So it turns out there’s a surprising number of quirks and weirdness around marriage and civil partnerships under UK law:
- Only same sex couples can get civil partnerships (some people are trying to change this law)
- You can annul a marriage if:
- the person you married was pregnant at the time, and you aren’t the father
- you didn’t properly consent to the marriage (for example, you were drunk or forced into it)
- it wasn’t consummated (that is, you haven’t had sex with the person you married since the wedding) (opposite-sex couples only)
- the other person had a sexually transmitted disease when you got married (opposite-sex couples only)
- If you’re getting married you must exchange some formal wording
- If you’re having a civil ceremony, you can’t include anything religious
- Via a document comparing civil partnership and marriage for same-sex couples:
- Marriage certificates include the names of only the fathers of the parties; civil partnership certificates include both parents
- Marriages are registered on paper, in a hard copy register; civil partnerships are recorded electronically
- Marriage notices include the addresses of both parties; civil partnership notices do not