Wondering what’s the difference between a registrar and a celebrant? Or whether you need both? Here’s everything you need to know - plus how real couples made it work in North Wales and beyond.
Updated 5 July 2026. Registrar fees below are Conwy County Borough Council's published rates for April 2026 to March 2027. The law reform status is correct at the date above, and I'll keep it current as things move.
If you're planning a wedding in Wales or England, here's the short version. A registrar is employed by your local council to make your marriage legal. The ceremony follows a set script, happens in a register office or licensed venue, and is usually over in about twenty minutes. A celebrant writes and leads a ceremony built entirely around you, anywhere you like, but can't yet make your marriage legal in England or Wales. Most couples who want a celebrant ceremony also book a short statutory signing with the registrar, which costs £62 here in Conwy plus notice fees. And the ground is shifting: in October 2025 the UK Government committed to making Humanist weddings legally recognised in England and Wales, which would remove the need for that separate signing altogether.
That's the answer in one breath. The rest of this page unpacks it: what each of us actually does, what it costs in North Wales specifically, how couples combine the two, and what the coming law change means if you're marrying in the next few years.
A registrar is a council employee whose job is to register births, deaths and marriages. At a wedding, their role is to make sure the legal requirements are met: the right words spoken, a licensed venue, two witnesses, signatures in the right places. They do this well, and at volume. On a summer Saturday your registrar may conduct five or six ceremonies back to back.
That volume shapes the experience. The script is standardised, with a little room for a reading or some music (nothing religious, that's the law). Your slot is fixed, so if it pours at 2pm and clears at half past, your wedding still starts at 2pm. And you usually won't know who is marrying you until they arrive, because you book the service and the council allocates the person. None of this makes registrars the villains of the piece. The ones I meet are lovely people working inside a system built for legal accuracy rather than storytelling.
One thing that catches couples out: registrars book up fast, sometimes more than a year ahead for peak Saturdays. If your heart is set on a registrar ceremony at a licensed venue, book the registrar before you print anything.
Fees are set by each council, so the honest answer is "check yours." Here's what it looks like in Conwy for April 2026 to March 2027, straight from the council's published fee schedule:
So the true cost of the cheapest legal route in Conwy is around £168 all in: two lots of notice, the statutory fee, one certificate. You'll still see "£56" or "£57" quoted around the internet. Those are old figures from English councils, and prices moved again in April 2026.
Nearly every couple I work with takes the statutory route. A few book the next room up so both sets of parents, their children or their siblings can be there for the signing too. Either way, the legal part is done in minutes, and the wedding itself, the part everyone remembers, happens wherever and however you want it.
A celebrant writes and leads your ceremony. That's the whole job, and it changes everything. Instead of a set script, you get a ceremony written from scratch about the two of you: how you met, what you love about each other, what you're promising and why. Instead of a licensed venue, you can marry on a beach, up a mountain, in your parents' garden or the pub where it all started. Instead of a stranger with a folder, you get someone you've chosen, met, and planned with for months.
Catherine and Ashley put it better than I can: "Our guests couldn't believe how relaxed, personal and fun the ceremony was… completely different to a normal registrar ceremony."
There are two kinds of celebrant, and the difference is about to matter more than it ever has.
Independent celebrants are self-employed and set their own standards. Many are excellent. Their ceremonies can include any mix of religious, spiritual or secular content, and their training varies from provider to provider.
Humanist celebrants like me are trained, accredited and quality-assessed by Humanists UK, the national charity that has been providing non-religious ceremonies for over a century. We work to a professional code of conduct with ongoing review, and our ceremonies are personal, inclusive and entirely non-religious. I consider myself a Humanist rather than a celebrant who happens to skip the hymns; the meaning-without-religion part is the point. It's also why the law is about to change in our favour, which we'll get to shortly.
Yes, and most of my couples do. There are three ways to run it.
Different days. Janine and Clair popped into the register office in Caernarfon the day before their wedding at Llyn Gwynant. Ten minutes of paperwork, then a whole wedding day free for personal vows, handfasting cords and a barn full of people they love.
Same day, one after the other. Gemma and Jon and Rod and Dan each had the registrar visit their licensed venue in the morning, signed with two witnesses, then relaxed into a celebrant-led ceremony in front of everyone. Guests see one wedding; the paperwork happens offstage.
Side by side in one ceremony. A few registration services will let a registrar handle the legal words inside a celebrant-led ceremony, so everything happens in a single sitting. It's a lovely format when it works, with two honest caveats: not every council offers it, and you'll be working around the registrar's diary rather than your own. Ask early and be prepared to hear no.
Whichever route you pick, the principle is the same. Make the legal part quick, private and cheap. Spend your day, your energy and your budget on the ceremony people will actually remember.
Most comparison guides haven't caught up with this yet, so let's be precise about dates.
