Ask to see where ceremonies are allowed before you pay a deposit.

A church. For a Church of England wedding, banns are read on three Sundays in each of your parishes (and in the wedding church, if different), and you marry within three months of the last reading. The 2026 legal fees are £566 for the service and £39 for each set of banns, plus £20 for each banns certificate from another parish: £605 if you both live in the parish where you marry, up to £723 if you live in two other parishes. Organist, bells and heating are the parish's own extras. You need to live in the parish or have a qualifying connection: baptised or confirmed there, lived or worshipped there for six months at some point, a parent who did, or a parent or grandparent married there. If either of you isn't British or Irish and has no EU Settlement Scheme status, there are no banns: you both give notice at a register office instead. Same-sex couples can't marry in an Anglican church. Other places of worship, Jewish ceremonies included, also start with register office notice.

What isn't legal yet: parks, gardens and humanist weddings

You can't legally marry in a London park or your parents' garden, and a humanist celebrant can't legally marry you at all. The Ministry of Justice says so in its reform consultation, Tying the Knot: non-religious belief organisations "cannot conduct legally binding weddings at all". The consultation proposes changing that, and opening up places like beaches and family gardens. It closed on 24 September 2026, but a consultation isn't a law, and no bill or start date had been announced when we checked. Look again in 2027. Until then, couples who want a celebrant do a short register office ceremony first.

Giving notice: the appointment that sets your calendar

The 29-day clock starts at the appointment itself, not the day you book it. The rules, from GOV.UK and the councils:

• 29 days. Notice is displayed for 28 days and the paperwork is issued on day 29. GOV.UK's example: notice on 1 May, earliest wedding 30 May.
• In person, at a register office. Islington lists what doesn't count: proxies, letters, video calls, online forms.
• Seven days' residence first. Westminster explains this means seven full days living in the district, not counting the day you move in or the day of the appointment. Islington puts it as eight days before the appointment, which is the same thing.
• Valid for 12 months, and only for the venue named.
• £46.50 each, non-refundable. Add £16.50 each if you're referred to the Home Office (next section). A divorce granted outside the British Isles costs £55 to check locally, or £83 if it goes to the General Register Office.
• Apart or together. If you're both British, Irish or have EU Settlement Scheme status, you each give notice in your own district. Otherwise you go together, to a district where at least one of you lives.

Bring the venue details, a valid passport (or a UK birth certificate, with your parents' nationality evidence if you were born after 1 January 1983), proof of address such as a utility bill from the last three months, a bank statement or a tenancy agreement, proof of any name change and your decree absolute or final order if you've been married before. Non-UK citizens add a passport photo each, proof of immigration status and translations. GOV.UK has the full list.

Two ways couples lose weeks

Changing venue after notice. Move the wedding from a hotel to Old Marylebone and you give notice again, pay again and wait again. You can't give notice without a venue anyway, so book the venue (and the registrars, at a licensed venue) first.

Booking the appointment late. Twenty-nine days is the legal minimum, but appointment slots are the real bottleneck. Westminster suggests giving notice three to six months before the wedding and has an urgent request form for couples marrying within two months who can't find a slot. Don't plan around the form.

Getting married in London from the US, Canada or elsewhere

Most London guides skip this, or imply an American or Canadian passport is enough. It isn't. GOV.UK's visa checker, asked about a US citizen coming to marry, says you need a Marriage Visitor visa, and you need it to give notice as well as to marry. An ETA or a Standard Visitor visa won't do. Irish citizens and people with EU Settlement Scheme status are exempt.

The Marriage Visitor visa costs £135, and if you both need one, each of you applies and pays separately, so £270 for the two of you. Apply no earlier than three months before you travel. A decision usually takes three weeks; you may be able to pay £500 for five working days or £1,000 for 24 hours. Part of the application is a fingerprint and photo appointment at a visa application centre, which may be in another country. The visa lets you stay up to six months and marry within six months of arriving. It's for couples who leave afterwards; moving to the UK is a different visa.

Come on the wrong visa and the register office must tell the Home Office, which can look into your relationship for up to 70 days after notice (councils quote 71) or refuse, and then you can't marry in the UK. Islington notes that partners who hold a marriage visa aren't referred.

The arithmetic for couples flying in

Say you're both American, visas in hand, renting a flat in Islington and marrying at Islington Town Hall.

That's five and a half weeks in London before the ceremony, with nothing going wrong, or ten weeks and more if the Home Office gets involved. Before you book flights, ring the register office. Westminster asks couples coming from abroad to contact it in advance, and you'll want to know whether it accepts your short-let agreement or a landlord's letter as proof of address.

The simpler route: sign the legal papers at home and hold a symbolic ceremony in London. No notice, no waiting, and anyone you like can lead it wherever the owner agrees. Our destination wedding guide covers that two-step.

Guests have paperwork too. Most visitors from Europe, the US, Canada and Australia need an Electronic Travel Authorisation: £20 each, babies included. Tell them to apply on GOV.UK, not a lookalike site that charges more.

