Can we get married outside?

Hi everyone,

My fiance and I are big festival goers and would love to get married outdoors, but we're not sure if we can in the UK!

Does anybody know if it is or if there's a way to make it legally binding here? I've read that in Scotland we can go and have a humanist wedding, but it's something we'd like to do close to home.

Any ideas/info very much welcome!

Thank you Xxx

In English law you have to get married in a permanent structure (not sure if that's the way it's referred to in the law) but basically you and your groom and the registrar have to be inside a building. BUT venues seem to be starting to get some clever ideas of getting round this and are building things like gazebos or tree houses which makes it legal. All your guests can sit outside and not in the building and you are only under a light cover so it's more or less outside so you can still get that outdoorsy kind of vibe.

Hope that helps! Whereabouts in the country are you looking at?

I agree, it is unlikely that you will find a venue that offers a ceremony that is completely outdoors but many offer ceremonies under a gazebo or pavilion.

We are having our ceremony under a gorgeous wooden pavilion in the grounds of our venue. I'd definitely suggest looking around for that kind of thing!

you can have a humanist venue anyway so if you want everything outside then have a quick registry do in the morning and enjoy the rest of your festival day however you want, at the edn of the day most people find it's the vows you make rather than the lawful bits which make the real wedding

Thanks everyone

We live in South Staffordshire, so ideally would like to get married here or in Shropshire or the West Midlands. We know we want 2013 and preferably something outside, but I've not really got much idea! My fiance is a musician and often plays at Weddings, so we've seen LOADS and I just fancy something different.

The idea of a tree house sounds incredible!

As for the Humanist ceremony, I've thought about it but know we'd need a registry office/legal bit too, so I'm not sure!

What have you all planned so far? Xxx

We are getting married in Scotland and having a Humanist ceremony, mainly because we want to get married outside - and its a nice excuse for a break for everyone!
We are having a very small, relaxed day and the ceremony and reception are both being held in a log cabin overlooking the sea (hopefully if the weather is nice to us we will have the actually ceremony on the grass in front of the log cabin)
We have just under 5 months till we get married and I am so excited!

There are places you can get married outside - entirely unroofed, but they have to be within the confines of a registered building. We considered the possibility of getting married in one of the little walled gardens within the Somerville College quad - this is entirely legal! But you do have to have a rain back up booked!

you can do it literally anywhere in scotland - if its not already licenced then you just apply to the council but apparently they rarely say no.

in england it does have to be a permanent structure but i think there are a lot more ways round this than you'd realise. Whether its an outdoor gazebo or my friend got married in a barn when if its sunny then they have everyone seated on the grass outside and the couple just stand in the arch doorway for the ceremony. And you have an instant back up if it rains you just turn around and put the folks inside the barn! Keep looking - sure the perfcect place is out there. human ceremony also lovely - if you have a friwend of family could write it with you - you could still do reading and vows etc in front of everyone just you'd have to do the official registry office bit beforehand.

ceejay234 - your wedding sounds perfect!!! Idyllic! I think we're considering a hotel/registered building for the legal bit and a sort of festival for the reception! It's still early days though, so things could change!

RowenaFW- I'd not even thought of that! I'll get googling now

victoriag63- Scotland sounds like a much more accompanying country for weddings! Though I think home is where the heart is for us two, so we'll be sticking around. The Humanist ceremony does sound pretty tempting too, but again, we'd have to do the legal ceremony somewhere so we'll keep looking. The barn idea sounds pretty impressive too! We've decided on either July 24th or July 31st 2013, so we've still got a little time left.

Thanks everybody It's so nice to have other brides-to-be to talk to about these things!

I hope all your plans are coming on well Xxxx

We're getting married in Scotland so our humanist celebrant will marry us just about anywhere but we're having our ceremony in an old greenhouse - the doors either end and both doors front and back will be wide open so it's an outside as we can get but still with a roof and 4 walls. You'll find ways around it with enough looking!