Marriage Registry Office

breakfast roll

Has anyone else been having problems with booking a date for 2013 with the Marriage Registry Office in Dublin?

I've been ringing since the start of January but have been told the diary for 2013 is not out yet??

jojo2

I've been having the same problem, they really don't make it easy to have a civil ceremony, do they?!

We're getting married April 2013 so I know I'm early trying to book but I've heard of people having huge trouble getting a registrar as there's only 2 of them in the county!

I rang in December, they were so vague and said to call back in January. When I rang in January, after 10mins on hold listening to that terrible music, they hung up.

So I rang again and was told they don't have a calendar for 2013 yet and to ring every week to see if they have one!!!!

Such a joke of a system, how hard can it be to set up a calendar for the next few years?!!

Maybe we could keep this thread updated if either of us gets through to someone that can set up a calendar for next year!

jojo2

Well after I posted that rant about the HSE, my OH came home and said he rang them again today and they said they should have a calendar online in the next week!

Gatica

that's good... I would consider having a non-HSE "civil" wedding. They're much more flexible and appreciate your business. We booked it with spiritualceremonies.ie. I know it's probably not for everyone, if you're completely against any religious group. However, if you don't care either way and just wanna get married outside of the church, then it's worth considering. Far less hassle than the HSE.

breakfast roll

Still no sign of anything on the website yet! I know it's only Monday but I've a feeling the 'next week' from last week will be another 'next week' this week :rolleyes:

jojo2

I know what you mean, I'm holding off ringing them until Wednesday...will probably be ages before they get the online applications working!

breakfast roll

I've been ringing all morning but couldn't get someone to pick up the phone! Had to give up cause it was eating away my phone credit :mad:

Quirke2b

Hi all
just off 10 mins on hold call and diary still not available, today I was told it would be another few weeks - question is, do you leave it a few weeks then miss your spot or jsut keep harassing them every day!

jojo2

Great, another few weeks. OH tried ringing today, they did their usual thing of keeping you on hold for 20 mins and then hanging up, so professional!

I suppose we just keep ringing them every week...maybe they'll realise that people want to book their registrars for next year!

breakfast roll

I got through to them yesterday as well. Still no sign of the 2013 diary. I was told even if the online booking website becomes available, we're still going to have to ring them to make an appointment?? Surely it couldn't be that hard to buy a diary in Easons or something and take down date reservations for people!

jojo2

Nothing surprises me with these people anymore...what's the point of having online applications if you still have to ring them?!

If it's so difficult for them to answer a phone, I think we're probably expecting too much for them to sort a calendar out!

breakfast roll

I wonder will this week be 'the week'! ? Still no sign of it on the HSE website yet...

Patrick2011

We booked our wedding for summer 2013 in December last year. You dont have to have go with HSE, theres loads of people who will marry you legally if you do a search. And you can get married on Saturdays then too.

breakfast roll

Diary for 2013 for off sites now available from the registry office!

Gatica

yey, and it only took them almost 1/6th of a year! way to go...

breakfast roll

Although they still don't have the 2013 diary for civil marriages in the registry office itself :cool:

Gatica

ah, well we wouldn't wanna be getting ahead of ourselves for next year...

beerbuddy

Gatica wrote: »

that's good... I would consider having a non-HSE "civil" wedding. They're much more flexible and appreciate your business. We booked it with spiritualceremonies.ie. I know it's probably not for everyone, if you're completely against any religious group. However, if you don't care either way and just wanna get married outside of the church, then it's worth considering. Far less hassle than the HSE.

Its the same thing you first have to go to the registry office to see the regristrar.
Onc you leave there you are officially married.Spiritual ceremony is not actualy getting married as in iRISH LAW YOU CAN ONLY GET MARRIED IN REG OFFICE OR CHURCH. iT MAY HAVE CHANGED

seamus

beerbuddy wrote: »

Its the same thing you first have to go to the registry office to see the regristrar.
Onc you leave there you are officially married.Spiritual ceremony is not actualy getting married as in iRISH LAW YOU CAN ONLY GET MARRIED IN REG OFFICE OR CHURCH. iT MAY HAVE CHANGED

It's changed.

