Ceremony for prospective partners in Government administration (5,7)
I believe the answer is:
civil service
'government administration' is the definition.
'civil service' can be an answer for 'administration' (civil service is a kind of administration). I'm unsure of the 'government' bit.
'ceremony for prospective partners' is the wordplay.
'ceremony' becomes 'service' (service is a kind of ceremony).
'for' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'prospective partners' becomes 'civil' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'service' after 'civil' is 'CIVIL SERVICE'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for civil service that I've seen before include "Sir Humphrey & Co?" , "State administrators" , "The government's workers" , "State administration" .)