What a register office wedding costs in London

The councils' own prices, checked October 2026. Certificates are £12.50 each; most packages below include one.

The cheapest legal wedding in London is two Islington or City residents in the Statutory Room: £93 for two notices, £62 for the ceremony, £12.50 for the certificate, so £167.50. Live elsewhere and Westminster's statutory ceremony comes to £177.50 with notice, if you can wait for a Wednesday.

Read the booking terms. Westminster wants the full fee three months ahead, keeps half if you cancel between three months and 30 days out and all of it inside a month. Kensington and Chelsea takes a £100 non-refundable booking fee plus half the fee when you book.

What the day is actually like

At Old Marylebone, per Westminster's FAQ, you arrive 30 minutes early for a short legal interview (one of you at 30 minutes and the other at 15, if you don't want to see each other first). Guests come at least 15 minutes before. The ceremony takes 15 to 20 minutes and other weddings run either side of yours; Westminster's booking terms warn that turning up more than 10 minutes late can get your ceremony moved. Confetti goes on the front steps only, and nothing made of rice, metal or plastic. Dogs are welcome; bagpipes aren't. Cars can drop you off but can't wait.

You need two witnesses. At Westminster they must speak and understand English, should be over 16 and can be strangers, but can't be busy taking photos while you sign. Staff at Westminster and Islington won't act as witnesses, so bring your own. You can each list up to four parents on the marriage schedule, which settles whether the stepdad who raised you gets a line.

Westminster's basic script gives the legal words each of you says:

Add your own vows, readings and music around them, as long as nothing is religious. Westminster's civil ceremony guidance flags the line that catches people out: "till death do us part" is Book of Common Prayer wording, so it can't be used as it stands. Hymns are out too.

What a London wedding costs, and which months cost less

Two 2026 surveys, two London numbers. The Bridebook UK Wedding Report 2026 (7,000 couples) puts London at £26,986, the highest of any region, about £340 a guest against £278 nationally. The Hitched Wedding Industry Report 2026 (2,020 newlyweds) says £24,622. Call it £25,000 to £27,000, not counting the honeymoon or the engagement ring. Across the UK, venue and catering take 51% of the budget in Bridebook's data.

Say you invite 70 people: at £340 a head, that's about £23,800. Treat that as a first pass, because it doesn't shrink neatly with the list: the photographer costs the same for 30 guests as for 130. The free wedding budget calculator splits a total by category and per guest, and our wedding budget breakdown shows where the money tends to go. Ask whether each quote includes VAT at 20% (on £20,000 of quotes that leave it out, that's another £4,000), and keep a contingency: 56% of couples in the Hitched survey overspent.

The calendar moves the bill most. Across the UK, Bridebook found June the most expensive month (£23,809 on average) and January the cheapest (£11,000), and fewer than half of weddings now fall on a Saturday. Town halls price the same way: Westminster's off-peak is November and January to March, Islington's winter rates start on 19 October, Chelsea's on 1 November. Bank holidays cost more: registrars at a Westminster venue are £1,683 then, against £1,153 on a Saturday. In 2027 that means Good Friday (26 March), Easter Monday (29 March), 3 May, 31 May and 30 August.

Rain and light

London has no dry season. Averages we worked out from the Met Office's Heathrow records (1991-2020), with our own sunset calculation for central London, give or take a couple of minutes:

March is the driest month and October and November the wettest, but no month is safe, so every outdoor plan needs an indoor version you'd be happy with. Light matters as much. A 2pm ceremony in late December leaves about an hour and a half of daylight for portraits; in June, the same slot leaves seven hours.

Parks, photos and getting around

Plenty of couples marry at a town hall and head to a park for photos. In the Royal Parks (Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, St James's, Green Park, Regent's Park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich, Richmond, Bushy and others) that needs a wedding photography permit: £120 including VAT for one photographer and one hour, up to 10 people, selected areas only, at least 10 days' notice and £5 million public liability insurance. No refunds once it's issued, and no confetti. Hampstead Heath and the South Bank have other landowners; ask them directly. We'd throw the confetti on the town hall steps and keep the park for portraits.

Wedding cars pay the Congestion Charge: £18 a day, or £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after. It runs 07:00-18:00 on weekdays and 12:00-18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, so a Saturday afternoon wedding is charged (Christmas Day to the New Year bank holiday is free). A car that misses ULEZ standards, as a vintage one may, pays the ULEZ charge on top. Ask whether the car hire quote includes both.

Guests landing at Heathrow can take the Heathrow Express from Terminals 2 and 3 to Paddington in 15 minutes, or the Elizabeth line. Old Marylebone is a five-minute walk from Baker Street or Marylebone station. Put it all on your wedding website once; BrideSpark's Travel & stay section holds each hotel's group code, rate and book-by date. Guests from abroad book several nights, so read our hotel room block guide before you sign a hotel contract.

