Weddings
St Matthew's is a very popular venue for weddings and we are happy to help you arrange your wedding here, and discuss the present rules for marriage in church. For now small gatherings can be allowed in church but please contact the parish office to find out the latest situation. Church of England Marriage Services To be married in church should be one of the happiest days of your life. It is the legal commitment of a man and a woman "for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish," until parted by death. At St Matthew's we will do all that we can to help you make the most of your special day. Because Marriage is a legal undertaking there are a few rules that have to be observed. In particular: You must be legally able to Marry.
The whole of England is divided into "Parishes" and everybody has the right to be married in their parish church. If you want to check whether you live in St Matthew's Parish then follow the link here, put in your postcode to search for which parish you live in. As long as one of you live in St Matthew's parish then you can get married here.
In addition to the existing rights to be married at a church, there is a new law which came into force in October 2008 which allows anyone who can show a "Qualifying Connection" to be married at the church they have a connection with. This should be good news for many people who were previously unable to be married at a particular church which they feel is important to them.
If you have any questions about this then please contact us to discuss whether you might have a Qualifying Connection, or any other aspect of getting married at St Matthew's Church. Service of Blessing Some couples choose to have a Civil Wedding (in this country or abroad) and then come to Church later for a Service of Blessing. We are happy to arrange such a service for you. Sometimes a couple will choose to mark a significant Wedding Anniversary (25th, 40th, 50th etc) by coming to church for prayers. If you would like arrange something like this please contact the Vicar to discuss it.
To apply to be married in St Matthew's, please come to any of our Sunday Services and ask to speak to the minister, service leader or a Churchwarden after the service. They will hand you an application form to complete and return to the Parish Office. On this form you will be asked for your prefered date and time for the service. (Usually we can accomodate your first choice, but sometimes we have to offer a slightly earlier or later time on the same day, to allow sufficient time for every wedding held at St Matthew's.) The form needs to be signed by one or both of the couple. When you book we also ask you to pay a deposit of £150 to secure the date and which will then be deducted from your final fee. The total cost of a wedding at St Matthew's varies depending on whether you choose to have optional items like Bells, Organ, Heating etc, sadly the price also goes up a little every year! A breakdown of the costs for 2022 is shown below:
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WEDDINGS enquiry form A form to make an initial enquiry about a wedding at St Matthew's | |