Getting Married at St. Peter’s and All Saints

By choosing to get married in church you are doing more than simply ‘booking a venue’—you are choosing to celebrate your marriage within a Christian act of worship.

St. Peter’s is a popular wedding venue and we are always happy to speak to anyone about what getting married in church involves. Below are some common questions and answers

Can we get married in this church?

Each Church of England church has a sort of ‘catchment area’, called a parish. The normal requirement to get married in the church is that one, or both, of you lives within the parish.

In Morley, the four Church of England churches form a Team Ministry. This means that as long as you live within the boundaries of the Team Ministry area (which covers most of Morley, Churwell and Bruntcliffe), you can get married in any of the four churches. If you are not sure whether your home falls within this area, contact us

There are also new 'rules' provided by the Church of England that may help you determine whether you are able to be married at St Peter's or All Saints'. You may get married at St Peter's if one of you:

> was baptised in the parish concerned, or
> was prepared for confirmation in the parish, or
> has at any time lived in the parish for a period of at least 6 months, or
> has at any time regularly gone to normal church services in the parish for a period of at least 6 months

Or that one of your parents, at any time after you were born:

> has lived in the parish for a period of at least 6 months, or
> has regularly gone to normal church services in the parish church for a period of at least 6 months

Or that one of your parents or grandparents:

> was married in the parish

Even if you cannot demonstrate any of the above connections, we want to be able to help you explore whether it may still be possible for you to marry at St Peter's.

Booking a long way ahead?

We recognise that reception venues book up quickly and this means that weddings sometimes need to be planned a long way in advance. We are very happy to reserve your wedding date and time for you, but do bear in mind that the church is more than a wedding venue. Churches are primarily places of worship and are run as charities, rather than businesses.

Naturally, we do all that we can to make sure your wedding day is a wonderful celebration. However, please note the following points, which particularly apply if you are booking a wedding a long way in advance:

We cannot guarantee that your wedding will be taken by our own vicar. Ancient church buildings can be unpredictable, and whilst we always try to avoid wedding dates when we organise repair work, if urgent or essential repairs (such as mending broken windows) become necessary, we cannot guarantee that they would not affect how the church looks on your wedding day.

St Peter’s also has an ongoing project to refurbish the interior of the church. This means that in a year or two the inside of the church may not look exactly the same as it does today.

Churches cannot always offer the same facilities as other wedding venues. For instance, at present (though we are working to remedy this) we only have one toilet at St Peter’s! We do, however, have level access, hearing loops and large print hymnbooks at both churches.

If you move out of the parish, you may no longer have the legal right to be married at this church. In any case, please let us know immediately in writing if you change address or contact details.

What now?

If at least one of you lives in the Morley Team Ministry area and you would like to book your wedding at St Peter’s or All Saints’, then simply contact the church office and request the Preliminary Application for Marriage Service form, Once you return it to us along with your deposit, we will check the date and time. Assuming the date is free we will book your wedding in and write to you to confirm the details. Nearer the time of the wedding we’ll get back in touch to start making more detailed arrangements.

In late winter/early spring each year we run a marriage preparation session as a Team Ministry. This seems to be really helpful to everyone planning to get married in church.

If you do not live in the area, or need more information, then please get in touch with us and we’ll do everything we can to help.