Every venue above pairs with a reception here, and we have welcomed couples from most of them. What the cards cannot tell you is how the legal side works, and that is where couples lose the most time.
Two ways to get married, and they work differently
Most couples who celebrate with us marry at a register office or a licensed venue first, then come to The Hackney for the reception. The legal ceremony is short, often twenty to thirty minutes, and the celebration is the part everyone remembers.
A church wedding works the other way round. It is legally binding in itself, so there is no register office step and no notice to give. The catch is that you cannot simply choose a church you like the look of. You will normally need to live in the parish, worship there regularly, or have what the Church of England calls a qualifying connection, which can include being baptised there, having lived in the parish for six months, or having a parent or grandparent who married there. Your banns are then read on three Sundays in the three months before the wedding, in your home parishes as well as in the church itself.
One thing worth knowing early. Same-sex couples cannot currently marry in a Church of England church. Some parishes offer blessings, and several near us do so warmly, but marriage itself is not currently possible under Church of England rules. If that affects you, the register offices and licensed venues are your route.
Giving notice, and why it catches couples out
If you are marrying anywhere other than a church, you both need to give notice at your local register office. Not at the venue, and not at the register office where you are marrying, unless you happen to live in that district.
Notice must be given at least 29 days before the ceremony and stays valid for twelve months. It is a separate appointment, it has its own fee, and it is the step couples forget until late. In Tower Hamlets the wait for a notice appointment has recently been running at around two months, so book it as soon as your date is confirmed.
Your ceremony only counts legally in the right place
This one surprises people. In England and Wales a civil ceremony is only legally valid at a register office or at premises the local council has approved. Humanist and independent celebrant ceremonies, however beautiful, currently have no legal standing here, unlike in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The Hackney is not licensed for legal ceremonies and we are straight with couples about that. It is also exactly why the two-part day works so well. You do the legal bit somewhere that photographs beautifully, then you have the ceremony you actually want, with everyone you love in the room and no registrar timing you.
Worth the journey, if you have the time
Three venues sit outside our thirty minute rule but come up often enough to mention. The Asylum Chapel in Peckham is a Grade II listed ruin with peeling paint and extraordinary light, and couples who chose it tell us the photographs alone justified the trip. The Fitzrovia Chapel packs Byzantine mosaics and marble into central London. Old Marylebone Town Hall is one of the most photographed register offices in the country, with rooms from eight guests up to a hundred.
All three mean a longer, less predictable journey. If you are set on one, build in far more time than feels necessary and put everyone on a coach.
Working backwards from your arrival
Use the planner in each card above, then add slack. The timings it gives you are honest, but they assume the day behaves, and days do not.
Ceremonies rarely start dead on time. Group photographs always take longer than anyone expects. Someone will be in the wrong place when the cars arrive. Build in at least thirty minutes more than you think you need and you will spend the afternoon enjoying yourself instead of watching the clock.
Confetti rules vary far more than you would guess, and it is better to know beforehand than to be told on the steps. Most town halls near us allow biodegradable confetti outside only, never indoors, and several ban rice outright.
Getting everyone here in one piece
For anything more than fifteen minutes away, think seriously about group transport. A coach or a vintage bus keeps everyone together, removes the parking problem entirely, and turns the journey into part of the celebration rather than a gap in it. Our guide to getting here covers arrival, drop-off and parking at our end.
Whatever you choose, tell us your ceremony venue and the time. We will have the drinks cold and the canapes out when you walk through the door, and we will shape the afternoon around when you actually arrive rather than when you hoped to.
See how other couples did it
Many of the couples in our real weddings gallery married at the venues above before celebrating here, so you can see how each pairing flows in practice rather than having to imagine it.
If you are still choosing your date, see which dates are free on our calendar. If you would rather talk a specific pairing through, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether the timings work.