…and it’s Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2006. After a day minching around Central London, going to the Barbican Centre for an exhibition, and then having a princely lunch at Subway, we took the number 12 bus to Camberwell and kept our appointment with the registrar. The building is a Grade II listed structure (I suppose it might have been St. Giles’s Rectory or something of the sort, but I can’t say for certain) but the waiting room is so modern that the registrar has to come out with the hand-held chip and pin machine because the slots in the glass window at reception are too small to pass the machine through.
We saw the registrar, first together, then separately, while she took down our details. The notices will be up for the next two weeks, and then we’ll be free to form our Civil Partnership. We won’t be having a ceremony, just signing the register, but we’ll take our witnesses out to lunch afterwards. And that will be that!
Wish us luck!
Oh, congrats and best of everything. How nice is this? It’s one of the nicest things ever. Oh just fabulous. I love to be happy at Christmas.
YAY!
The registrar offered us February 13th because HWMBO asked not to have it the week we get back from Singapore as we’ll still be getting over our jetlag. I of course, being non-romantic, didn’t object but HWMBO said, “Have you got a slot open on February 14th, Valentine’s Day?” She did, and we took it.
Thanks for your good wishes. Christmas is often a sad time for many so it’s good to have nice news to share.
Wow! That is fantastic! One day here in this ass-backwards country maybe Roberto and I can do the same – I hope I live to see the day.
yay to you both
Aw, you’ll be newlyweds when I get there! Congrats!
The notices will be up for the next two weeks, and then we’ll be free to form our Civil Partnership.
Is this the modern secular equivalent of having the banns said?
Congrats to both of you! You’ll never have trouble remembering when your anniversary is, either.
If you quickly move to Massachusetts, you could do it. But I do hope that it happens for everyone. Thanks for your good wishes.
Yes, this has always beena requirement for any wedding, whether secular or religious. The religious requirement is a bit stricter, though: the C of E require the banns to be cried for three consecutive Sundays, with the banns certificate issued on the fourth Sunday. So at least we’re spared that.
There are computer-generated listings on the wall of the reception area of the registrar’s office with all those who are having civil partnerships or marriages listed with their addresses and details. No gender, though.
It was funny that the registrar asked my parents’ names and their occupations; she said that the law was unclear and that, although they have to do it for hetero marriages, they hadn’t been sure up until recently whether they had to do it for civil partnerships. The ruling was that, actually, yes they did.