Getting Married at Christ Church

 

 

 

 

Getting married is one of the most important steps that anyone takes. So as we welcome you to Christ Church and share the joy of your special day, we also want to help you in your preparation for your marriage.
You may already be involved in a host of preparations and be realising how much is involved. But the most important thing is preparing yourselves by thinking carefully about what your marriage will mean to you.
At Christ Church there is a preparation for marriage which involves several discussion sessions with the Vicar and a rehearsal in church before the service, and if possible attendance at a local course of marriage preparation.
At present there are some legal limitations on who can marry in a particular Church of England church. Basically you have to either live in the parish or have had a genuine and longstanding connection with the parish and church. If you are in either situation in relation to Christ Church, Ottershaw and would like to know how we approach marriage, the questions discussed below may help you. If you would like more information please contact the Priest in Charge (contact details).


What is marriage about?

What does marriage offer?

Why get married in church?

Some suggested music & hymns

What is marriage about?
In essence marriage is two people deciding they want to give themselves to each other totally in a permanent relationship. It’s about uniting two people to become one, without destroying their individual personalities. The Bible puts it like this:

“… in the beginning, the creator made people male and female. And God said, “A man will leave his father and mother and unite with his wife, and the two will become one.” (Matt 19 v 5)

It is part of God’s plan for his creation that men and women should marry and set up a new home together.

The Marriage Service sets out the basis of marriage as a promise to be committed to each other for life, whatever happens – “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health”. You both need to be sure, as you prepare for your wedding, that you have found the person with whom you want to make this commitment and to share the rest of your life.

What does marriage offer?
The service goes on to describe marriage as where a husband and wife, living faithfully together, can share their joys and also support each other in the difficult times that every marriage knows. It is also the setting of total commitment in which to enjoy the God given gift of love and sex, and to provide a home of love and security where any children who are born may grow up. Happy marriages are not those which have no tension or frictions, but those where partners have a basis of love and commitment to each other which allows them to work through such things together.

Why get married in Church?
For some it is just to provide an attractive setting for their great day. But there should be more to it than that. Coming to church means that you are consciously asking God to be part of your Wedding Service – and he certainly wants to bless you as you take this step.

But you need to ask yourselves whether you only want God to be part of your Wedding Service – or whether you want to allow God also to be part of your Marriage over the years which follow the service. The most important part of your service will be the promises you make to each other but perhaps the next most important part is when you go out of church at the end of the service – and what sort of marriage then follows.

It all depends on the foundation you want for your marriage. Part of it will, of course, be your love for each other. But God also offers his love as a foundation on which to build – the love he brings to us in Jesus Christ. Many, by opening their marriage to God and his love, have found a deeper enrichment and joy and strength. Your service will speak of the offer of God’s love, and our prayer is that your marriage will be full of his love because you have asked him into your new life together.

Suggestions of Suitable Hymns & Music


Hymns
Lead us heavenly Father, lead us
Love divine, all loves excelling
O perfect love
Now thank we all our God
The Lord’s my shepherd
Praise my soul the King of heaven
Lord of all hopefulness
Morning has broken
Immortal, Invisible God only Wise
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising
Make me a channel of your peace
To God be the glory

Music before the service
Water Music Suite Handel
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor Bach
Abdelazar Purcell
“Morning” from Peer Gynt Suite Grieg
Selection from Bach’s organ compositions

Entry of the bride
Bridal March from “Lohengrin” Wagner
Wedding Day at Troldhangen Grieg
Arrival of the Queen of Sheba Handel
Trumpet Voluntary Clarke
Rondeau from Abdelazar
Purcell
March from Scipio Handel
Grand March from Aida Verdi
St. Anthony Chorale Haydn
Minuet from “Music for the Royal Fireworks”
Handel
“Te Deum” Prelude Charpentier

Signing of the registers
Sheep may safely graze Bach
Air from suite in D Bach
Jesu, joy of man’s desiring Bach
Air from the Water Music Handel
Ave Maria Schubert
Canon in D Pachelbel
Prelude from Prelude, Fugue and Variation
Franck

Procession from Church

Wedding March Mendelssohn
Trumpet Tune and Air Purcell
Toccata for organ – Symphony No 5 Widor
Crown Imperial March Walton
Festival Toccata Fletcher
Hornpipe from “Water Music”
Handel
March Triomphale Karg-Elert