registry office

a government office and depository in which records and civil registers are kept and civil marriages performed.

Origin of registry office

First recorded in 1720–30

To have a fire without a fire-engine is like being married at a registry-office.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, January 14, 1920 |Various
However, a trifling formality at a registry-office can rectify this and nobody need be any the wiser.

Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, January 14, 1920 |Various
A clock struck ten as Miss Tallmadge hurriedly led the way up the second flight to the registry-office.

The Open Question |Elizabeth Robins
She went to a registry-office in the Strand and entered her name there.

The Time of Roses |L. T. Meade

Instead of which she had consented to a mock marriage in a registry-office—and this.

The Incredible Honeymoon |E. Nesbit

registry office

British a name often used for a register office