Weddings
Weddings can take many forms these days, but there is nothing like getting married in the presence of God, in a beautiful church, in idyllic surroundings.
If you want to get married with us, you’ll need to have an initial conversation with us to talk through some of the initial paperwork and legalities. You’ll need to demonstrate a qualifying connection in order to get married at a particular church – there are seven possible connections, and you can find a list of them here. After that, we can book a date for you, and meet up with you to make sure your wedding is exactly how you want it to be.
If you got married in a registry office and would like your marriage blessed in a church, we can do this too. Just get in touch.
The Church of England has its own website all about weddings, which you can access here.
Renewal of Vows Services
This service is an opportunity for couples to reaffirm their commitment to each other. It has the feel and structure of a wedding service in lots of ways, except there are no legal implications, and you do the vows in the past tense (‘I, X, took you, Y, to be my wife…’).
If you have been married a while and feel that your love is just as strong (or even stronger!) than it was on your wedding day, a renewal of vows service is a great way of letting the whole world know how you feel about each other.
Banns
Banns are an ancient legal tradition that have been read out in Anglican churches for centuries. They are an announcement in church of your intention to marry and a chance for anyone to put forward a reason why the marriage may not lawfully take place.
Banns are read out at the start of a service for three consecutive weeks. The announcement goes something like this:
‘I publish the banns of marriage between X of … and Y of …. This is the first/second/third time of asking. If any of you know any reason in law why they may not marry each other you are to declare it.’
Nobody says anything, and then we pray for you. After this happens three times, we issue you with a banns certificate. If you live in the parish but are going to get married somewhere else, you will need your banns read with us, and then you’ll need to show your banns certificate to the minister who is doing your wedding.
If you are getting married with us, you still need to have your banns read, but you don’t need a certificate – you can have one if you want though!
If may be the case that for some reason (eg, you live abroad), it’s not possible for your banns to be read out. It’s that’s the case, we can talk to you about obtaining a Common Licence.
You can find the current fees for banns here.