FLINTSTONES costumes, a dog as a ring bearer and a bride arriving in a skip are just some of the memories staff at Swindon Register Office have built up in the 34 years since it opened in Aspen House.

The office, in Temple Street, will hold its last wedding ceremony on May 28 before relocating to its new and bigger home in the Civic Offices in Euclid Street for its first wedding ceremony on June 3.

Sheila Cracknell, who has been a registrar at the office for six years, said they have had lots of memorable moments.

“We have had a couple dressed as the Flintstones and we had to ask them to remove their headgear because legally you have to be able to see them to marry them. We have had numerous people in fancy dress, we also had bikers with all their bikes out the front,” she said.

“We have had lots of nervous brides and brides still doing the make-up as they are coming in through the door.

“One time somebody had spilt lipgloss on her dress so it all had to be cleaned before she got here. When she arrived she was a few minutes late but she got married in time.

“I have also had the bridegroom return to the register office on the Monday following the ceremony on Saturday to obtain duplicate copies because the certificate got lost at the party,” she said.

The new register office will have a choice of three ceremony rooms, including a grand ceremony room which will seat 60 guests, as opposed to the current office which has one room which holds 40 people.

It is also expected that this room will have a webcam facility in which the proceedings can be broadcast to family and friends.

The new premises will allow them to hold up to eight ceremonies a day as opposed to just six, and the ceremonies will also be 15 minutes longer.

“It is very exciting, I think they have been talking about us moving for about 12 years,” said Sheila.

The first ceremony at Aspen House was held on May 9, 1977 in which George Woolford and Patricia Concannon tied the knot.

Six weddings will take place at the register office on the final day and the last ceremony will see the families of Hardingham and Edginton using the room for the last time.

The office registers about 4,000 births a year and 2,000 deaths Bobby Bailey, who has been a registration officer at the office for five years, said: “I think just being in a new and purpose built building which has been recently decorated is going to be lovely. We will have a proper ceremony room which will be much bigger.

“We have all had an input into this, every person has had a job to do.”

Already, around 140 couples are booked in to be married in the new office, which cost approximately £695,000 to build and will save the council £60,000 annually in rent.