What is the earliest date I can get married?
Your earliest date is the day you can get a notice appointment, plus the statutory waiting period, plus a day for the ceremony to be scheduled. In practice that means roughly six weeks in a standard case and around thirteen weeks where the notice is referred.
The calculation
Earliest date = date of the later notice appointment + waiting period (28 or 70 days) + availability of registrars and venue on that date.
Registrar availability is what turns a theoretical earliest date into a real one, particularly on Saturdays.
Worked example
If the soonest appointment in the busier of your two districts is in three weeks, and you are on the standard route, the soonest legal date is about seven weeks away — and the first available Saturday may be later than that.
How to pull it forward
Look for cancellations in both notice districts, consider a weekday statutory ceremony at a register office, and be flexible on venue rather than on the legal steps.
What this means for you
- You cannot shorten the waiting period, but you can usually shorten the appointment wait.
- A weekday statutory ceremony is almost always the fastest legal route.
Official sources
Last reviewed: 16 August 2026 · Next review due 16 November 2026
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Simply Married is an independent planning service, not a register office or government department. Confirm current requirements and fees with your own register office and on GOV.UK.