from The Marriage Foundation
Tomorrow night (24 September) sees the close of the government’s second big family consultation of the summer. Following proposals to give unmarried couples similar rights to married couples (which closed on 14 August), the Ministry of Justice is asking for views on proposed new wedding laws. A summary of our responses are respectively here and here.
In essence, the government is considering updating wedding law from being building-based to celebrant-based. Instead of having to marry in a register office or approved building, couples will be able to marry wherever and however they want (with certain restrictions) under a system that licences the people who conduct the wedding itself.
In theory, this could cut the costs of weddings as the choice of venue is now effectively limitless. In practice, this is already the case. In the last year or so, for example, two of my own children married legally at a cost of £155 in a register office followed by a celebration of their own choice elsewhere.
We think the government has missed a trick, as did the Law Commission on whose recommendation they have heavily leant. There is a very strong case for why the state should regulate marriage but much less so for why they should also regulate weddings.
We therefore propose a system of universal civil marriage, similar to that in France, Germany and Switzerland, where the state registers your marriage and you then get on celebrating your wedding in whatever way you want.
Read here