Arya Samaj Marriage: Booking, Timings, and Exactly What to Bring

1. Two weeks out: the four things that decide everything

Couples plan the wedding and forget the file. Then the morning arrives, the ceremony goes beautifully, and the registration falls apart three days later over a spelling. So start here, two weeks before the date, with four checks that take one evening between them.

2. Booking the mandir — what to settle on the call

Whether you telephone or visit, settle these ten things and write the answers down. A mandir that runs weddings every week will answer all of them in one call without irritation.

1. The date and the time slot, and how long the slot is.
2. Whether the ceremony is at their own premises, and the exact address. If the venue is “confirmed later”, you are dealing with a broker rather than an institution — ask where, before you pay.
3. The acharya’s name.
4. Whether the ceremony includes the saptapadi. This is the rite the Act names and any genuine mandir answers instantly.
5. How long the ceremony takes. Commonly somewhere between forty-five minutes and two hours.
6. How many people you may bring. Some halls are small; better to know now.
7. What they provide and what you bring — the split in section 4.
8. Whether you may photograph and video the havan, the pheras and the saptapadi.
9. Whether the certificate will carry the register entry number, and whether it can describe the rites performed.
10. The cost, itemised, and whether registration is handled separately and charged separately.

Muhurat, and how much it matters

The Arya Samaj position is that any day is suitable — the movement was founded partly in reaction to ritual elaboration, and its ceremonies are deliberately plain. Many mandirs are content either way, and many families still want a particular date. Both positions are fine; settle it in advance rather than on the morning. What is genuinely practical is that mornings suit everybody, including the registration office, which in Delhi works a morning counter window.

3. Timings — the mandir’s and the office’s

Two clocks matter on and after the day, and couples routinely collide them.

The mandir

Mornings are the norm and slots are common. Allow two to three hours at the mandir in total: arrival and document checks take twenty to forty minutes, the ceremony commonly forty-five minutes to two hours, and the register, signatures and certificate another fifteen to thirty. A mandir offering to complete everything in ten or fifteen minutes is offering a rite with the provable parts removed.

The registration office

The deadline at the other end

• Apply within 60 days of the final ceremony, excluding the ceremony day itself — the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014.
• After that an extended period with ₹500 more, and then a ₹1,000 penalty, which the Additional District Magistrate may remit on reasonable cause.
• Confirm which office covers your address before travelling. Delhi went to 13 revenue districts and 39 subdivisions on 1 January 2026, so an address that went to one subdivision in 2025 may not go there now. And no court complex registers marriages.

4. What to bring on the day — the actual list

Split into three, because the three lists get muddled and the third one is the one people forget entirely.

A. Documents — originals, plus photocopies

• Age proof for both — matriculation certificate, birth certificate or passport.
• Identity proof for both — Aadhaar, passport, voter ID, driving licence.
• Address proof. Several Delhi district pages ask for residence before and after the marriage, so bring both if they differ.
• Passport-size photographs for both — take more than you think.
• Two witnesses, each with their own original identity and address proof. Not photocopies, and not photographs on a phone.
• Divorce decree with proof of finality, or death certificate, where either party was married before.
• Separate affidavits, one from each party — Delhi does not want a joint one.

B. For the ceremony — ask the mandir which of these they supply

• Garlands for the var mala.
• Havan samagri, ghee and wood — usually the mandir’s, but confirm.
• Sindoor and the mangalsutra, where your family observes them — usually yours to bring. Neither is required by law.
• The stone for shilarohan and the laja — usually the mandir’s.
• Clothes, and something you can sit on the floor in for an hour near a fire.
• Sweets or offerings, if your family wishes.

C. The things nobody puts on a list

• Water. A havan in a small hall in a Delhi summer is genuinely hot.
• A phone with space and charge on it, given to one person whose only job is the saptapadi clip.
• A pen and a small notebook — for the acharya’s details, the register entry number and the witnesses’ numbers. Section 5.
• Cash, in case the mandir does not take digital payment.
• A folder for the certificate, so it does not travel home folded in a pocket.
• A chair arranged in advance for any elderly guest who cannot sit on the floor.

5. Before you leave the mandir — the five-minute checklist

This is the part that gets skipped because everybody is hungry, emotional and being photographed. Five minutes here is worth more than the whole morning that preceded it.

Do not leave without these

1. The certificate, checked letter by letter. Both names exactly as on the identity documents, the date, the mandir’s stamp and the acharya’s signature.
2. The register entry number and date, written on the certificate and noted separately in your phone. This is the item always left off and the one that matters most in five years.
3. A request that the certificate describe the rites performed, including the saptapadi. One sentence, said once. Free to ask now, impossible to add later.
4. The acharya’s full name, address and telephone number.
5. Both witnesses’ full names, addresses, telephone numbers and photographs of their ID.
6. A photograph of the certificate itself, all four corners legible — so you hold the entry number even if the paper is later lost.
7. A photograph of the register page being signed.

And check you have the ceremony evidence

• A wide photograph during the havan with both of you, the fire and the acharya in one frame.
• A short video of the saptapadi, both faces visible. Thirty seconds.
• Any receipt, invitation or booking confirmation — third-party documents made at the time are among the most persuasive evidence there is.

6. How many people, and who actually needs to be there

Families overestimate what the law requires and underestimate what the mandir’s hall can hold. Both are worth settling early.

7. The days after — a short schedule

8. Nine mistakes couples make on the day

9. Where we refuse

• We refuse under-age files. Bride 18 or above, groom 21 or above — checked before anything else, and no booking, date or deposit changes it.
• We refuse backdated certificates and any document carrying a false date, venue or fact.
• We will not arrange a conversion so that a couple can use a mandir route that is not open to them.
• Nothing to do with dowry, an offence under the Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 — and a subject that sometimes surfaces in wedding arrangements. It does not go into any document we draft.
• No litigation. No court appearances, no protection petitions, no replies to police complaints. If there are threats, engage an advocate today rather than a documentation service.
• We are not a mandir and we do not perform ceremonies. Where we arrange one, we tell you which mandir, where, and who will conduct it, before you commit to anything.
• And we will tell you when you can do all of this yourselves — which, with matching documents and an address proof in your own name, is most of the time.