Outdoor civil weddings and civil partnerships made permanent

Outdoor weddings at licensed venues in England and Wales will be legalised permanently after the change received overwhelming support from the public, faith groups and the wedding industry.

The change will mean that marrying couples will continue to have greater choice in how they celebrate their big day. Temporary legislation allowing outdoor civil weddings and partnerships for the first time has been in place since last summer.

A government consultation found that 96% of respondents backed making this change permanent, while 93% supported extending it to religious weddings. Ministers will lay legislation today to legalise outdoor civil weddings and partnerships indefinitely. Reforms to religious ceremonies will be made in due course after the consultation found every major faith group supported the move.

Prior to last summer, civil ceremonies at a licensed wedding venue had to take place indoors or within a permanent outdoor structure, such as a bandstand.

Couples can now have the whole ceremony outside in the venue’s grounds – providing them with greater flexibility and choice, as well as boosting the recovery of the wedding sector which saw many ceremonies postponed during the pandemic.

The move gives the wedding industry the certainty needed to invest in their services and locations for ceremonies before the end of the temporary legislation in April.

Justice Minister Tom Pursglove MP said:

“A wedding is one of the most important days in a person’s life and it is right that couples should have greater choice in how they celebrate their special occasion. These reforms will allow couples to hold more personalised ceremonies and provide a welcome boost for the wedding sector.”

Graham Coy, Partner at Wilsons Solicitors commented:

“It’s a welcome development for couples across the UK that outdoor weddings and civil partnerships have been made permanent. Temporary measures were introduced during the pandemic to ensure that couples could marry in a safe environment, breaking the long-standing law of marriages having to take place inside of a licensed wedding venue in order. Now, couples will be able to hold their full ceremony in the venue’s grounds.

It’s no secret that weddings are any expensive venture, so this positive change will allow for weddings to become more affordable, as well as allowing couples to have more creative options in holding their marital ceremony. It’s likely that we’ll be seeing more couples marrying, particularly younger couples, who previously felt that a wedding was an expensive prospect far out of reach – which will certainly be good news for the wedding industry. With this in mind, it’s vital that couples don’t act hastily, and fully understand what marriage means for their finances, lifestyle and wellbeing before taking the big step.

In principle though, why shouldn’t couples be able to choose where to get married? Health and safety measures need to be in place and the ceremony must be properly undertaken so that it is legally recognised, but subject to that, people’s autonomy should be respected.

Alongside ‘no-fault divorce’ laws being introduced on 1st April, where separating couples will no longer have to assign blame to each other in court during a divorce, it’s clear that the Government are rightfully taking effective steps to bringing divorce law into the 21st century.”

An ongoing Law Commission report into marriage laws is due to be published in July and the government will carefully consider the recommendations once received. This report is exploring how to modernise and improve marriage law into a simple, fair and consistent legal structure. This includes widening the locations that people can get married at and whether more types of weddings should be legalised.

The government will set out its plans to legalise outdoor religious weddings in due course as this will require changes to primary legislation.