Congratulations on your up-coming marriage and many thanks for your enquiry regarding our provision of civil celebrant services.

 

Firstly we would like to just quickly run through the process for getting married in Hong Kong to give you a picture of the work involved so that you can incorporate them into you wedding plans.

 

 

Getting married in Hong Kong is a 2-stage procedure, the first being the application and giving notice of intended marriage and the second being the actual marriage ceremony itself.

 

 

Like the above, our services can be divided into two parts, first the application process and secondly being the civil celebrant at the marriage ceremony. You may choose us to act for either one or both.

 

Details of each of the two parts are set out below:

 

 

Application for marriage

 

Previously, the procedure was that you queued up at one of the Marriage Registries in Hong Kong and apply direct. If your intended wedding day was on an auspicious day, then very often the couples would have to spend the night outside the marriage registry, 3 months in advance, in order to get a booking on that day.

 

The application process can now be made by civil celebrants on your behalf to the Marriage Registry, so that you need not have to queue up, whether or not your intended wedding day is on an auspicious day. In fact your wedding day can be any day within 3 months of submitting of your notice of intended marriage to the Marriage Registry.

 

The procedure is as follows:

 

1. You attend our office to complete the requisite forms for giving notice of intended marriage (“Notice")

2. Taking all requisite declarations by each of the intended bride and groom and where any party is below 21 years   of age to require the consent of his and/or her parent(s) or guardian;

3. Reviewing all necessary documents to ensure compliance with the law, e.g.. in the case of divorcees or widowers;

4. Thereafter the submission of the Notice to the Marriage Registry for further vetting and where there are no further questions, details of the intended marriage will be exhibited for 15 clear days;

5. If no objection is made by anybody, a certificate to marry will be issued by the Marriage Registry and you may  then proceed to get married immediately thereafter but within 3 months from the date of submission of the Notice.

 

 

Celebration of marriage

 

Traditionally, you are only allotted a specific time slot either at the church or Marriage Registry in order to get married. However, you may now get married at any time, any day and anywhere, except at a Marriage Registry or at a church authorised to carry out wedding ceremonies, no matter on land sea or air.

 

The procedure is as follows:

 

1.       Prior to the ceremony, we shall review all the steps and procedures with the bride, the groom and the witness. We shall go over the vows to be taken by each of the bride and groom and documents to be signed by the witness.

 

2.       We shall also review all the documents to make sure that the information and details are correct and where necessary make last minute changes.

 

3.       Immediately or shortly after the ceremony, we shall have to sit down and sign the marriage certificate and its duplicate.

 

4.       Subsequently we shall file the duplicate marriage certificate to the Marriage Registry together with any other requisite or outstanding documents.

 

Our fees

As stated above, our services are divided into two parts and you can elect to have us carry out either one or both parts.  

 

Our fees for carrying out the first part, application for marriage, is HK$2,988 and for attending to the second part, marriage celebration, isHK$4,988. This fee is inclusive of our disbursements and Marriage Registry fees. However if you elect to chose us to carry out both, we would be happy to reduce our fees to HK$6,988.

 

You could therefore elect to make application to get married at the Marriage Registry yourself and come to us for the ceremony only.

The fee in respect of the marriage celebration assumes that we need only be at the venue for no more than 60 minutes. If we should have to stay at the venue for any extended period, then we shall charge at the hourly rate of HK$3,000 per hour. Therefore we recommend that time planning be adhered to as we do no wish for you to incur additional fees on such a solemn and joyous day.

 

Please also note that the venue of the marriage must be within Hong Kong as required by law, but may not be at any venue which is already authorised to conduct marriage ceremonies, namely, Marriage Registries and churches currently authorised to carry out marriage ceremonies.

If you should have any further questions regarding the above or wish to make a booking, please do not hesitate to contact Ms. Maggie Bien at 2156 2100 or send an email to weddings@vongs.hk.

 

Whether or not you chose to use our services, may we congratulate you and wish you a lifetime of happiness together.