Thinking about a church wedding?
Congratulations! You’re welcome to marry in church, whether or not you are baptised and whether or not you go to church. And, marrying in church has never been easier thanks to a change in the law which means you now have more churches to choose from. For such a special day, at St Mary’s, we offer a special place.
Can we get married at St Mary’s?
Engaged couples are welcome to be married in St Mary’s Church, Stretton if just one of these applies:
- one of you was baptised or prepared for confirmation in the parish;
- one of you has ever lived in the parish for six months or more;
- one of you has at any time regularly attended public worship in the parish for six months or more;
- one of your parents has lived in the parish for six months or more in their child’s lifetime;
- one of your parents has regularly attended public worship there for six months or more in their child’s lifetime;
- your parents or grandparents were married in the parish.
(These criteria apply to all Church of England churches)
What do we have to do?
Having established that the criteria has been met, this section now provides some points as a guide to help you through the next stages of your planning process.
- Identify the potential dates and times that you would like to get married.
- Contact or visit the Parish Office to check the availability of these dates and times and select the most appropriate one for yourselves. For details of how to contact the Parish office, please see the St Marys Parish Office page.
- As soon as possible you should visit the Parish Office to complete our Wedding Banns application form. You will be given all the information you need at this meeting.
- Hand-in the completed Wedding Banns application form, together with a deposit (currently £100), and this will book your wedding at St. Mary’s. The booking covers the church building, the minister to marry you, the services of a verger to arrange and co-ordinate the completion of all of the requirements and, if required, an organist to play at the service. (Please be aware that we cannot guarantee the minister to be the vicar, due to holidays, diary clashes, etc.)
- You may be invited to attend a ‘Wedding Preparation Day’. This day will bring all wedding couples for the same year together, with the aim of providing help and support in building a healthy marriage. All practical help will be offered to assist you in arranging the wedding, with topics such as bells, videos and other requirements to help to make your day special. This is the tried and tested best way to impart all the information needed and answer all the many questions that you would want to ask. When you have booked your wedding you will receive a letter inviting you to this day – usually the nearest Saturday to Valentines Day (14 February).
We trust this information is of use to those of you thinking of having your wedding at St. Mary’s and look forward to talking to you in more detail about ‘Your Special Day’.
Should you wish you can find extra help to plan a personal, meaningful, spiritual and beautiful church wedding on the web sites: www.lichfield.anglican.org/marriages and www.yourchurchwedding.org
We wish you you every blessing for your forthcoming marriage.
please speak to Laura for anymore information
