Planning your ceremony

A guide to all you need to know for planning your church wedding. Covers hymns and music, readings, organising your banns, marriage licenses, types of service and taking photos and films of your special day.

Hymns are a traditional part of church weddings and there are so many to choose from. Whether you opt for a popular tune, or something different, there’s a hymn to suit different parts of the service.

Choosing your readings is one of the ways a wedding can be made really personal. Popular Bible passages are given here, but your vicar can help with choosing alternatives if you’d like something different.

You have choices in how your wedding ceremony shapes up, making it uniquely yours.

Whether you plan to get married in a couple of years or in just a few months, your church will help you through the process of booking and planning the ceremony.

Here you can begin thinking about your ideas for hymns, readings, prayers and music and download a ceremony planning booklet to help.

The wedding rehearsal provides unpressured time to go through the service, which helps everyone know what to expect, where to stand and what to do and say in all the right places.

Everyone will be taking photos at your wedding, but you may also want to have beautiful photographs you can look back on for many years to come.  These might be taken by a friend or you may want to use a professional photographer.

Walking into church with Dad or another special person remains a traditional start to a wedding service for many, although the way it happens can vary.

Most Church of England marriages require banns to be read out in church before the wedding can take place. Although a legal requirement, banns can be a special occasion too.

All Church of England weddings should have at least one reading from the Bible, but if you wish, you can also include other special readings.

There are several places in your wedding where music can be played, as well as the hymns that will be sung. There’s lots of scope to be creative with choices that make your wedding really personal to you.

When supporting you in something as important as marriage, your church will want to pray for you before, during and after your wedding.

In the Church of England, there are three legally-approved forms of words for a marriage service.

Many couples who have had a civil wedding decide they would like to dedicate their marriage to God in church soon afterwards.

These are some popular questions that are asked about marrying in church.

Recording your wedding is a wonderful way to preserve the memories of your special day – it is valuable to be able to show it to others and also to see it again over the years to come.