Church Wedding - Archbishop's special license

Usually you need the support of the vicar and a letter from the Bishop giving his support (the vicar usually arranges this) which will go in the 'application pack' to the Archbishop's Registrars in London. If you have any firm connections such as attending there as a child, family baptisms, confirmations or weddings in the past that would be helpful. You can check the criteria on the C of E's website.

Hi!

We were granted a special license because the church I've always wanted to be married in is a redundant church, but is still consecrated to carry out religious services.

You have to have certain criteria to be granted a license, such as a strong family connection, and the process is quite lengthy. This website is helpful

http://www.facultyoffice.org.uk/Marriage.html

I must stress that you will need to have a really strong case and reason for wanting to be married in the church, and there is absolutely no guarantee it will be granted. We are granted it because we live in the same parish as the church, my family have lived in the parish for several generations, and I have relatives buried in the cemetary (grandparents, great grand-parents and my brother, which was the main reason for us wanting to be married there)

I think the vicar saying you will need to attend twice a month for 6 months is for you to have your banns read? We werent told that attending church would make any difference in your application

If the vicar is being supportive then you have a good starting point and I really hope it works for you, but its quite difficult to get the licence

Sorry if this isnt what you wanted to read ☹️

Thanks for all the advice, the faculty office have said it is definitely worth an application although nothing has been confirmed. I do have strong connections with my grandparents and it is the church I worshipped regularly in when I was young.

The twice in 6 months was to ensure we could marry there through become a regular worshipper rather than getting the special license.

I am meeting the vicar a week today so we will see! Fingers crossed.

Ok, I'm slightly worried now I've read this post!

We don't live in the parish either of our church! We booked it 2 years ago and paid the deposit but nothing was ever mentioned about having a special licence because we don't live in the parish.

I'm confused??

Our vicar also said we have to attend church twice a month for 6 months so will have to attend fairly soon. Suppose I had better give them a ring!

Kate please don't worry! You can make a connection through regular worship and it sounds like that's what you have agreed with your vicar. I live so far away that just isn't an option for me unfortunately!

Hi, I am just in the process of applying for the special license but was wondering if you could tell me how long yours took to come through? I like to have an idea of time scales

thanks in advance

This is really helpful but worrying, but I'm guessing that it will get clearer once we've spoken to the vicar of our chosen church.

I used to go to church regularly as a child, but have since moved away. It seems unfair that because I've moved I don't get the use of a church...

We've still got to chose one and H2B has his heart set on a beautiful church wedding and I'd definitely prefer the more spiritual service. Fingers crossed for everyone, I'm sure something will be worked out

Hi

We had our approval within ten days, so really quick! Fingers crossed yours will be the same.

And soraneko, if you regularly went to that church then you should be fine to marry there!

We are marrying in my Grandparents church they sing in, and have been living for over 30 years. The vicar has said that is a good enough connection. It probably helped I have been going there for services over the years (mainly Christmas and Easter).

I think it depends on the Vicar and how much the follow the "Rule Book"

Obviously there are certain legal requirements that cannot be changed regardless of who the vicar is, but to a great extent what YellOwsnow said is definitely true.

My faith is very important to me, and I can't imagine not being married in a church. I always assumed that it would be my home church: Where my grandparents and parents were married, where I was christened, where I came to faith, I attended for 23 years before I moved out of the area and my mum still attends and serves on the Church council. I don't attend there any more as I now live in a different country, which also prevented me from making a commitment to regular attendances in the run up to the wedding. As it turns out, because we now live overseas we cannot legally marry in the UK as we cannot afford the amount of time off work required to fulfill the residency requirements for giving notice in the UK, so we have settled for a blessing - but the minister of the church is not willing even to do that for us despite the long-standing personal and family connections and she said the her decision was partly made because neither OH nor I are regular attenders there and in her eyes weren't 'willing' to make a commitment to the church.

We are now having our blessing in a different church in the same village and the minister there is happy for us to do that despite there being no history there (apart from me attending Brownie and Guide church parades there as a kid), and no ongoing commitment. He said that his view is that if we want to honour our marriage by making a commitment before God then the church has a responsibility to do whatever it can to accommodate that.

Surely it's a commitment to faith in general rather than one church that should be sought by the priest. When my sister got married she happened to b living with a family member in that parish ;-)convenient Is that hmm.

Just wanted to add my thoughts here to say don't be scared of applying for an Archbishop's special license. Generally speaking, if you have the support of your vicar, it's a really smooth process, and people do it all the time. For example, I could get married at my university chapel if I wanted to, but because it's not a parish church, I would need a license.

The process isn't designed to stop people getting married in churches, it's more meant to prevent people wanting to get married somewhere just because it's "pretty" or happens to be near their preferred venue.

A lot of vicars use the 6 months regular worship thing not because it's easier than getting a license but because they want to build up a relationship with the couple and help build and strengthen Christian faith as a foundation for marriage. And given by getting married in church you are expressing a belief in a marriage founded on God, that doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

Everyone posting above seems to have decent reasons for selecting their churches so hopefully all will be well. And as someone else has said, the CoE these days is relaxing rules left right and centre because they genuinely want to encourage more people to get married in church, so where there's a will, there's a way!