Weddings - Why Church?
A wedding is one of life’s great occasions, a moment when a man and a woman exchange their vows and commit themselves to each other for life. It is rightly seen as one of the most significant events in people’s lives. Because of this many couples choose to be married in church where they can say their vows before God and ask his blessing on their future life together.
Our historic village churches are central to the lives of our local communities and are places where thousands of couples have been married over the years. They are also beautiful buildings which naturally lend themselves as venues for events such as weddings whether they are large or more intimate in size.
Your wedding is important and the clergy of the churches in the Wheatley area are keen to help you make your wedding day as meaningful and enjoyable as they can. They can guide you with making decisions over music and readings. You can have bells rung and the church decorated with the flowers of your choice. You can choose whether you want to video the service. The clergy will help you in putting together your order of service. They will offer you a rehearsal so that you can relax and enjoy your great day without worrying about what you should be doing next.
Above all, they will prepare you for your married life together by meeting with you and talking through what it means to be married and how the Christian view of marriage has helped countless people to enjoy fruitful, lasting and happy marriages over many centuries.
This leaflet contains information to guide you as you plan for your big day. Please use it and make contact with any of the clergy listed on the back. They are here to help.
Which Church?
Following new legislation, it is now easier to get married in the parish church of your choice. The existing regulations have been supplemented so that a couple who may have moved away can now get married in the parish church with which they have had a qualifying connection at some stage in their life.
Until now couples have usually had to be resident in the parish but now they can be married in the parish where they used to live or worship, or where they were baptised or confirmed. It is also possible to be married on the basis of parents having lived or worshipped in the parish, or even because grandparents were married in that church!
Furthermore, because the churches of the Wheatley area are part of a Team Ministry, if you can establish a qualifying connection with one of the churches, you can get married in any of its twelve churches and that means in Albury, Beckley, Cuddesdon, Forest Hill, Garsington, Holton, Horspath, Horton cum Studley, Stanton St. John, Waterperry, Waterstock or Wheatley!