Getting married or forming a Civil Partnership is an important and special occasion and choosing the right location for your ceremony is an important decision.
Darlington has a lot to offer you and we would look forward to helping you celebrate your special occasion. Our venues and Registration Team have a wealth of experience and look forward to helping you.
Planning your ceremony can be a confusing and difficult task and we hope that the information on this website will help you.
Planning a Marriage or Civil Partnership
Darlington Ceremony Guide [pdf document, 2.16mb]
Religious Marriages
You should consult the church or religious establishment where you are to be married who will advise you of the legal preliminaries to your marriage. These may be done directly with the church or the church may ask you to undertake them at your local Register Office.
Some churches require the attendance of a Registrar at the marriage and you should ask this when making the arrangements with the church. In the event of needing a Registrar to attend the church you should contact us by telephone for availability.
Civil Marriages and Civil Partnerships.
It is a legal requirement to give notice of marriage/partnership in the District in which you live. This may be or may not be in the same district where the marriage/partnership is to be formed.
As part giving notice of marriage/partnership you will be required to attend your local register office in person, pay a statutory fee, present some required documents and also meet the legal requirements of being able to be married/form a civil partnership
Giving notice can be done at the earliest a year before the wedding/partnership or at the soonest 16 days before the wedding/partnership, You will be advised of the relevant documentation when making your appointment.
Should one of the parties not be a citizen of the European Union, you should contact your local Register Office for details of the procedure for giving notice of marriage/civil partnership.
Getting Married Abroad
Should you be intending to marry outside of England and Wales then you should contact our office by telephone to discuss the required legal preliminaries.
Booking a Marriage or Civil Partnership.
Should you wish to book Backhouse Hall or one of our approved Venues for a Civil Marriage/Partnership please telephone our office on (01325 346 604) to check availability. Should your venue be an approved venue eg. hotel you should confirm their availability before you telephone us.
We advise that you do not pay any deposits to the venue before confirming availability of the Registration Service as we cannot be liable for any bookings with venues which we cannot honour. When you make a booking for a ceremony for the Registration Service to attend your ceremony you will be required to complete a contract, pay a deposit to secure the booking and pay the balance of fees in advance of the ceremony.
Current Fees
Marriage or Civil Partnership Booking Form [word document]
Terms and Conditions [pdf document]
Organising the Ceremony
Designing your ceremony is a personal and important part of your special day.
You can plan your ceremony through our Darlington Ceremony Guide [pdf document, 2.16mb] and you will be asked to meet with us before the ceremony to pay any outstanding fees and discuss the content of the ceremony. This can either be done in person or via email, post or telephone if it is not practical for you to attend our office. It may help before you meet or contact us to complete one of our choices forms.
Backhouse Hall - Marriage choices form [word document]
Backhouse Hall - Civil Partnership choices form [word document]
Other Venues - choices form [word document]
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further queries and we look forward to meeting you soon.