Civil partnerships

Registering a civil partnership

A civil partnership may be registered at any of our registration offices or approved venues. Once you have decided on a venue and date please contact us to check availability. A non-refundable deposit is requested at the time of booking.

Before your ceremony can take place you must each give legal notice of your intended partnership to the local registration office in the district where you live.

More information on fees and formalities.

Converting a civil partnership to a marriage

There are two ways to convert a civil partnership into a marriage:

a simple administrative process called a ‘standard conversion’
a two stage process where the conversion is followed by a ceremony

The standard conversion

This is a simple administrative process where you will both attend an appointment at any register office and complete a declaration with details about yourself and your civil partner. The documents that you will need to produce include:

evidence of your name and date of birth – current passports or birth certificates
evidence of your address – recent Council Tax, utility bill, driving licence or bank statement
your original civil partnership certificate

A legal declaration will then be drawn up for you to both sign with the superintendent registrar.

If you wish you can choose to say the declaration wording aloud to one another before signing the conversion document. Your marriage is then registered and a marriage certificate will be issued.

There is a charge of £56 for this appointment which includes one marriage certificate.

A conversion followed by a ceremony

The signing of the declaration can then be followed by a ceremony at a variety of venues where same sex couples are able to marry. For example, this includes:

registration offices
approved venues
religious buildings that are registered for the marriage of same sex couples
premises where a ceremony according to the Jewish faith of the Society of Friends is to immediately follow the conversion