Ceremonies will not be able to take at Islington Town Hall or our venues, whilst we are in national lockdown or Tier 4, apart from in exceptional circumstances.

We have contacted all our couples booked for January and February and informed them of this.

If you consider that you have exceptional circumstances that mean your ceremony cannot be postponed until virus levels and the tier level is lower, please email registrars@islington.gov.uk attaching evidence to support this request. Our staff will evaluate your evidence on a case-by-case basis.

Please note that, to keep ceremonies as small and safe as possible, all ceremonies that take place under exceptional circumstances will take place with the couple, two registrars and two witnesses present only.

We will not be taking any new ceremony bookings while we reschedule couples whose ceremonies cannot take place as planned, so please check back to this page when the London enters Tier 3 or lower.

The government have stated that ‘weddings and civil partnership ceremonies should not take place except in exceptional circumstances, for example where one of those getting married is seriously ill and not expected to recover (‘deathbed wedding’) or due to undergo debilitating treatment or life-changing surgery.’

At this point we do not know when lockdown or Tier 4 measures will be lifted. The Health Protection Regulations (2020) is enforceable until 31 March 2021, but lockdown could also be extended past this date.

Once an end date is announced we will update this page.

This is very difficult to predict, as the recommendations are constantly changing.

Further information will be sent regarding your specific ceremony a few weeks before the date, when we have the latest safety recommendations.

Couples who had originally booked for a ceremony date that was during a period ceremonies could not take place, or in a room that is not Covid-secure have been offered the choice of:

1. A full refund of all the ceremonies fees paid
2. Moving their ceremony to a new date/room of their choice (subject to availability)

We will not be taking any new ceremony bookings while we reschedule couples whose ceremonies cannot take place as planned, so please check back to our website when the London enters Tier 3 or lower.

You can find it at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships/covid-19-guidance-for-small-marriages-and-civil-partnerships

At this time we have cancelled our booked notice appointments for January and February, and we are not making any further appointments at this time, until we know when lockdown will end.

Marriage and civil partnership law requires an in-person, face-to-face interview with a registrar to give notice, and so notice cannot be given by proxy, in writing, by video call, online or by any other method.

Sadly, no. The notice of marriage or civil partnership is a statutory legal requirement by the General Register Office, which is out of the local authorities’ control.

If your notice of marriage or civil partnership expires before your new date, a new notice will have to be given.

If you live in Islington or City of London (the ‘square mile’), and your original booking for a ceremony date was during a lockdown period, when ceremonies could not legally take place, we will waive the fee if you have already given notice with us once for the same venue.

If you live in a different borough, you will need to check what their policy is on this.

No, unfortunately, the notice that you have given is for your original location and it cannot legally be moved to another location.

A new notice will have to be given.

No, we will only contact you if there is a legal objection or another problem with your notice.

This website will be updated as things change, but you can find other information about our service provision by visiting:

https://www.islington.gov.uk/birth-death-marriage-and-citizenship/marriage-and-civil-partnerships – for information about notice appointments

www.instagram.com/sayidoislington/ – our ceremonies Instagram