Getting Married at St Andrew's
St Andrew’s warmly welcomes couples who want to get married.
However, you cannot just choose any church in which to get married, but you may get married at St Andrew’s if you fulfil one of the following three requirements :
Firstly
Either you or your fiancé(e) lives in the parish. You can check which parish you live in by putting your postcode into this web site. If you don’t live in our parish, you will be entitled to marry in the parish church where you do live as long as you fulfil the other requirements.
OR Secondly
Either you or finace(e) is a regular member of St Andrew’s church and is on the electoral roll. The electoral roll is a list of al church members and is revised every year in April. In order to be on it you must have been attending church for 6 months.
OR Thirdly
Either you or your fiancé(e) can show some connection with St Andrew’s now or in the past. Perhaps you were baptised or confirmed here, or your parents were? Perhaps you used to live here and come to church? Perhaps you attended one of our church groups in the past? There must be some real connection that links you to this church.
In addition, the priest will ask you about:
Your Nationality:
UK citizens can be married after reading banns in church. If one of you is not a UK citizen you will need a special licence and to obtain this licence you will need to satisfy the priest that you wish to marry for genuine reasons and that you are not attempting to avoid immigration controls. Please respect the fact that for Christians marriage is a sacrament which should not be entered into for anything less than pure motives.
AND your marital status
If one or both of you have been married before and the former spouse is still alive then a second marriage in church marriage is entirely at the discretion of the parish priest. The Church of England has guidelines which the priests are expected to follow. You should be prepared to have a frank conversation regarding the circumstances surrounding the breakdown of your former marriage and that your current partner was not involved in your divorce. You will also have to show the priest the decree absolute ending your previous marriage. We understand that sometimes things don’t work out and that we need a fresh start; therefore we have done second marriages in some circumstances, but this is at the priest’s discretion and is not guaranteed.
If having read the above you would like to proceed with an application to get married you should come to church on a Sunday morning at and see Felicity, our priest, afterwards.