Wedding Information

Legal Requirements

In order to be married in Church, you must satisfy five legal requirements:

1. One of you at least must be resident in the parish of the church in which you wish to be married, or be on the electoral roll of the church (for which you must worship there regularly for at least 6 months).

2. If one of you is living in a parish other than the one in which you wish to be married, you will need to arrange for banns to be read by the vicar of that parish, and obtain a banns certificate from him / her.

3. If either of you will not be 18 by the proposed date of the wedding, we will need to know that the consent of parents or guardians has been obtained.

4. You must not be related to each other.

5. In addition, the Church of England requires you to undergo Marriage Preparation. Once a year here in the St J’s Group we run a Marriage Preparation course on the Saturday before Valentines Day, and so you will need to be available to attend this day if you would like to be married in one of our churches. You can read more about Marriage Preparation and the thinking behind it by scrolling down to the bottom of this document.

Fees

Click on the relevant link for full list of wedding fees depending on which church you are getting married.
Please note that if your wedding is next year then your fees will be increasing.

Banns

Please remember, if either of you live outside of the parish you will need to get your banns of marriage read in your home parish church (I,e, where you currently live). Once the Banns have been read in your home parish church you will need to present a certificate to our Rector, Revd Matthew Street.

Electoral Roll

If you are getting married in the St J's Group and you do not live in the parish of the St J's Group then you need to be on the electoral role of the parish you are getting married in (complete the form below by clicking the ‘Join the Electoral Roll’).

The Service

Order of service

A printed order of service, containing hymns and essential details is strongly recommended. Do remember that this is your day, and we will encourage you to make it as personal to you and your families as possible, within the legal requirements. For example, you may wish to invite a family member or friend to read a lesson, or to lead the prayers. You will wish to choose hymns, readings and perhaps prayers that have significance for you. Approximately two months before your service you will need to will arrange a meeting with our Rector, Revd Matthew Street to discuss the details of your service.

Organist

We will usually be able to provide an organist/musician to play for your wedding.

Bells (Only available at St Julian's Wellow)

Would you like the Bells to be rung at your wedding at St. Julian's Church, Wellow? Availability is not guaranteed so you are encouraged to get in touch with Richard Holland who oversees bell ringing in the church to enquire as to the availability of his team on your wedding date. There is a £90 fee for having the bells rung for your wedding which is paid directly to the bell ringers – Richard will be able to advise you further about this.

Richard’s contact details are: 01225 833348 / richard@cromwellow.myzen.co.uk. 

Flowers

You are more than welcome to display and decorate the Church with flowers. We do ask though that you clean up any mess created.

Photography & Video recording

Discreet professional photography - although not flash - is permitted during the service if you so wish. Video recording is allowed, but an additional fee of £50 is charged for reasons of music copyright (see fees page).

Sound desk (Only available at St John's PSJ)

If you require the church to provide a sound desk operator on the day there will be a charge of £40 for this service (see fees page)..

Marriage Preparation

We believe that marriage can and should be a wonderful adventure of love and joy, and we take our responsibilities to all our couples extremely seriously. For this reason, and because we know how deeply you want your marriage to have the best chance of lasting and growing in joy, we are committed to preparing you for your marriage as fully as we can.

Marriage preparation day

We invite all couples getting married in any one year to a Marriage Preparation Day, in which we look at various areas of opportunity and challenge which all couples face, and learn together some of the skills that can turn challenge into opportunity.  During the day, you will have the chance to talk with an organist, and we also ‘walk through’ a wedding.  The Day costs £26 per couple and we even provide lunch.  One couple who came on the day in the past said, ”We were somewhat suspicious when we first heard about the day, wondering what lay behind the invitation. But within the first few minutes we were put completely at ease, and enjoyed getting to know the other couples. The day was very relaxed, the material presented was relevant to our situation, and we came away with some excellent tips about making our relationship even better.”

Please note that it is a legal requirement to undertake some kind of marriage preparation in the Church of England.

If you are unable to attend the Preparation Day set-up by St John’s Church alternative arrangements will need to be made between yourselves and the Church Office, contact office@stjsgroup.church.