Getting married
This advice applies to Scotland. See advice for See advice for England, See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Wales
Who can get married
You can get married in Scotland if you're:
aged 16 or over
in an opposite sex or same sex relationship
not married or in a civil partnership with someone else
not closely related
capable of understanding what marriage means and of consenting to marriage.
If you or your partner are 16 or 17 years old and either of you live in England or Wales, you can get married in Scotland. However, the marriage will not be legally recognised in England and Wales.
Relatives you cannot marry
It's against the law in Scotland to marry or have a civil partnership with the following relatives:
parent
child
adoptive parent or former adoptive parent
adoptive child or former adoptive child
grandparent
grandchild
sibling
aunt or uncle
niece or nephew
great-grandparent
great-grandchild.
Relatives you can marry
The relatives you can marry in Scotland are:
the child of a former wife or husband
the child of a former civil partner
a former spouse or civil partner of parent
a former spouse or civil partner of grandparent
a grandchild of a former spouse or former civil partner.
To be able to marry one of these relatives, you must:
be 21 or over
not have lived in the same house as the person when you were 18 or younger
not have been treated as a child of their family.
Getting married if you're transgender
If you’re transgender, you’ll be considered as the sex you were given at birth unless you have a gender recognition certificate (GRC). If you have a GRC you can:
get married or form a civil partnership in your affirmed gender
get a new marriage or civil partnership certificate, if it was registered in the UK
If you’re already married, you can change gender without having to end the marriage.
Getting engaged
Getting engaged is a cultural tradition and doesn’t have much legal power. It can sometimes help show you plan to get married, for example in immigration cases.
If you or your partner decides to end the engagement, you cannot force the other person to get married.
The law does not say what should happen to the engagement ring or gifts. Unless there was an agreement to return the engagement ring if the wedding was cancelled, then the person that received the ring does not have to return it
You should return engagement gifts if they were given on condition of marriage. This, however, cannot be legally enforced.
Prenuptial agreements
You can make a prenuptial agreement with your partner before you get married. A prenuptial agreement says what will happen to your assets if the marriage ends. You both have to agree to and sign it. It can also say what should happen to anything that is acquired during the marriage.
Prenuptial agreements are legally enforceable by the Scottish courts. You should get legal advice before you enter into a prenuptial agreement.
Civil marriage ceremonies
If you have a civil marriage ceremony, you’ll be married by a district registrar. A district registrar is a person who works for the local council and is responsible for conducting marriages.
The ceremony can take place in a registration office or anywhere agreed with the registrar, except religious premises. You can personalise your ceremony by including readings, poetry, music or your own personal vows, as well as the legal vows. You do not need to have a ring.
If your or your partner cannot speak English, you must arrange for an interpreter to be there.
Religious or belief marriage ceremonies
If you have a religious or belief marriage ceremony, it should be carried out by an approved celebrant. The celebrant might be from a religion such as Christianity or Hinduism or from another belief system such as humanism. Religious or belief marriages can take place anywhere.
You can get a list of approved celebrants in the area where you want to marry from any district registrar. Find a registrar on the National registers of Scotland website.
People over the age of 21 can apply to the Registrar General for temporary authorisation to act as a religious or belief celebrant. This means, for example, that you could be married by a member of your family or a friend.
Same-sex couples can have a religious or belief marriage ceremony if the religious or belief body has agreed to conduct same-sex marriages. There is no legal obligation or duty on a religious or belief body to conduct same-sex marriages. It is not unlawful discrimination for an individual celebrant or a religious or belief body to refuse to conduct a same-sex marriage.
If you’re getting married using a religious ceremony in England or Wales, there are different churches and procedures.
Humanist marriage ceremonies
Humanist celebrants are legally approved celebrants and can carry out marriage ceremonies. Find out more about humanist ceremonies on the Humanist Society Scotland website.
Legal requirements of a marriage ceremony
Whether you get married by a civil, religious or belief ceremony, you must meet certain legal requirements, including:
you and your partner must both complete a marriage notice
the marriage must be carried out by either a registrar or an approved celebrant
you must have 2 witnesses aged 16 or over
at the end of the ceremony, you and your partner, the 2 witnesses and the person who carried out the ceremony must sign the marriage schedule.
Completing the marriage notice
You and your partner must complete and submit forms and documents before your ceremony. This is also known as ‘submitting notice’. The notices must be given to the registrar in the district where you want to get married. They must be given no earlier than 3 months and no later than 29 days before the date of the marriage.
If you cannot give 29 days' notice, the Registrar General can authorise a marriage to take place in exceptional circumstances. For example, if a close family member has a terminal illness and you want to get married as soon as possible. The Registrar General is the person in charge of keeping official records for all of Scotland. You should contact the local registrar where you want to get married as soon as possible.
The marriage notice book
The registrar must make details of your intention to marry available to the public for 29 days before you can get married.
You and your partner’s name and the proposed marriage date will be put on a list of intended marriages. This is displayed either inside or outside the registrar’s office.
If someone has an objection to the marriage, they can submit it in writing to the registrar. They can do this any time before you and your partner are pronounced married. The objection will be considered by the Registrar General.
If there’s a small mistake in the marriage notice, you’ll be told, and it will be fixed. If the problem is serious and breaks the law, the marriage can be paused while it’s investigated.
