Signing the register

OK, basically you do what the priest or registrar says i.e. usual signature, with the pen provided, brides sign in their maiden name and then your witnesses sign. That's about it really except to note that technically the marriage certificate is the bride's property.

When it comes to the vexed question of photographing the signing of the registers though, it can all get very silly indeed. Sometimes there's no problem, but often there is. We've been told that we can't photograph the signing because of the Official Secrets Act. Because of the Data Protection Act. Because It's Illegal. And "Because I say so".

A photographer we know in Northants can justly claim to have got the wackiest one though: "You can't photograph the signing because it's done with a special ink and you can't photograph that". It is a special ink actually (in that it's permanent), but to use that as an excuse is just plain bizarre.

The reality of the situation is that it is legal to photograph the signing of the registers, but not the entries in them. That explains why we are often to be seen on our knees when photographing a signing: we haven't suddenly got religion, it's just the best way of reassuring a concerned priest or registrar that we're not photographing the actual entries!

The other reality is that most celebrants assume that having done the deed, the happy couple will then delight in sitting there with an empty pen and a blank page, "pretending to sign" while everybody gets a "nice picture" of them.

If that sort of thing fills you with horror, all you have to do is tell the celebrant that there's no way you're going to do that, thank you. And if we're photographing your wedding, all you have to do is tell us beforehand what you want, then leave the rest to us ...