Planning your ceremony – Canonbury Suite (weekdays)

We want to gently remind you that the Canonbury Suite is an intimate room, which can only hold:
• You and your partner
• Two adult witnesses
• The registrars

Children and babies cannot be accommodated in this room, as you can only bring two adult witnesses to your ceremony. If you want to bring a photographer, they will need to be one of your two witnesses.

These guest numbers are the maximum allowed following our fire and health and safety risk assessments, and if you attend with more guests, your ceremony will not be able to take place and you will be asked to rebook your ceremony and pay again.

We ask that you both arrive with your guests 15 minutes before the ceremony start time. Consideration needs to be given to the timely start of all events, and if you arrive more than 10 minutes late, unfortunately your ceremony will not be able to take place and you will have to rebook and incur rescheduling fees. For standard ceremonies in the Canonbury Suite, you will need to see each other before the ceremony begins.

We are not able to allow couples or guests into the building earlier than this as we have carefully controlled safe capacity limits. To ensure all couples have time and space to have photographs taken around the building after their ceremony, we are not able to accommodate couples arriving early to take pictures inside.

Chauffeured cars, taxis and buses can stop outside the building to drop off couples or guests, but we don’t have general parking available at the Town Hall, so we advise your guests to arrive by public transport.

All ceremony areas in the Town Hall can be accessed by ramps or lifts for step free access. If you or any of your guests have a disability, you will need to click here to complete a Personal Emergency Evacuation Form before the ceremony. Guide dogs and other trained assistance animals are welcomed, but should wear their vest to show that they are a trained assistance animal.

We have limited special access parking spaces available on the Town Hall forecourt for people with disabilities, and these need to be booked well in advance by emailing securitytownhall@islington.gov.uk

Please note that we do not allow helium balloons inside the building as we have high ceilings.

You can bring one pet to your ceremony in the Canonbury Suite if you choose.

If you want to bring your pet on your special day, please click here to complete a form agreeing to our terms and conditions at least a month before your ceremony.

Inviting your pet to your ceremony does not affect the number of people you can invite to your ceremony.

Please note that this change in policy does not affect registered assistance animals attending ceremonies, which are always welcomed.

At the entrance of the building, our team will greet you and confirm the ceremony you are attending. We will ask your guests to take a seat in the entrance hall and show you and your partner to the Canonbury Suite for your pre-ceremony interview.

If you choose to bring personal flowers for the table, you can bring them into the Canonbury Suite with you at this point. Our rooms are used for more than one ceremony a day, so we are unable to allow further decorating of the room or changing the layout for your ceremony.

Please see the seating plan below if this is useful to you:

Your ceremony will be conducted by one of our experienced registrars. We are unable to let you know in advance who your specific registrar will be, as there are occasions where substitutions need to be made due to unforeseen circumstances.

For this reason, and as the ceremony type you have chosen is very simple, with limited personalisation, we don’t offer co-ordination calls with your registrar.

Please note that we do not offer a choice of registrar based on their personal characteristics.

Before the ceremony, you and your partner will need to check the details together to go on the marriage or civil partnership certificate. Our registrars will ask you the same questions you were asked when you gave notice, for example, your full name and date of birth etc. This is to make sure that the details on the legal record of your marriage/civil partnership are correct and up to date on the day of your ceremony. This takes 10-15 minutes and is why we ask you to arrive a little bit earlier than your ceremony start time. We will then ask you to visually check the paperwork to make sure it is correct.

You do not need to bring any identification to this interview unless our team have specifically advised you to because of your individual circumstances.

Following the interview, we will bring your guests to the Canonbury Suite ready for the ceremony to start.

Our registrars will welcome you and your guests, and begin the ceremony. The whole ceremony will need to be legally conducted by one of our registrars.

As standard, ceremonies in the Canonbury Suite on weekdays are shorter, simple ceremony options, offered for couples who would prefer this kind of ceremony, so no readings, choice of script, entrances to the room, personal vows, music or other personalised elements can be accommodated, other than the exchange of rings.

It may be possible for you to pay an additional fee to extend your ceremony to include full personalisation, depending on the ceremonies booked after yours. If you are interested in this option, please email registrars@islington.gov.uk to enquire before completing your choices on the form below.

Please click on the links below to see the ceremony script:

• Marriage script
• Civil partnership script

Our registrars will use a similar script to this, although some may change the wording slightly. The words you say do not need to be memorised as you will repeat them, a few at a time, after the registrar.

As civil partnership law is different from marriage law, there are no legal words you need to say, so if you would prefer to simply sign the paperwork with your witnesses you can.

The ceremony takes around 20 minutes to complete, including the signing of the paperwork.

We book our ceremonies with enough time before the next ceremony so that the couple can be interviewed, guests brought in, the ceremony conducted, the paperwork completed and some photographs to be taken, and the room cleaned and prepared for the next ceremony without couples feeling rushed.

Having said that, please note that while we may book ceremonies which start at, for example, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, each couple should not expect sole use of the room for an hour until the next slot, due to the interviews, guest entrances and cleaning that needs to take place. All our booking costs include use of the room for the ceremony, the registrars’ attendance and one copy of the certificate, but we don’t book ceremonies for a particular period of time; we book for a ceremony start time.

The exchanging of rings is a traditional part of a ceremony rather than a legal requirement. Some couples choose to exchange only one ring, some choose a different token personal to themselves, and others choose not to include this part of the ceremony at all.

Your two witnesses will sign to say they have witnessed the ceremony/signing.

The witnesses can be friends/family members, as long as they speak good English and are an adult. They do not have to bring any documents to the ceremony.

Our staff are not able to act as witnesses.

If either you or your partner requires an interpreter, that person must also act as one of your two witnesses.

At the end you will be announced as husband/wife and husband/wife, or as civil partners, and will sign the marriage or civil partnership schedule, the legal record of your union, with your witnesses.

Your guests will then be invited to congratulate you both as you leave the room together, and then they will follow you. You will then be able to take some photographs inside the Town Hall building if you choose. We don’t limit the amount of time you are able to have pictures, but we do ask that all couples are considerate of other couples who also want to take pictures, and be conscious of later ceremonies.

You can also have some photographs on the beautiful steps outside. We allow eco-friendly options like biodegradable confetti, rose petals, bubbles and sparklers outside the Town Hall, but not inside. Rice is not permitted as it poses health and safety risks with the stairs in inclement weather and attracts pigeons.

You are welcome to have a celebratory glass of champagne outside, just as long as you aren’t impeding the access of other ceremony parties.

While there is no parking on Upper Street outside the Town Hall, your booked transport (for example buses or taxis) will be allowed to stop there long enough for you and your guests to get on.

Ideally your transport should be there waiting for you as you all emerge from the Town Hall ready to whisk you away to your reception.

Following your ceremony, the legal details need to be inputted onto the national database before we can check and produce certificates, which can take up to 20 working days, as we conduct large numbers of ceremonies.

You will be asked on your ceremony day if you want the certificate to be posted to you, or if you would prefer us to contact you when it’s ready so you can collect it from Islington Town Hall.

If you need your certificate more urgently, we offer an express service which produces the certificate within 3 working days of the ceremony date.

To apply for the express service, please email us with your ceremony details, letting us know whether you would like your express certificate produced for collection from Islington Town Hall (£26.00) or posted to your home by special delivery (£33.85).

The additional fee will then be added to your ceremony balance. The express service needs to be requested and paid for at least 7 days before the ceremony date.