Pink Wedding Days | Gay Marriage and Civil Partnerships Blog

Make the Most of Visiting a Wedding Fair Visiting a wedding fair is a chance for prospective brides and grooms to meet and talk with wedding venues, suppliers and vendors and to find inspiration, to enquire about services offered and to potentially (and hopefully) make a booking. Some couples relish the opportunity to attend a wedding fair.   Others avoid them altogether.   They can be a good place to start but they’re by no means the be-all and end-all of planning. Wedding fairs range in size from small boutique events, to hotel open days and right through to large exhibitions like the National Wedding Show at Birmingham’s NEC. Events take place right across the country and there’s almost certain to be one local to you. If you’ve found hotels or venues that you like the look of, ask if they’re holding a wedding open day.  It’s a great way to see the space dressed for the occasion. Wedding fairs are also a great way to get fr...

Gilwell Park is one of our favourite wedding venues.  They really do go above and beyond for all LGBTQ couples and guests. Located in Chingford and just 5-minutes from Junction 26 of the M25 , it's closer than you think! And only 25-minutes from Central London by train.  Set in 108 acres, the Gilwell estate is home to the stunning 17 th Century Grade II listed White House.  There’s space in the main hall to accommodate 150 guests for the wedding breakfast and 40 on-site bedrooms for guests to stay overnight. Tucked away in Epping Forest, Gilwell Park is close to major transport networks allowing couples a real rural retreat but one that’s easily accessible. We’re really excited to share the details of some of Gilwell Park’s current special offers as well as reminding you of their open day in November. Gilwell Park Late-Availability Special Offer Not wanting to wait any longer to say ‘I do’? Check out our late availability offer and sa...

Stonehouse Court sits inside 6 acres of gorgeous grounds with a stunning view of the Stroud Valley.   As a wedding venue, it’s superb. You’ll only need to explore the website and see the photography: this manor house is easy to fall in love with and hard to forget.  Exclusive use of the property is available for couples or it’s possible to hire the private wedding suite which boasts its own gardens, toilets and bar.  The hotel has an award-winning restaurant and 36 bedrooms making it the ideal place for your guests to stay once the marital festivities are over. There's a real sense of seclusion here. Surrounded by gardens and with views of the lush gorgeous Gloucestershire countryside ,  it's easy to forget that Stone House Court has superb transport links meaning that no matter where in the UK or the world your guests are coming from, they'll be able to arrive comfortably and at their own leisure.  In the summer months, guests can say ...

Just got engaged?  Wondering what the average cost of a UK wedding is? You might want to look away. I t’s £30,355.   MORE THAN THIRTY THOUSAND POUNDS. It’s a  12% increase  on last year.  Christ on a retro-converted prosecco bike - what are you people buying? Okay, so it's probably not that surprising. All that  Insta-worthy, #WeddingoftheYear, Etsy-inspired, three-day festival with alpacas, organic locally produced vegan street food and a laser light show  will add up. I t’s no wonder that the price is rising year-on-year.   We’ve moved beyond the pre-90s wedding template: the church or registry office ceremony, the sit-down meal, the evening reception, buffet and disco into bespoke stage-managed events where personalisation is everything.   It’s obvious that this is going to have an implication on price.  Just to put that into some perspective, a first-time buyer can expect a deposit on a h...

Fewer opposite-sex couples are getting married , that’s according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  The latest figures available for 2015 show that there were 21.7 marriages per thousand unmarried men and 19.8 per thousand unmarried women : the lowest on record. These numbers are consistent with previous years as  f ewer people have been getting married since the 1970s. Same-Sex Couples 2015 is the first year  with a complete set of data on same-sex marriages.  T here were   6,493 in 2015 accounting for 2.6% of all marriages that year with  9,156 couples opting to convert civil partnerships .  Religious ceremonies were not as popular in 2015 with an 8% decrease from 2014.   Unsurprisingly, there were only 44 religious same-sex ceremonies in 2015,  and this number is  unlikely to rise so long as mainstream religious denominations continue to exclude gay couples. Almost all  of ...

Austria’s Constitutional Court has legalised same-sex marriage after ruling that a ban on gay weddings  was  discriminatory.   The case was heard after a lesbian couple was denied permission to marry in the Austrian capital, Vienna.   The women argued that the refusal was unfair and that it violated the country's equality laws, and the court agreed with them.  Austria's first  gay weddings  are expected to take place in  January 2019  at the latest.  This is fantastic news for the country's LGBT-community .   Many European countries already allow same-sex marriage  including neighbouring Germany, who legalised gay marriage back in June.   Good news for opposite-sex couples, too, as civil partnerships will be offered to everyone, including heterosexuals.  It's interesting that Austria is expanding availability beyond the LGBT community whereas here in the UK, the Government ...

Civil partnerships have risen for the first time since 2013 , that’s according to the Office for National Statistics. Civil partnerships have been legal in the UK since 2005 but had  declined in popularity following the introduction of same-sex marriage . They're currently  only available to same-sex couples. The Government is considering scrapping them entirely. Couples with a civil partnership do have the option to “convert” their partnership into a marriage. Whether a couple chooses to convert or not is a decision that should be made based on personal preference.   Civil partnerships should not be seen as marriage-lite although, to many couples, there's something about being 'married' that makes it all feel a little more official.  If a couple is looking to convert to marriage, then we'd recommend visiting the Government's website for up-to-date information and locations of registry offices and the associated costs.  Th...

Huge congratulations to Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende!   They’re the first same-sex couple to get married in Germany.  The two men have been together  for thirty-eight years. Civil partnerships have been legal in Germany since 2001 , but the country’s parliament only voted to allow gay marriage in June 2017. A number of German registry offices opened specially on Sunday so that same-sex couples could marry on the day it became law.  Campaigners have fought hard to bring equal marriage to Germany, and, certainly for Karl Kreile and Bodo Mende, thirty-eight years is a long time to have to wait to get married.  But it does show how quickly things can change once politicians put aside their personal and political biases.   And better late than never so  Glückwünsche! to all couples now able to start planning their big day.

The number of civil partnerships that took place last year has risen for the first time since 2013, that’s according to figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). It was an increase of 3.4%. London saw the highest rate of new civil partnerships. Same-sex marriage has been responsible for the decline in civil unions with many gay couples now opting for the former.    The ONS described those who chose civil partnership s as being a “minority of same-sex couples” The increase isn’t much but it is interesting. The Government had previously suggested that it might scrap civil partnerships entirely.  One reason for this was that they aren't popular enough. These latest statistics could be useful for those campaigning for heterosexual civil partnerships. But it’s not all good news.  The ONS also revealed a rise in the number of dissolutions: 1,313 and the highest number recorded since 2005. You can fin...

Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of a British lesbian who’d previously been denied a dependent visa. The woman – identified as QT – had moved to the territory when her same-sex partner secured a job there.   Same-sex marriage  and  civil partnerships  aren't legal in Hong Kong. QT’s application for a dependent visa was rejected by Hong Kong’s Immigration Department because it did not recognise the couple’s UK civil partnership. The  Court of Appeal  has now said this is discrimination of sexual orientation.  The decision of the three judges presiding over the case was unanimous. Although, they offered no challenge to the local definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.  Hong Kong’s Immigration Department now has twenty-eight days to come up with an acceptable offer to QT.