It’s about the right time of year to start planning for events next February!

If your church is looking for a relaxed and enjoyable opportunity to build relationships with couples preparing for their wedding, why not have a go at organising a day like this.

In consultation with your incumbent, chose a Sunday near Valentine’s Day, design and send out invitations to all couples proposing to get married in your church during the year, and advertise the event more widely to attract couples still ‘thinking about it’.

Provide an afternoon of activities to include:

• An organist and/or musicians, to play music from a printed list of appropriate music for “Coming In”, “Going Out”, “Signing the Registers” etc.
• Invite some singers to perform hymns from a list of those suitable for weddings;
• Invite some members of your congregations to read from a list of suitable wedding readings;
• Invite the flower ladies to decorate the church as they would be able to offer a wedding couple, the local florist to create a display of examples of their work and similarly the local photographer and chauffeur;
• Provide suitable refreshments and a break for informal conversations – at this point you may like to have invited couples who were married the previous year to join in;
• Create a display of material relating to what the parish and regional Mothers’ Union provide in the way of Marriage Preparation and Parenting;
• Have all the appropriate information available for couples to take away.

Close the afternoon with a short act of appropriate worship.

There is more information on why and how your church could grasp opportunities to encourage couples to get married in your church, on our Marriage page, including two downloadable sheets of resources to inspire you. Let us know how you put the ieas into practice!

A church wedding can have a lot of things that a wedding at another sort of venue might not offer:

• you can invite many more people to share in the celebration of your wedding than you may be able to afford to accommodate at a reception… why not ask your parish church if you can share a small informal time with all your guests (after those photo’s!);
• by getting married in church you add a spiritual element to the ceremony… think about how God may be able to help you in your marriage in both the good and not so good times to come;
• remember, many churches are very photogenic… even more modern ones!

The Church of England now has it’s very own comprehensive website to church weddings and what to expect or ask for. It includes a wedding planner and some ideas of what hymns to chose from. If you want to know more go to http://www.yourchurchwedding.org/