Get me to the lounge in time

WAITING for that familiar music to signal an advert break in Coronation Street, the registrar rushes into the living room, mumbles a few words to the couple sitting on the settee, and dashes out, just as the soap begins again. No fuss, no need to go out and another marriage ceremony over.

At least, that is what could happen under proposals to overhaul civil weddings, hailed as the most far-reaching changes to the institution of marriage in almost 200 years, published yesterday.

Instead of the marriage venue being licensed, it would be the register office official who would be authorised to act as a "celebrant", giving them the power to decide if a venue is suitable. This will leave the way open for couples to marry in their own homes, on the tops of mountains, or, that venue so beloved of Dallas and Dynasty, on their front lawns.

Weddings will also be able to take place at any time of the day or night, and not just between 8am and 6pm, the result of a law drawn up in 1837 to make sure the wrong people were not married in the dark, in the days before electricity.

The aim is said to be to make weddings easier and cheaper to arrange, but family campaigners fear they will end up trivialising marriage. Simon Calvert, deputy director of the Newcastle-based Christian Institute, says: "It downgrades the seriousness of marriage. Going to a church or registry office means there is an added degree of solemnity and formality about the process, which makes people think about what they are entering into," he says.

"The more informal marriage ceremonies get, the more it reinforces the idea that marriage is something which can be taken lightly. I think this is a mistake, and, given the increasing divorce rate, we need to be looking at going back to more formal venues for marriage.

"I can't see how it is likely to encourage people to get married. It may convince some sceptics that marriage is a joke, and the idea that you could celebrate a marriage at the bottom of your garden or in the middle of a field of cows, downgrades the seriousness of it."

But the Reverend Stephen Conway, senior chaplain to the Bishop of Durham, takes a more relaxed view of the proposals. "If this is an opportunity simply to trivialise things for the sake of the market place, then it is not a good thing," he says. "But if it is about giving people choice and helping them to really look closely at what they're doing for the rest of their lives, then it is a different matter."

While there is a danger that some people will be pushed into plumping for ever more weird and wonderful venues, he says he is confident that most people would be keen to make a sensible choice over where they want to get married.

"Regardless of people's religious faith, and their perception of marriage, it is something that all of us would understand as being profoundly important," he says. "Embarking on marriage is recognising that this is something that is bigger than both of you, and that being married on a mountain top, surrounded by the wonder of creation, might be a very profound and moving thing."

He says that, while Christians might hope that people believe that being married in church was the most significant way to express their love for each other, those who choose another location are still as much married as anyone else.

"When people choose a venue, they should be looking not just at it being convenient or fun, but also how much that venue reinforces the significance of their commitment," he says.

"If people are thinking about getting married in their own home, it may be that they want something which is very simple and intimate and quite private. But you don't have to have a spectacular marriage in church. You can be married on a Wednesday afternoon with two witnesses, that is all you need.

"The church would want to support people's desires for intimacy, and being able to do it in different sorts of ways. You hear about people wanting to be married on the set of Coronation Street, and I don't think that should be trivialised, because obviously lots of people become very attached to these soaps."

Around three quarters of the 270,000 marriages in England and Wales last year were civil ceremonies, but the Church of England says it is not worried that the reforms would have an effect on the number of church weddings.

The proposals, published in a White Paper yesterday, also include allowing people to register births and deaths over the Internet, and replacing paper certificates for births, marriages and deaths with computerised records.

And the marriage reforms follow a shake-up in 1994, when couples were allowed to marry outside of churches and register offices for the first time. This in itself has led to ceremonies taking place in some weird and wonderful places. Last year, Simon Stapleton and Dawn Bottomley became the first couple to be married on the London Eye, with other venues ranging from a Cornish tin mine to a shopping precinct.

This means yesterday's proposals are, to some extent, putting what is already common practice onto a firmer footing, according to Dr Gill Gillespie, senior lecturer in sociology at Northumbria University, and a specialist in family law and policy.

And, far from undermining marriage, they could end up making it more popular, she says. "It gives impetus to marriage, because it widens civil ceremonies. It could be that the Government has seen the institution of marriage declining in popularity, and wants to try and encourage people to get married. The Government still sees marriage as the most suitable way of bringing up children. This would also reduce the cost, because marriages are getting expensive. If people are thinking about marriage, but can't afford it, then the Government would rather they went ahead ."

She says those who argue that the changes would trivialise marriage are generally keen on religious ceremonies, but if weddings are to take place outside church, then the actual location is less important.

While the average length of a marriage which ends in divorce is ten years, the time cohabiting couples spend together is about five years. Even though some of those cohabiting couples end up getting married, they have double the break-up rate of married couples.

"A lot of people do not consider themselves to be particularly religious, but nor do they want a five minute ceremony in a register office, because they don't feel that is giving it the weight it deserves," Dr Gillespie says. "People might think the solemnity of marriage is being reduced, but the availability is being increased."