Births, deaths, and marriages

Bespoke ceremony

If you have your heart set on a ceremony in a barn with hay bales, a tipi in the woods, a lakeside or in a private house or garden then a bespoke ceremony maybe what you are looking for.

The law only allows a marriage or civil partnership to take place at a venue approved for such purposes. However if you are wanting a ceremony at a venue that isn't approved for legal marriage or civil partnership ceremonies, we can assist.

Your wedding your way

For venues that aren't approved for legal marriages or civil partnerships, our dedicated and professional team can complete both the legal and celebration elements of your ceremony, giving you peace of mind that you are in experienced hands with a great record of delivering excellent service.

The legal ceremony

If your chosen venue passes with a satisfactory risk assessment, we will contact you to arrange your legal ceremony. Your legal statutory ceremony will be held at Huddersfield or Dewsbury Town Hall, and can be Monday afternoon to Thursday, with up to 30 guests. Alternatively you can choose to have a simple ceremony, either in the Register office at Dewsbury Town Hall, or in the ceremony room at either Town Hall, with only two witnesses. We recommend the legal ceremony is undertaken within two weeks prior to your celebration ceremony.

The celebration ceremony

We will provide you with a guide to your ceremony which provides you with many opportunities to enhance and personalise your ceremony so that it is unique to you. You can include personal vows, readings and music. You can share your story, how you met, your shared hopes and aspirations. If there is anything additional to this that you would like to include in your ceremony please use our online form to contact the ceremonies team about a marriage or civil partnership query .

When contacting the ceremonies team to provisionally book the date and time of your ceremony, you must provide us with the name and contact details of the landowner or property holder of your venue, so that we can carry out a risk assessment. The risk assessment will be carried once you have provided us with the booking details, we will notify you if the venue does not meet satisfactory requirements.