You can get married outside of a registry office or church provided that the venue has been licenced for holding a legal wedding there.

There are also some other organisations outside the main religions who have managed to get solemnisers registered (e.g. the Pagans) and will perform a secular service for you.

Even for the notification process, I remember the HSE are a bit of a nightmare. We were getting married in September 2009, and I rang up the Dublin office in April 2008 to make a booking to meet the registrar (for the sake of ticking things off). We wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible, so I asked the for the earliest date possible. I was given a date at the end of May 2009, and was told that this was absolutely the earliest date they had, they were booked up.
My wife works in a job where work can appear effectively overnight and she absolutely cannot take time off when she is working, so we needed something which was soon, so we'd know if she was free. So I rang up again explained this to them, they gave us a date in April 2009.
Later in the year, April still wasn't ideal because my wife didn't know if she'd be free, so we rang Naas instead, who gave us a date within a couple of weeks.

So particularly if you're in Dublin, it might be no harm to ring around to the other counties to see if they have their books open. Naas is only 45 minutes outside of Dublin. You are not under any obligation to get married in your county of residence.

Gatica

beerbuddy wrote: »

Its the same thing you first have to go to the registry office to see the regristrar.
Onc you leave there you are officially married.Spiritual ceremony is not actualy getting married as in iRISH LAW YOU CAN ONLY GET MARRIED IN REG OFFICE OR CHURCH. iT MAY HAVE CHANGED

Once the person marrying you is listed in the registered HSE list of solemnisers, which you can get off their website or groireland.ie, you can get married anywhere, any time. The 3 month notice period applies to everyone getting married in Ireland, including church weddings.
The venue has to be approved by the HSE only for actual HSE civil weddings.

beerbuddy

Gatica wrote: »

Once the person marrying you is listed in the registered HSE list of solemnisers, which you can get off their website or groireland.ie, you can get married anywhere, any time. The 3 month notice period applies to everyone getting married in Ireland, including church weddings.
The venue has to be approved by the HSE only for actual HSE civil weddings.

Nice to know thanks

jojo2

breakfast roll wrote: »

Diary for 2013 for off sites now available from the registry office!

Thanks for the update, I'll get onto them in the morning!

Peregrinus

Gatica wrote: »

Once the person marrying you is listed in the registered HSE list of solemnisers, which you can get off their website or groireland.ie, you can get married anywhere, any time.

There are some important qualifications to this.

First, there are some statutory requirements about marriage ceremonies:

- The ceremony must involve the presence of both spouses. (You can’t get married by texting “I do!”).

- There must be at least two witnesses.

- The ceremony must be held in a place open to the public. (Hotel, fine. Park, fine. Beach, fine. Your back garden, not so fine.)

- It must at a minimum involve declarations by both spouses, in front of each other, the solemnisers and the witnesses, that they know of no impediment to the marriage, and that they accept each other as husband and wife.

- It must be a form of ceremony approved by the Registrar-General.

Secondly, you need to be aware that (unless you are employed by a Health Board) the only way to get on the register of solemnisers is to be nominated by a religious body. (This is why the Humanist Association can’t get its officers registered as solemnisers.)

And each solemniser has to use a form of ceremony which, as well as being approved by the Registrar General, is also recognized by the religious body which nominated him.

The result of all this is that, e.g., a Catholic priest on the register of solemnisers can only legally marry you in a Catholic ceremony, and in accordance with Catholic canonical rules.

Consquently, your wedding ceremony options are limited by:

- the statutory requirements that apply to all weddings, outlined above; and

- the rules, discipline, tradition, etc of the religious body to which your solemniser belongs.

The Unitarians and the Spiritualists are popular solemnizers because their own rules, etc, are very flexible. They don’t require you to be a member of their denomination in order to marry you, and they have got some very simple, basic forms of ceremony approved around which you can add your own elements. But if you choose any other solemniser you may find them less accommodating.

loveisdivine

Just an update here. I rang this morning and booked a registry office civil ceremony for sept 2013 in Dublin.

However she said I could get an appointment for the paperwork side yet, and I should ring back in 3 or 4 months when they would have their diary ready.