Getting the marriage schedule
The registrar will process your forms. After making sure there are no legal restrictions, they’ll prepare a marriage schedule. This is the initial record of the marriage.
In a civil ceremony the registrar will keep the schedule until the marriage. In a religious or belief ceremony, either you or your partner must collect it in person from the registration office because it acts as a licence for the celebrant to marry you.
You must do this:
no more than 7 days before your ceremony and
no less than 29 days after your notice has been submitted
If the marriage cannot take place on the date or at the place specified on the marriage schedule, the registrar will either issue a new schedule or authorise the celebrant to make changes to the old one.
If the new date is more than 3 months after the original date, you might need to submit new marriage notices.
Registering the marriage
At the end of the ceremony, the marriage schedule must be signed by:
you and your partner
the 2 witnesses
the person who carried out the ceremony
If you had a religious or belief marriage, you must take the signed schedule to the registrar within 3 days of the marriage. In a civil marriage, the registrar keeps the schedule after it has been completed at the end of the ceremony.
Details of the marriage are registered in the Register of Marriages and sent to the Registrar General, who keeps it in the National Records of Scotland. You can get a copy of the marriage certificate from the registrar.
Changing a civil partnership to marriage
You can change your civil partnership to marriage if the civil partnership:
was registered in Scotland
has not been dissolved or annulled
has not been ended by death.
You can change your civil partnership to a marriage by using an administrative process or by having a full marriage ceremony.
Find out more about changing your civil partnership to a marriage on the National Registers of Scotland website.
If your civil partnership was registered outside Scotland, you can change it to a marriage if you meet certain conditions. You can find guidance on changing a civil partnership registered outside Scotland to a marriage on the National Registers of Scotland website.
When you convert a civil partnership to marriage, the civil partnership will end. You’ll be treated as having been married to each other since the date your civil partnership was registered or from 5 December 2005, whichever is later.
Getting married in Scotland if you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland
If both you and your partner live outside Scotland but somewhere else in the UK (like England, Wales, or Northern Ireland), you can get married in Scotland. You both must give notice of the marriage to a registrar in Scotland.
Getting married in Scotland if you live outside the UK
If you live outside the UK, you must get a certificate from your country to say there's no reason why you cannot be married. This needs to be given along with your marriage notice to the registrar at least 29 days before the wedding.
If the certificate is not in English, you'll need to get a certified translation of it. If you cannot provide this evidence, you might not be able to marry in Scotland. You do not need to get a certificate if you're a UK citizen living abroad.
You do not need to be resident in Scotland during the waiting period between the date you give notice and the date the marriage can take place. If you're having a religious or belief ceremony, either you or your partner must collect the marriage schedule in person before the ceremony.
Immigration rules
If you're travelling to the UK from abroad to get married, you might need a visa. This will depend on:
where you're from
who you're marrying,
whether you want to stay in the UK after you get married.
You can read more about coming to the UK to get married on the UK government website.
If you want to marry in Scotland and are subject to immigration control, special rules might apply when giving notice.
If the registrar believes that you’re getting married to avoid immigration rules, they have a duty to report this to UK Visas and Immigration.
Getting married outside Scotland
If you live in Scotland and want to marry elsewhere in the UK, you might need to get a certificate of no impediment from a Scottish registrar. This is to show that there is no obstacle that would prevent you from getting married. Find a registrar on the National registers of Scotland website.
If you want to marry outside the UK, you’ll have to follow the rules of the country you’re planning to marry in. You can get information about this from an embassy of the country in the UK.
For your marriage abroad to be legally valid in the UK:
it must be valid according to the law of the country where it took place
both partners to the marriage must have been free to enter the marriage according to the laws of the country where they were domiciled.
Domicile means the place where a person has or intends to make their permanent home.
If you want to know if your marriage outside the UK will be recognised in the UK, you should speak to a solicitor. Check our advice about using a solicitor.
Remarriage
Anyone who is divorced or whose spouse has died can marry again in a civil ceremony. Religions have different rules about whether you can remarry in a religious ceremony. If you have been married before and want to marry again using a religious ceremony, you should check with an official of the religion.
Marriages which are not recognised as valid
Certain marriages are treated as if they never took place. These are called void marriages. They are marriages which do not meet the requirements of UK law. For example:
the partners are related
one or both partners are already legally married or in a civil partnership. This is known as bigamy and is a statutory offence
when a man or woman is entitled to marry more than one wife or husband. This is known as a polygamous marriage.
If you’ve been married in a way that isn't valid under UK law, you can get married again by a civil ceremony that will make the marriage valid in the UK
Some marriages might have met the requirements of UK law when they took place but may then be annulled. These are called voidable marriages. For example, if one of the partners did not give valid consent to the marriage because the consent was given under duress. Either partner can seek to annul the marriage. If neither partner does, the marriage will be valid.
If you need to know whether your marriage is void, you should get legal advice.
Forced marriage
Forcing someone to marry without their full and free consent is against the law in Scotland. Forced marriage is an abuse of a person’s human rights. You should contact the police if:
you think that you might be forced into a marriage in Scotland
someone in Scotland might be force you into a marriage while you’re abroad
someone you know is about to be forced into a marriage
You can also apply to court for a forced marriage protection order. This can stop behaviour like:
taking you abroad for marriage
taking your passport away
intimidating you with threats and violence.
Find more support about forced marriage on mygov.scot.