Weddings
First of all, congratulations on your engagement. We wish you every happiness for your future together and we want to make your Wedding a day to remember for the rest of your lives. There are all sorts of decisions to be made about how that marriage is to be celebrated including where to get married.
Getting married in church
People have been getting married in church for hundreds of years and for many, the building and the presence of God, make it extra special. Because Church of England priests are registrars you do not need to involve the local register office.
Visit your church
Before making any decisions we suggest that you visit the church and make sure that it is big enough, there is enough parking and that you can picture the wedding taking place there. For more information about our churches go to their pages on this site.
Wedding preparation
Getting married is not just about ‘The Big Day’, but preparing for your life together. The Rector will want to meet with you several times to discuss this, so you will need to be prepared to set aside time to reflect about this.
Banns
This is the process of ‘Giving Notice of Intention to Marry’. Your Banns have to be called in the Church where you are to be married, and in the parish in which you live, if these are different. They are called on 3 Sundays within the 3 month period before the Wedding.
Planning the service
There is a lot to think about when planning a wedding. Please remember that all of our churches are old buildings. In most cases they have been used by their local community for hundreds of years for worship and to make the important events in life – we ask that you treat them with respect.
The Minister will help you to make sure that the service is what you want. You might want to begin to think about the Service itself:
Music and hymns:
Two or three hymns may be sung at a Wedding, and you will need a piece of music to come in to, a piece to be played or sung during the Signing of the Marriage Document and a piece to go out to.
TEAM CHOIR
We are fortunate to have a Team Choir who would love to sing at your wedding, if you would like us to. We can help to lead hymns and sing during the signing of the Marriage Document. We can offer a choice of six pieces - to listen to them click on the links below to get an idea of them. They would all be accompanied by the organ.
Jesu,joy of man's desiring - Bach (The version we sing is about half as long as this recording)
The Lord's my shepherd - Townend
The Lord is my Shepherd - Goodall (Vicar of Dibley)
The Clare Benediction - Rutter
Readings
There has to be a Bible reading, but sometimes couples like to include a poem or reading that has special significance for them.
Prayers - the Minister may offer you a choice of which prayers you prefer.
If all this seems rather daunting and you don’t know where to start go to
www.yourchurchwedding.org which is a very helpful website with suggestions on everything from rings to registers!
Flowers
You will, no doubt, want the church to look at its best for your wedding. Are you going to ask the church to provide flowers or will you have an external florist? If you use an external florist they need to know what is and isn’t acceptable in the church.
For more information, please contact Our Team
Also, please see the Church of England website.