On 2 October 2025, the UK Government announced the biggest reform of wedding law in England and Wales since the 19th century. Two parts of that announcement matter here. First, regulation will shift from buildings to officiants, which opens the door to legal weddings on beaches, in gardens and up mountains. Second, the Government committed to legally recognising Humanist marriages, conducted by celebrants accredited through Humanists UK, ending the need for a separate register office signing. Scotland has had legal humanist weddings since 2005 and Northern Ireland since 2018. In Scotland, humanist weddings now outnumber all religious marriages combined.
What's genuinely unresolved is whether independent celebrants will be included. The Government's consultation will consider whether independent celebrants should be allowed to conduct legally binding weddings. For Humanist celebrants the commitment is made; for independents it's an open question.
As of July 2026, the consultation promised for early 2026 has not yet produced a new law, and no date has been set for the change. My honest advice for couples planning a 2026 to 2028 wedding: plan the ceremony you actually want, treat the £62 statutory signing as cheap insurance, and if the law lands before your date, we'll happily tear that bit of the plan up together. I've written a fuller explainer here: Humanist Weddings and the Law: What's Changing in England and Wales. Both pages will stay updated as this moves.
Fairness first, because for some couples a registrar wedding is simply the better call, and I'd rather tell you that than talk you into something.
Choose a registrar if you want everything legal, official and done in one sitting with no moving parts. If your venue is already licensed and you like the standard ceremony, the maths is straightforward. If you want a small, formal, dignified occasion and personalisation isn't the point for you, a register office does exactly what it promises, at a price nothing else matches. And if you're marrying at pace for practical reasons, the statutory route is the fastest legal path there is, subject to the 29-day notice period and the registrar's diary.
The trade-offs are real but simple: fixed script, fixed slot, licensed venues only, and you won't choose the person marrying you. If none of that bothers you, save your money and book the registrar with my blessing.
Choose a celebrant if the ceremony is the point. If you want to marry outdoors, or somewhere unlicensed, or somewhere that means something. If you want your story told properly by someone who knows it. If you want your children, your dog, your best mate or your whole crowd woven in. If you're non-religious, or you're two different faiths and neither of you wants to pretend otherwise. If you want time: to breathe, to laugh, to wait for the rain to pass.
I'm Kate, a wedding celebrant based in Conwy, accredited by Humanists UK, working across North Wales and Cheshire and further for the right adventure. My ceremonies are story-led: months of conversations turned into a script that sounds like you, because it is you. I take one wedding a day. I've led ceremonies on the beach at Porthdinllaen, on mountainsides in Eryri, in barns at Llyn Gwynant and in back gardens in Garndolbenmaen, and the same review keeps coming back in different words. Clair and Janine's version: "We would give 6 stars if we could. She completely got 'us' from the very start."
The accreditation matters more than it used to. When the law changes, Humanists UK-accredited celebrants are first in line to marry couples legally, ceremony and paperwork in one. Book one now and your celebrant may become your legal officiant before your date arrives.
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, humanist celebrants conduct legally binding weddings. In England and Wales, not yet: you need a short legal signing with a registrar alongside your celebrant ceremony. The UK Government committed in October 2025 to legally recognising Humanist marriages in England and Wales, with the detail under consultation. Correct as of July 2026.
For now, yes, if you want to be legally married. Most couples book the statutory ceremony (£62 in Conwy) a day or so before or after their celebrant ceremony. Once Humanist weddings gain legal recognition, couples with an accredited Humanist celebrant won't need the separate signing.
The simplest legal wedding a register office offers: you, your partner, two witnesses, a few required words, signatures, done. In Conwy it costs £62 and takes place at the registration office in Llandudno on Tuesday and Friday mornings. Add notice fees of £46.50 per person and £12.50 for a certificate, and the true total is around £168.
It varies by council. Conwy's 2026/27 fees run from £62 for a statutory ceremony to £556 for a registrar at a licensed venue midweek, rising past £800 on Sundays and bank holidays, plus notice fees and certificates. Check your own council's current rates, because they change each April.
The ceremony itself carries no legal force in England and Wales, which is why couples pair it with a statutory signing. That is set to change for Humanist ceremonies under the reform announced in October 2025. Whether independent celebrants will be included is still being consulted on.
A registrar makes it official. A celebrant makes it meaningful. For now, you can have both for about £62 more than the celebrant alone.
That's normal, and you don't have to decide before you say hello. Tell me what you're imagining, even if it's half-formed, and I'll tell you honestly what the legal part involves, what I'd charge, and whether I'm the right fit. No pitch, no pressure, no follow-up campaign. One message is enough to start: get in touch here.
If you'd rather read a little more first, my Humanist weddings page covers what a humanist wedding is and how I work, and my pricing page has the numbers.
Here's a list of other blogs you might enjoy:
Kate Rostance is a humanist wedding celebrant based in North Wales. She creates ceremonies that are relaxed and full of meaning - with a touch of humour and plenty of heart. She works across North Wales, including Snowdonia, Anglesey, Gwynedd, the Llyn Peninsula, Cheshire and beyond.
Find out more about Kate, her approach to weddings, or what happy couples have said about her.
