Giving notice of marriage in Wirral - our 2025 experience

When it comes to giving notice of marriage in Wirral, we had a lot of questions before we went and couldn't seem to find any clear answers. I know different councils do actually differ on what happens when you give notice, and who knows if every experience within the same council is actually the same, but I thought it might be helpful for future Wirral brides if I detailed exactly what happened when we went to give notice of marriage at Wallasey Town Hall.

Booking an appointment to give notice in Wirral

I arranged our appointment via email; I sent an email to rbdm@wirral.gov.uk with our names, numbers, date of marriage and our wedding venue. I also put the month/year of our wedding in the email subject line, because I wanted to ensure our email was treated as a priority within the timescale they're currently working to.

In their reply, which came within 5 days, I was asked to give the below information for each of us as well as to provide some dates and times from the slots provided (the days were Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays with a variety of times available).

I responded with all of the information as well as some times and dates we could do. Two days later I got an email to say our appointment was booked; they did say they'd tried to call (only me, despite having both numbers) but I missed the call as I was in a meeting. But the email had our appointment date and time, as well as information about the cost of giving notice in Wirral and what we would need to bring. The date worked well for us so I emailed them back to let them know we'd be attending.

Documentation needed to give notice in Wirral

For the two of us, both being British and not having been married before, we only needed our passports and proof of address; as we share an energy account, the bill has both of our names on with our address, so I asked if it was okay to bring one proof of address document for the two of us. Because I don't know about anyone else, but we don't have many physical bills coming through these days! They said it was fine, so this is what we took with us on the day - along with our passports, as previously mentioned.

The cost of giving notice of marriage in Wirral

For us, in August 2025, the cost of giving notice in Wirral was £42 per person - so we paid £84. This is non-refundable and is not taken from the cost of your registrar/ceremony etc. This is card only, paid on the day that you give notice of your marriage after you've answered all your questions.

On the day: giving notice at Wallasey Town Hall

As Birkenhead Town Hall (our original ceremony venue, boooo) is now closed, all notice appointments will take place at Wallasey Town Hall. Remember, you need to give notice in the borough in which you live, not the one where you're getting married! So we jumped in a taxi and whizzed off to our appointment at the town hall, which felt super exciting.

We walked straight in and were directed to follow signs that read 'REGISTRARS of Births, Deaths and Marriages' - it was all pretty clear, and the main reception were helpful. We of course took some selfies to commemorate the moment; Wallasey Town Hall is really pretty inside so this was nice and will be perfect for the inevitable wedding scrapbook...

Once we found where we needed to be, we let them know we were here and then we were shown to two seats outside an office where we sat and waited to be called in. Then the door opened and in we went! We handed over our passports as well as our proof of address, and she asked where we were getting married as well as the time and date.

I was then asked to leave the room while my partner stayed, and they asked her both of our dates of birth as well as our address and how long she has lived there, followed by each of our occupations. Then we swapped over, and she asked me the same. And that was it - we'd passed with flying colours, and my partner was invited back in so we could have our documents back and ask any questions we had.

We were told that the notice would be sent over to the borough where we're getting married (which happens to be Liverpool) and to wait for confirmation from them before submitting our ceremony choices. She said this could take up to 5 days, but we got an email within just a couple of hours letting us know everything was confirmed - this meant we could go on, submit our choices and also pay the bill for our registrar and ceremony.

This was our personal experience of giving notice in Wirral - if you have had a different experience, please do leave me a comment below so we can share as much information as possible about this important step in the wedding planning journey.