The church of the holy innocents at highnam

Weddings

The Wedding Service

Congratulations on your engagement! We are delighted you are considering one of our beautiful churches for your marriage ceremony. Every wedding is different and we look forward to meeting with you and discussing your plans for your special day.

Wedding Form

For more information please continue reading below and to make a wedding enquiry, please download and fill in your details on the Wedding Form which goes directly to our parish administrator.

(The form will download as a pdf to your computer or device).

Banns of Marriage

When marrying in church it is a legal requirement that the Banns of Marriage are read at three services in the weeks leading up to your wedding date.  If you are being married in one of our churches in the benefice the parish priest will discuss this with you and arrange for it to happen here and tell you who contact if you also need to get them read elsewhere (i.e. in your own local church).

If you are marrying elsewhere and need to arrange for us to read your Banns of Marriage in one of our churches, please fill in this form [insert form] and return it to our administrator who will be in touch with details of how to pay the required fee and the dates we will read your banns. You will need to arrange to collect the banns certificate from the priest after we have read them three times to give to the priest conducting your marriage.

Marriage after Divorce

If either of you has been married before, it is still possible to get married in church but there are special forms to fill in and you must meet with the priest BEFORE making a booking and discuss your situation. This is treated in strictest confidence. Please contact Rev. Heather directly in the first instance (revheatherdg@gmail.com or 01452 942173) who will send you the correct forms and arrange to meet with you both.

Who can get married in church?

To get married in a particular church there are legal requirements you must meet.

These are:

  1. You live in the parish
  2. You are on the church’s electoral roll
  3. You have ever at any time lived in the parish for at least 6 months
  4. You have regularly gone to normal church services in the church for a at least 6 months
  5. You were baptised (Christened) in the parish
  6. You were prepared for confirmation in the parish
  7. One of your parents has lived in the parish for at least 6 months (at any time after you were born)
  8. One of your parents has at any time regularly gone to normal church services in the parish church for at least 6 months
  9. One of their parents or grandparents was married in the parish.

Evidence of your connection will be required

If you do not already meet one of these criteria please come along to one of our ‘drop in’ booking sessions on the 3rd Sunday of each month after the 11am service where you can meet the priest and discuss the possibility of gaining your connection through future attendance.

Please note that this must be at least once a month for at least 6 months BEFORE your banns of marriage need to be read. If you don’t achieve the necessary attendance your wedding will not be able to go ahead. To qualify using this process you need to start attendance as early as possible – please discuss this with the priest to check there is in fact enough time.

The Qualifying Connections form can be downloaded by clicking the button below:

Qualifying Connections

How much will it cost?

The fee for the marriage service is set nationally each year by the Church of England with optional extras such as organist fees set locally. A full breakdown of fees will be given to you by the parish priest when you come to book your wedding but to give you an idea, the basic fee for a marriage ceremony in 2024 was £531.

How do we book?

Please fully complete the form and our administrator will be in touch to let you know if your chosen date is available – we will provisionally hold the date whilst we arrange for you to come along to our next ‘drop in’ booking sessions where you will meet the parish priest and show them your ID documents and any other evidence required to confirm your booking. We usually hold these sessions on the 3rd Sunday of each month immediately after the morning service in Highnam Church from 12.30pm – 2pm. We would encourage you to come and join us for the 11am service beforehand to see the church in use – you will be made very welcome.

What happens next?

After your wedding booking has been confirmed you will meet with the priest a number of times to organise a service that is unique to you and to look at and talk through the wording of the marriage service to ensure you get the most out of the service when the big day arrives. Together you will choose music for the service, hymns and readings.

We also offer a Marriage Preparation Day every February as an opportunity to think about your marriage together beyond the celebrations of the wedding day itself. In the past, couples have valued this dedicated time to think and talk together and we encourage you to come along. There is also a service of Celebration of Marriage to which we invite previously married couples back to catch up and celebrate together.

The Wedding Request Form can be downloaded by clicking the button below:

wedding form