Working back from the date

A London wedding runs on two clocks: the venue and suppliers, and the notice (plus the visa, if you're flying in).

12 to 18 months: budget, rough guest count and legal route. Book the venue or town hall room; summer Saturdays go first. Islington takes bookings to the end of 2027, with January to March 2027 limited by possible building works. Relying on a church worship connection? It takes six months of at least monthly attendance, so start now.

9 to 12 months: photographer, caterer, music. Save-the-dates to overseas guests. Hold hotel rooms.

About 6 months: book the notice appointment. Overseas couples: plan flights that land at least eight days before it.

3 to 6 months: give notice, as Westminster advises. Westminster and Chelsea want the full ceremony fee three months out. Overseas couples apply for the visa, no earlier than three months before the flight. The Church of England suggests arranging banns about four months ahead.

6 weeks: Royal Parks permit, once you know the time and spot (10 days is the minimum).

29 days: the last day to give notice for this date, assuming no Home Office referral.

1 month: final numbers, two witnesses confirmed, Congestion Charge sorted with the car company.

On the day: both of you there 30 minutes early, witnesses with you.

The BrideSpark wedding checklist dates each task back from your wedding day and takes your own tasks too, so "book the notice appointment" sits in the right week instead of in your head.

Frequently asked questions

Can we get married at Old Marylebone Town Hall if we don't live in Westminster?

Yes. Westminster says anyone can marry there. You give notice at the register office in your own district and name Old Marylebone Town Hall as the venue; the notice is valid only for the venue it names.

How much does it cost to give notice of marriage in London?

£46.50 each, non-refundable, plus £16.50 each if you're referred to the Home Office because of your immigration status. Notice must be given in person at least 29 days before the wedding.

What's the cheapest way to get legally married in London?

A statutory ceremony with two witnesses and the legal words only. Islington and City of London residents pay £62 plus a £12.50 certificate, so £167.50 with both notice fees. Westminster offers one on selected Wednesdays for £84.50 including a certificate.

Do Americans need a visa to get married in London?

Yes. GOV.UK's visa checker says a US citizen coming to marry in the UK needs a Marriage Visitor visa, which is also needed to give notice. It costs £135 per person, and you can apply no earlier than three months before you travel.

Can we get legally married in a London park?

Not in 2026. Civil weddings in England must be at a register office or an approved venue, which can include approved outdoor areas there. A ceremony in a park is symbolic only, and wedding photography in the Royal Parks needs a £120 permit.

Are humanist weddings legal in England?

Not yet. Humanist celebrants can't conduct legally binding weddings in England. A government consultation on changing that closed on 24 September 2026, but the law hasn't changed, so couples add a short register office ceremony.

Can the registrar provide our witnesses?

No. Westminster and Islington both say their staff can't act as witnesses, so bring two people who speak and understand English and won't be busy taking photos while you sign.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Give notice of marriage or civil partnership
• GOV.UK: Documents you'll need to give notice
• GOV.UK: Plan your ceremony
• GOV.UK: Marriages and civil partnerships, full guide
• GOV.UK: If you're from outside the UK or Ireland
• GOV.UK: Marriage Visitor visa
• GOV.UK: Check if you need a UK visa (US citizen, marriage)
• GOV.UK: Electronic Travel Authorisation
• GOV.UK: Bank holidays
• GOV.UK: VAT rates
• Westminster City Council: Notice deadline and validity
• Westminster City Council: Notice fees
• Westminster City Council: Foreign nationals
• Westminster City Council: Statutory ceremonies
• Westminster City Council: Civil ceremonies
• Westminster City Council: Religious ceremonies
• Westminster City Council: Ceremony booking terms
• A Day to Remember (Westminster): Old Marylebone Town Hall FAQ
• A Day to Remember (Westminster): Old Marylebone Town Hall
• A Day to Remember (Westminster): Registrar fees at a licensed venue
• Islington Council: Giving notice
• Say I Do Islington: Statutory Room
• Say I Do Islington: Say I Do With Two
• Say I Do Islington: Room 99
• Say I Do Islington: The Council Chamber
• Say I Do Islington: Licensed venues
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Brydon Room
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea: Prices
• Church of England: The cost of church weddings
• Church of England: Legal requirements for a church wedding
• Diocese of Oxford: Qualifying connections for marriage
• Liverpool Diocesan Registry: Banns
• Ministry of Justice: Tying the Knot, reforming weddings law (2026 consultation)
• Ministry of Justice: Reforming weddings law in England and Wales, consultation page
• The Royal Parks: Wedding and lifestyle photography
• The Royal Parks: Photography permit terms and conditions
• Met Office: Heathrow historic station data
• Transport for London: Congestion Charge
• Heathrow Express
• Bridebook: Average cost of a wedding in London (2026)
• Bridebook: UK Wedding Report 2026
• Hitched: Wedding Industry Report 2026 (press release)