Weddings

Weddings

We are pleased to be able to offer our beautiful Church for Weddings, Marriage Blessings
and Anniversary Renewal of Wedding Vows. Wedding Ceremonies are undertaken by the
Parish Priest who is able to process the whole wedding application in house, taking care of
the legal preliminaries as well as the Christian celebration.

Those who are hoping to be married at Forest Church should normally either be members
of our Church or actually resident within our Church Parish. It is also sometimes possible
to be married here, even if not resident here, by means of a legal permission called a Licence.
Please contact the Rector on 01594 542232 for more details of this possibility.

If this is to be a second marriage there are guidelines that the Church of England has issued
for the advice of couples and clergy. It may be legally possible for you to be married here
but only if you are either members of our Church or resident within our Church Parish.
If neither is the case, it is not presently possible to marry you here under English law.

Under the new Marriage Measure, it is possible to marry at Forest Church if you have certain existing family connections with the Church. Please contact the Rector to discuss this initially.

Other possibilities may include a Wedding Blessing after a Civil Marriage (see below)
or a service in another (non Church of England) Church or Chapel. If you need advice on
how to proceed or wish to ask questions or discuss this further then don't hesitate
to contact the Rector on 01594 542232.

If a full Wedding Service is not possible for personal or legal reasons, it may still be possible
for a Wedding Blessing (Prayers after a Civil Wedding) to be celebrated in our Church.
Typically a Wedding might take place at a Registry Office in the morning and the couple
and guests would come to Church immediately afterwards for their Wedding Celebration.
Such a Service includes many of the parts of a full Wedding Service but not the legal
pre-requisites nor the register signings.

One tradition which is becoming more popular is to include a Church Celebration as part of
a Wedding Anniversary weekend. Renewal of Wedding vows is a lovely way to mark the
occasion by giving thanks to God for your relationship and pledging yourselves together for
the future. This celebration can also contain many elements of the Wedding Service and
sometimes involves bridesmaids, bestman and family members who were present at the
actual wedding years ago.

From time to time and sadly a Wedding Ring may be lost and a replacement obtained.
At such a time, some couples wish to revisit the Church where they were first married or
a Church of their choice for prayers to be said recalling their Wedding Vows and blessing
the new Wedding Ring. This can take place by arrangement quite quickly if required.
Please contact the Rector by email or on 01594 542232 to arrange such a ceremony.