Getting married at St Mary's or St Peter's
Our churches are very popular for weddings, and we would hope to make your wedding very special. St Mary's offers one of the grandest settings in the county for a traditional wedding, with magnificent building and long aisle (one of the longest in the country). St Peter's offers a delightful setting for your wedding if you are looking for something more intimate.
You can be married at either St Mary's or St Peter's if one of the partners lives in the parish or one of the partners is on the electoral roll of the parish of St Mary with St Peter. You can also marry in the church if you have a connection with the church: you were a regular worshiper in the church; you have lived at any one time in the parish for 6 months; you were baptised in the church; or immediate family members were married in the church.
Please contact the office for more details.
If one or both partners have been divorced it may be possible to be married in the church.
In order to go on the electoral roll of the parish, you need to have been regularly worshiping with us for 6 months. We consider this to mean attending church services at least twice every month or one of our Alpha courses.
We also welcome people who have had a civil marriage and who then wish to have a service of blessing in church; and we also offer the opportunity for people to renew their vows in church.
In 2013, the basic cost of a wedding in our churches is the statutory fee of £406 plus £80 at St Mary's (for verger and PA operator) or £40 at St Peter's. If you require an organist there is a fee of £85 (or, if you bring your own organist/pianist, £50). In other words, a standard wedding, with organist, at St Mary's costs £571 and at St Peter's costs £531
The basic cost of a service of blessing after an act of the civil registration of marriage is £206, with extras as above
There are additional costs if you would like bells (£80), flowers (depending on what you would like) and boys choir (£175). Our own boys choir is not always available (and not in August), but we have contacts with other choirs.
For those couples who wish to make an additional donation to help us pay the costs of the maintenance of our buildings, we suggest an additional £100 if you are getting married at St Mary's or £50 if at St Peter's.
In order to be married in our churches, we ask people to attend one of our wedding days, about 6 months or so before your wedding, when we will talk about the wedding day, do some of the legal and practical stuff, and think through relationships: how we can make our marriage last and our love continue to grow. These are on Saturdays and run from 10am - 4pm. Lunch is provided. The office will let you know when these are.
If you would like a service at either St Mary's or St Peter's, or more information, please contact the parish office (01284 754680).
Photos used by kind permission of Gary Rowsel of www.garyrowsel.co.uk and Peter and Nicola Shepheard; and of Tim Bowden of www.timbowdenweddings.co.uk and of Matthew and Elizabeth Brown