Post It Notes – 1st July 2011: Legalities & Publicity

July 1, 2011

Photography Credit: Assassynation (full wedding coming up on the blog next week!)

I recieved this email from newly-engaged Lisa and thought I’d share my answer with you all becuase I’m sure she’s not the only bride-to-be wondering this…

Hi Kat,
My fiancé and I are looking to get married at Polhawn Fort in Cornwall (after seeing a wedding held there featured on your blog, funnily enough!) We’re complete novices when it comes to non-church wedding practises, and we really liked the idea of having one of our friends perform the ceremony for us. Do you, or any of your readers know if this is something that is possible in the UK? Thank you so much in advance for your help!

Hi Lisa
Unfortunately, right now in England you can only be legally married in a specially sanctioned place – ie church, register office or a hotel/venue with a license. The venue has to have a roof and be moored to it’s foundations (ie it can’t be a boat!) The ceremony must take place between 8am – 6pm and must be performed by someone legally ordained to do so like a priest or registrar.

However there is nothing to stop you going to the register office and doing the ‘legal’ bit – ie signing the papers in a quick 5 min ceremony then having a ‘fake’ (for lack of a better word) ceremony wherever you like and performed by whoever you like and classing that as your wedding ceremony.

My friends Emma & Pete did exactly this and it was amazing! Good luck with the planning.

As a side note, The Any Campaign are tirelessness petitioning to get these strict laws in the England changed. You can keep up with their plans on their website here.

♥  ♥  ♥

If you have any wedding planning questions why not drop me an email and I’ll try to answer them in a future edition of Post It Notes?

While I don’t agree with being controversial just for the sake of it, always remember than having an opinion that sparks a little debate is never a bad thing. The response to Monday’s ‘How to Pose’ article was incredible (although I can honestly say I was surprised that it was even seen as a controversial topic. The point of the post was to inspire and give confidence to the brides that read my site, certainly not to take anything away from professional photographers!)

The positive and negative commnets streamed in (and are still coming through thick and fast.) While initially some people in my position may have been upset by the negative responses, I revelled in all the attention on my little blog… and lo and behold, on Monday I recieved the highest unique number of visitors (including a lot of brand new visitors that have never seen the site before) the blog has ever had!

There is no such thing as bad publicity…but you might just have to be a bit thick skinned to get through it sometimes!