Guidance for all Marriage and Civil Partnership Ceremonies (2nd March 2022)
The Department of Health have recently updated NI Direct with guidance in relation to weddings and civil partnerships. The new guidance is therefore as follows:
When not to attend a ceremony
You should not attend a marriage or civil partnership ceremony if you are unwell with symptoms of COVID-19.
If either of the couple has symptoms of COVID-19 the ceremony should not go ahead.
Numbers attending a ceremony
If the ceremony or post-ceremony celebrations are taking place in a place of worship, a local government venue, or other venue such as a hotel, it is strongly recommended that the venue operator carries out a risk assessment to decide the maximum number of people that should attend. This should take into account individual circumstances and consideration of all relevant public health advice and industry guidance.
If the ceremony is taking place in a private dwelling (this should also apply to terminally ill weddings), it is strongly recommended that no more than 30 people should gather indoors for a ceremony or post-ceremony celebration. This number includes clergy/ officiants conducting the ceremony and children aged 12 and under.
There are no recommended limits on the number of people that should gather in a private garden.
Organising a ceremony
If you are organising a wedding or civil partnership it is important that you work closely with the venue to understand what measures they have in place.
It is strongly recommended that places of worship and venues should help manage the risk by:
- encouraging social distancing
- promoting the wearing of face coverings throughout the ceremony by everyone except the officiant, the couple and children aged 12 or under
- collecting contact details for each guest at the ceremony to help with the Test, Trace, Protect contact tracing programme.
Guest details should include the:
- name and telephone number of visitors over the age of 16
- date and time of arrival
Consideration should be given to how rites and rituals are observed as part of marriage ceremonies at this time, given the potential for transmission of COVID-19.
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For any queries please email marriage.registration@derrystrabane.com
📌All Marriage Notices which were already submitted. Please advise the Registration Office of your new date of Marriage if you have not already done so. If your Marriage is now postponed to 2022 it is important to advise as it is necessary for the office to issue you a refund and cancel the current notice. You will need to submit new Marriage Notice forms and fees within the 12 months to the new date of Marriage.
📌 For couples who wish to plan a Civil Marriage or Civil Partnership with the Registrar and still need to give Notice please scan through your Notice forms and documents to marriage.registration@derrystrabane.com and we will ring to collect your Marriage fees.
📌 For couples who are planning their Religious Ceremony or Humanist Ceremony and you are within 12 months to the date of your Marriage we are advising couples to scan through their Marriage Notice forms (which can be downloaded from www.nidirect.gov.uk) and documents to marriage.registration@derrystrabane.com Staff will get in touch to collect payment of Marriage notice and certificate fee.