Marriage--civil vs church

So we have opposite situations then Cadenza, you did religious in US and had to do civil in UK.  That seems strange they wouldn't recognize your marriage in the US, but I'm new to this whole thing  .  I'm really hoping they recognize my US marriage since it was the actual civil marriage and we just had a convalidation ceremony in Armagh.  So by the Church's eyes, we've been married for 2 months, in the government's eyes (in the US anyways) we've been married for 4.5 years.

I just found out my SIL has set her wedding date for Jan 2, 2010 so I'll be able to take the life in UK test next year! That gives me plenty of time to study

Meggilizz, I think Cadenza said she only had one ceremony (a religious ceremony) that was recognized in the UK.

I'm very confused as to why you would think that your civil ceremony would not be recognised by the UK.  Mine was. 

Am I missing something?

Oh--I thought she said her religious one wasn't recognized. 

I guess my concern was that the diocese in Armagh would register the ceremony paperwork somewhere in the local government.  Maybe I confused that with them just registering our valid (in the Church's eyes) marriage in the main Armagh diocese office. 

I think I'm over analyzing everything!  Just trying to get as much info as I can before we start the whole process. 

That's right.  I just had the religious ceremony and was fine.  Sorry, my post was a bit of an unnecessary distraction as when I first made it, I hadn't realized you were talking about a religious ceremony in the UK.  You should have no problem with them recognizing your earlier civil marriage though as long as your marriage certificate is certified (not just the one they give you when you actually get married, which is more ceremonial than anything).