[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by Neil

How does that work then?
I thought CofE ministers ( or whatever you call them) can marry people, apart from that I thought it was only the registrars who could do it at licensed places. Many hotels are licensed now.

If you get married in a catholic church don't you need a registrar there?

I think CofE vicars are the only ones who don't need an additional Registrar type person as being the authorised church of the land they already have that authority (or summat like that). That's why we have the additional person acting on behalf of the Register Office (ie me). I don't know for sure but I would presume that any other church can apply if they have a congregation member willing to do the 'job' - of course they may well charge the regitration fee though. We are authorised by the Register Office to charge that fee. It would be my fee for services rendered. But LDS members never charge each other for things - like we got our organist from another Ward as we don't actually have one at Blackburn who can do all that fancy stuff but she would never have dreamed of charging us for doing it. Of course we bought her something as a thank you because she had to come all the way from Chorley and we brought her over a couple of times for a practice on our organ.

If you wanted to know for sure if other churches can appoint their own Authorised Person to register weddings you could always ask the Registrar General's office. I only know what happens in our church. Some of our Wards don't have anyone who does it because no-one in the ward wants to volunteer to do it so they just get someone in from the Register Office. I can't register a wedding that takes place anywhere else but our chapel in Blackburn. Perhaps the Catholic church just doesn't see the need to have one of their congregation do the job when there are people who come and do it for you. Oh yes, the church has to have somewhere same and secure and approved by the powers that be to store the certificates and records etc too.

Sounds like a good idea to ask a relative who is a C of E vicar, that would cut down on the he costs.