Giving notice of intent to marry - where?

hello - we are trying to figure out the steps for getting married, and are a bit confused about where to give notice. We live in County Durham. We found the list of offices on the UKBA website where immigrants can give notice. Do we have to go to Middlesbrough, the one in County Durham, or can we go to another one? We would like to make a day of it, and Newcastle or some other location sounds more appealing! Thanks in advance for any advice -

I *think* you have to go to the one in your area to give notice.  At least that was what I was told when contemplating a UK marriage last year (went to the US in the end, so no personal experience).

You could always ask when you call to book your appointment.

You need to go to the register office in your council BUT since you're not a UK citizen (or your partner isn't a UK citizen), you need to go to a designated office and you need to go together (in England and Wales.... it's a different process for N Ireland and Scotland).  It's not really clear if you need to go to the designated office nearest you..... you could send them an email to ask.

From the UKBA:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/while-in-uk/marriageandcivilpartnership/registrar/

And the list of designated registrar offices in England and Wales:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@government/documents/digitalasset/dg_176374.pdf

Thanks for your advice! It's not clear to us either whether we have to go to the closest designated office. I'd like to take your suggestion to email UKBA to ask, but I can't find an email address to do so - I looked online and found the contact information for the Croydon center, but did not see an email address listed. Thanks in advance for any help -

We contacted the register office in our town, but they actually directed us to a nearby town that exclusively handles all the "giving notice" duties for our county.  They asked to see my birth certificate, my passport, & a utility bill with my name on it.  2.5 wks later we got the certificate for marriage. 

The UKBA has nothing to do with getting married, so don't contact them.

Contact your local registrar and find out
1.  Where you are able to give notice as a non-UK national, and
2.  If you can give notice in a different area from where you live.

Thanks for your advice! It's not clear to us either whether we have to go to the closest designated office. I'd like to take your suggestion to email UKBA to ask, but I can't find an email address to do so - I looked online and found the contact information for the Croydon center, but did not see an email address listed. Thanks in advance for any help -

I was suggesting contact the register office.  We emailed the register office in our council (which happens to be a designated one) to get basic info (in writing for my Fiance Visa) and later called them up to ask a few questions and book to give notice.  Depending on who picked up the phone, we got different answers to some questions..... email might be better so it's in writing and they have time to ask the head registrar and get back to you (hopefully with the right answer).  Maybe send an email to a few of the designated offices and hope their answers are the same!  

Edited to add-
However you do it, get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.  If you or your partner is here on a Fiance Visa, you've only got 6 months to get everything sorted.  Once we got my name on a bill (which we delayed a bit and then it took a while to actually go through) to prove my postcode, they were booked out a month to give notice and a further month for a ceremony.  At the end of the day, we got it all done within about 4.5 months which wasn't cutting it too close, but I'm glad we didn't wait longer to start to process or have any major hiccups along the way!  

Edited again to add-
I just saw you're here on a Tier 2 visa so the Fiance Visa stuff doesn't apply, but if your visa is ended soon, you've got that deadline to consider.    If not, then take your time! 

Because one of you is a foreign national (non-EEA), you have to give notice together, but it can be at anyof the Designated Offices. 

This was actually my saving grace when they announced the rule changes last year, as the first date to even give notice at our local register office was over a month away, and beyond the date the new rules became effective. As an example, we live in London, but did everything in Nottingham.

https://www.gov.uk/marriages-civil-partnerships/giving-notice-at-your-local-register-office

thanks to everyone for your help! I emailed the registrars in both Durham and Newcastle and got the same answer as suggested above - we can give notice at any designated office. I just made an appointment to give notice. But now I'm confused again - the registrar told me that we have to book the ceremony in advance of our appointment to give notice, and notify the registrar of the location of the ceremony. I thought that we had some leeway - that we had to know where we intend to marry, but that we didn't have to actually book the ceremony yet. Any advice on this much appreciated, and in any case, thanks very much!

We had the same catch 22 when we tried to get an appointment to give notice- some at the registrar office told us we had to have given notice before making the appointment for the ceremony, but online it said we needed to book our ceremony first.    

I think when we gave notice, they asked what date we had our ceremony scheduled for.... but I really can't remember (we had our ceremony date booked before we gave notice).

The notice ppl asked us the details of our wedding ceremony location.  There's a box on the certificate of marriage where they have to type in the location...although it doesn't have a date listed & I don't think they make contact with the location that you state.  It's up to you get the certificate to the ppl who will eventually marry you & if your ceremony location changes then I would think you have to get a new certificate.  The certificate states that it expires in 12 months.  Hope that helps~

We provisionally booked the registrar office for the day (couldn't officially book until we'd given notice). Then we gave notice where we live, providing the day/location for the ceremony. After that we could swap the day of the ceremony as much as we liked, but if we wanted a different location (I think even a different room within the registrar office) we'd have to give notice again.

We provisionally booked the registrar office for the day (couldn't officially book until we'd given notice). Then we gave notice where we live, providing the day/location for the ceremony. After that we could swap the day of the ceremony as much as we liked, but if we wanted a different location (I think even a different room within the registrar office) we'd have to give notice again.

Oh!  Yeah!  That sounds familiar!  It was a provisional booking we made before giving notice (which some people at the registrar office didn't want to give us) which was confirmed after we gave notice.  You need to have a location set before giving notice, as equestrianerd said. 

Just curious-When giving notice did the registrar play 20 questions? we ended up with a nightmare in Gloucester.

Just curious-When giving notice did the registrar play 20 questions? we ended up with a nightmare in Gloucester.

I think we were only asked a few questions- she asked about our father's occupations, our occupations, our full names, our birthdates and where we were born and our current address....

SIL got a lot more questions- she was asked BIL's address and she flat out didn't know.     Of course, she'd been there, but never sent any post or needed to know his address.    After hearing that, we were prepared and quizzed each other over seemingly mundane facts, but for us, it was easy peasy.    Nothing worth worrying about if you actually a bit about know each other.