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Church of England weddings

Your essential guide to the C of E ceremony

If you thought a C of E wedding was just about tying the knot in a picturesque village church, think again. There’s a lot more involved in the marriage ceremony, all outlined here to make things easy for you!

Currently the Church of England gives all British citizens, with no former partner still living, the right to get married in the parish church of the town where they are resident or in the church where either of the couple are on the church's electoral roll (this isn’t the same as the local register of electors). Couples can also get married in a church to which they have a strong family connection, either now or in the past.

An engaged couple are welcome to be married in church in a parish if just one of these applies:

one of them was baptised or prepared for confirmation in the parish;
one of them has ever lived in the parish for six months or more;
one of them has at any time regularly attended public worship in the parish for six months or more;
one of their parents has lived in the parish for six months or more in their child’s lifetime;
one of their parents has regularly attended public worship there for six months or more in their child’s lifetime;
their parents or grandparents were married in the parish.

You don’t have to be regularly attending church, or have been baptised, to get married in the Church of England.

First steps

If you want to be married in a church, you should first arrange to see the minister of the church in which you wish to marry. They will arrange to read your banns (and advise you if they need to be read anywhere else).

There are rare circumstances in which you may need at some stage to contact the Superintendent Registrar, but this is not normally the case. Usually the entire process of arranging the preliminaries to the marriage is handled by the church. Because the Church of England is the established church, C of E ministers act, in effect, as registrars automatically, which is why they can do this.

Essentially you must undertake one of four preliminaries so that your marriage can be solemnised:

by publication of banns
by common license
by special license issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury
by the authority of a Superintendent Registrar's office.

Your minister will guide you as to the most suitable method according to your particular circumstances, although publication of banns is the traditional and preferred method for most couples.

The publication of the banns

The publication of the banns is the public announcement by the minister, during a normal church service, that two people wish to marry and an invitation to the congregation to declare any unlawful reason why they should not marry.

Before this is done, you will need to meet with the minister of the parish. You may both be expected to meet the minister several times, to make sure that the full implications of the commitment are understood.