If you’re planning a wedding, ‘Congratulations!’. Thank you for thinking about getting married at St Peter’s we’d love to help you!

As a Church of England church, we have special rights to marry people and Dave, our Vicar, can act as registrar when people marry in church. However, the laws are quite specific and we want you to be actually married at the end of things.

Legal stuff

The law prevents same sex couples from marrying in a Church of England church.

If one, or both of you have been divorced and your ex-partner is still alive, we will need to have a pastoral conversation before we are able to plan your wedding. In every other circumstance, the place to start is with a qualifying connection.

Both partners need to be at least 16 and if either of you is under 18, you will need your parents permission to get married.

Qualifying Connections

To get married at St Peter’s you need a qualifying connection. There are nine to choose from. If you’re not sure, give us a call on 01302 495855. A number of them depend on someone living in the parish. You can find a map of the parish online here, so if you’re relying on one of those, please do check.

The connections are:

• you live in our parish or you, or at least one of your parents has lived in the parish for at least six months during your lifetime.
• you were christened or prepared for confirmation at St Peter’s.
• you, or at least one of your parents have come to our normal Sunday services at least once a month for at least six months.
• your parents or grandparents were married at St Peter’s.

You’ll notice that anyone can come and join in our services and become able to marry in the church that way. If you’re intending on using this connection, you will need to start coming to church 10 months before your planned big day so we can get everything done. Speak to Dave the Vicar asap!

Booking, Banns and Nationality

If you want to book a wedding, call the office on 01302 495855 and we’ll talk you through the process. We will need to see both partners with ID, ideally a passport (although there are other documents we can use if you don’t have one). This is because we are required by law to use different processes if either of you isn’t British. You can still marry in church, but instead of Banns you will need to register your intent to marry at the Registry Office instead. We will also ask you to pay a £50 deposit. If, for any reason at all, you don’t get married, or you change venue, we will return your deposit in full, no questions asked, just let us know you want to cancel.

How much will it cost?

Fees change every January and you will need to pay the fees due for the year you are getting married, not the year you booked it. You can see what the latest fees are on the Church of England’s wedding website, Yourchurchwedding.org. That website also has loads of information about a wedding, various legal issues and ideas for the ceremony itself. It’s well worth a look.