Get married or form a civil partnership

Everything you need to get married or form a civil partnership in Essex. Includes booking a registrar, a venue and giving notice.

Essex Register Office

You can get married or form a civil partnership in the Essex Register Office in Chelmsford. The Register Office is only available on Mondays and Thursdays. This does not include bank holidays.

We are accepting new bookings for ceremonies of marriage and civil partnership formations up to one year in advance

Attendees

Maximum attendance at Essex Register Office ceremonies is 12 until further notice. This includes the couple and two witnesses, but not the two registrars.

Hand sanitiser will be in place for people to use. We recommend that all the parties that are required to sign the marriage schedule or civil partnership schedule should sanitize their hands before and / or after signing.

Fees

It costs £68 to get married or form a civil partnership in the Essex Register Office.

This includes £22 for two marriage or civil partnership certificates.

This must be paid in full at the time of booking.

Plan your ceremony

There are certain legal things that have to happen on the day of your ceremony.

You must give your notice of marriage or civil partnership and book a registrar before completing your ceremony planner.

After you've booked your registrar and given notice, you can use our Essex Register Office ceremony planner (docx, 53.03kB) to make your special day go smoothly.

You need to fill this in and email it to registration@essex.gov.uk ideally at least 10 weeks before your ceremony. If you miss this date please still send it in and we will check your choices as quickly as we can.