Register a religious building for marriages

Places of worship or religious buildings which are not churches and chapels of the Church of England need to be registered for marriages to take place there.

You can find a list of all places of worship registered for marriage on GOV.UK.

How to register a religious building to hold weddings

Before a religious building can hold weddings you need to:

certify the building as a place of worship
register the building to hold marriages

Certifying a place of worship

You need to apply for the building to be certified as a place of worship if this hasn’t already been done. To apply, the minister, proprietor or trustee of the building needs to provide:

two copies of the application form to certify a place of worship (form 76)
a floor plan showing which rooms will be used for worship
an average weekly timetable of how the building will be used - this is to show the General Register Office (GRO) that it's mainly used for religious worship
the registration fee

Registering a building to hold marriages

To register the building to hold marriages you need to provide:

two copies of the application form for the registration of marriages (form 78) which has been:
- signed by 20 separate householders who regard the building as their usual place of worship
- countersigned by the minister, proprietor or trustee of the building
the registration fee - this covers the cost of the legal requirement for a public notice in a local newspaper and the London Gazette

How to apply

When we receive you request we'll contact you to book an appointment to bring your completed documents into the register office and pay the registration fee. We’ll then send your documents to the GRO.

If you’re applying for a building to be certified as a place of worship and registered for marriages at the same time, you can bring all of the forms together. The forms for registering the building for marriages must not be dated prior to the forms for certifying it as a place of worship.

After a building has been registered

Once a building's been registered it'll be recorded in the list of places of worship registered for marriage on GOV.UK. One of the completed forms will also be returned to you. We'll send a certificate to the person who countersigned the application.

Public notice of the registration must also be given in a local newspaper and the London Gazette.

Buildings no longer in use as a place of worship

If a building stops being used as a place of worship we must legally inform the GRO. You’ll need to complete a notice of disuse form (form 77) which can be signed by any person who can represent the congregation.

If a building is demolished and rebuilt on the same foundations within a year, and will be used by the same congregation, the certification and registration won't be affected.

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