Choosing your ceremony and venue

We offer a range of legal and non-legal ceremonies, and you can find out more about our ceremonies by visiting this page.

‘Civil ceremony’ is a term we use to make it clear that the ceremony has no religious content. The term covers both marriages and civil partnerships.

A marriage in England and Wales can be between same-sex or opposite-sex couples. Marriages can be civil or religious (although most religions don’t offer same-sex marriages). At the Town Hall and our licenced venues, we perform only civil marriages which means no religious content can be incorporated. As marriage is a verbal contract, therefore you must say prescribed words to be legally married. After a marriage ceremony you will be declared to be husband and wife, husband and husband, or wife and wife. Your legal status will be ‘married’.

A civil partnership in England and Wales can also be between same-sex or opposite-sex couples. Again, no religious content can be included at ceremonies conducted by registrars. Civil partnership is a written contract, which means you do not have to make legal vows to each other, you can just sign the paperwork with your witnesses if you prefer, although we always offer our couples the choice of a ceremony or a simple signing. After a civil partnership ceremony, you will be declared to be civil partners in law. Your legal status will be ‘civil partner’.

A civil partnership between same-sex couples can be converted into a marriage at a later date if the couple choose to do so. At this time opposite-sex couples are not able to convert their marriage into a civil partnership but if the law changes, we will update this page.

Please see the next question on this page to see how the use of gendered language differs between marriage and civil partnership law.

The legal preliminaries to marriage and civil partnership (giving notice) are the same, as are the fees for each ceremony.

Couples are advised to complete further research before booking a ceremony, particularly if either party is a national of another country or you are planning to live abroad, as there are differences in how a marriage and a civil partnership are recognised in other countries.

If you would like more information on the differences between a marriage and a civil partnership, please visit gov.uk for the government’s advice.

In standard marriage ceremonies, you use the wording ‘husband’ or ‘wife’ during the legal vows, depending on the sex recorded on your birth certificate as this is part of marriage law. Please contact us by email if you are planning a marriage and you’re non-binary or don’t identify as the gender recorded on your birth certificate, as we can suggest some options for your arrangements that may help you celebrate in a gender-confirming way.

Civil partnership ceremonies do not include gendered language such as ‘husband’ and ‘wife’, only ‘partner’.

During the planning stages, we can use the name and pronouns you use for yourself. We will ask you which name and pronouns you use on the form we ask you to complete before your ceremony.

If the law changes in this regard, we will update this page.

Registrars can only perform civil ceremonies, which must be free of all religious connotations, which means there can be no wording from religious ceremonies, religious readings, religious music or religious personal vows during the ceremony.

This is because civil ceremonies were introduced as an alternative to religious ceremonies for couples who don’t belong to a religion or don’t want to include religion in their ceremony.

You will not be able to include readings from the Bible or other religious texts, the words ‘to have and to hold, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part’ which are part of the Church of England marriage vows, or hymns or religious music.

However, there are readings or music that mention God or heaven or similar, but are not religious in nature (like ‘Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ by William Butler Yeats or ‘Halo’ by Beyoncé) and you can always ask us whether what you want is possible at civil ceremony.

No! You can choose any licenced building in England or Wales. A licenced venue can be any non-religious building that has applied for and been granted a licence to hold civil ceremonies on its premises, such as a hotel or restaurant.

The only exception to this is the statutory room, which is only available to Islington and City of London (the square mile) residents.

You can see the pages about each Town Hall room by clicking here.

You can see a list of the licenced venues in Islington and City of London by clicking here.

Yes, you do.

It is a legal requirement and your responsibility to bring two adult witnesses that speak good English to your ceremony.

Our team are not able to act as witnesses.

Please click on the booking buttons at the top of the page. We are currently taking bookings up to the end of December 2026.

At the time of booking, you will be asked to pay a deposit (usually £100), or the full ceremony fee if you are booking a date less than three months away.

We ask you to pay the remainder of the fee three months before the ceremony at the latest, and we will send you an email reminder to do this.

If you are having your ceremony at Islington Town Hall, the cost includes the use of the room for the ceremony, the registrars’ attendance to conduct the ceremony and complete the legal paperwork, and one marriage or civil partnership certificate.

If you are having your ceremony at a licenced ceremony venue, the cost includes the registrars’ attendance to conduct the ceremony and complete the legal paperwork, and one marriage or civil partnership certificate. You will need to book the ceremony venue directly with their staff.

We offer a range of options for ceremonies, from very simple ceremonies with little personalisation, to full ceremony personalisation, to suit all couples.

Ceremonies in the Town Hall’s Council Chamber, Mayor’s Parlour, Richmond Suite and Room 99, or at licenced venues can be fully personalised, as long as the legal wording is included.

In our other rooms and ceremony types, personalisation may be limited, so please see the pages for each of these rooms to see full details of what can be included.

A simple ceremony will last around 20 minutes, and a fully personalised ceremony may last up to 40 minutes.

We aim to be able to open up our diary for 2027 bookings by the end of 2025.

If you would like to be updated when the diary opens, please email registrars@islington.gov.uk and we will email you as soon 2027 bookings are live!

Alternatively, please check back to this page in December 2025 for updates, or follow us on Instagram, where we announce the diary opening each year.