Our churches are set in the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside, and the parishes in the benefice have presided over weddings for hundreds of years.
We love being involved in your wedding and helping to make it special and personal.
If you choose to get married in one of our churches then we want to prepare you as a couple for life together in marriage and for the day itself. We begin to do this through our wedding preparation and special couple church service. These are a chance for you to chat to one another about various aspects of your life as a couple, and also to chat with one of our weddings team about the big day itself.
If you want to get married in one of our churches the first step is to contact revkat@leadonvale.church or our wonderful weddings adminsitrator Sue at pauntleychurch@yahoo.com.
Getting married in a Church of England Church is dependent on certain legal qualifying criteria, if you have a connection with the villages or attend our services, that is a great place to start!
The Church of England has a comprehensive page dealing with Weddings, this is a great place to begin investigating as it covers, among others things, – legal requirements, order of service, hymns, bible readings, and so on. You can find it here:
Most couples get married ‘by Banns’ a process of reading the names of the betrothed each week for 3 weeks in Church in the month or so prior to the wedding ceremony, however if you need a special license of any sort then we will walk through the process together. Through the wedding process we will need to see proof of your identity and UK/EU citizenship (non UK citizens may need to be married by special or common license). [Please be advised we are awaiting an update on the impact of Brexit on the marriage of EU nationals in the Church of England]
Please do not book any post-ceremony venues or invite any guests until you have contacted us. We cannot guarantee any date discussed until a booking deposit has been received. Please contact us by using the contact details on the Contact page
Remarrying after Divorce
The Church honours marriage as a life-long commitment two people make to one-another, but we also recognise that divorce can be a fact of modern life and that we serve a God that loves to bring renewal into our lives. In some cases divorcees may marry in the Leadon Vale benefice, if they fulfil the legal criteria and at the discretion of the vicar. However they must talk this through with the Vicar who will need to see the Certificate of Divorce Absolute (Decree Absolute) and may need to discuss some of the details of your previous married relationship.
Wedding Blessings.
We also offer the blessing of a marriage as an opportunity to celebrate in Church following a service at the Registry Office.
Renewal of Wedding Vows.
Often these are requested at times of a significant anniversary. Also this can be a time of renewal in a marriage, or as a reaffirmation to each other of the promises of your wedding day.
If you have any questions at all about the information on this page please contact Kat our Vicar for a chat, or our Administrator – see Contact page for details.