Congratulations on your engagement! We are delighted that you are thinking about a church wedding and look forward to hearing from you and to working with you towards your special day.
For initial enquries about weddings, please contact Maureen Westmarland (01883 345868 or mmwestmarland@gmail.com). It is advisable to do this in the early stages of your planning to ensure that there is sufficient time for the legal preliminaries and for your marriage preparation.
If you live in the parish of Woldingham, or are on the Woldingham church electoral roll, you are able to have your wedding service in St. Paul’s church.
If these conditions do not apply, but you have one of several other connections with the parish, you may still have a “Qualifying Connection” which entitles you to marry at St. Paul’s. These Qualifying Connections (which are laid down by the Church of England) are that one of you:
- has attended worship regularly in the parish over a period of six months
- has lived in the parish for at least six months
- has been baptised in the parish
- has been prepared for confirmation in the parish
- has a parent who has done (1) or (2) above, during your lifetime, or has a parent or grandparent who was married in the parish.
In all cases involving church services – i.e. going to normal church services, baptism, confirmation or marriage – this applies only to Church of England services. Even if you cannot demonstrate any of the above connections, we want to help you explore whether it may still be possible for you to marry in St. Paul’s.
In most cases, Banns will need to be read on three Sundays before your wedding. Banns are an announcement in church of your intention to marry. We will advise you about this, or about the alternative Licence or Superintendent Registrar’s Certificate procedures which need to be followed in some cases, such as where one of the partners is not a British Citizen or does not live in England.
It is important that we have time to help you prepare for your marriage and to think about the spiritual aspects of the commitment you are to make. We invite couples to a Marriage Preparation morning (shared with couples from other churches in the Caterham Group), usually held in January each year. Following this, the Vicar will arrange future meetings with you to continue your preparation and there will be a rehearsal in the church shortly before your wedding day itself.
You will wish to think about readings, music and hymns for your wedding service. We start to think about these at the Marriage Preparation morning, and further helpful advice can be obtained from the Church of England weddings website: http://www.yourchurchwedding.org/. If you wish our organist, David Ridout, to play at your wedding, you will have the opportunity to meet with him a few weeks in advance of your wedding to confirm your musical choices.
Details of the fees for 2024 are given below. The statutory fees are standard throughout the country. The additional services and fees are charges made by St. Paul’s. These are similar to the fees charged by other churches in the area.
Statutory Fees
| Marriage Service | |
| Diocese of Southwark | £241.00 |
| Parochial Church Council | £290.00 |
| Banns (additional fee for certificate) | £36.00 |
| Banns Certificate (if required) | £18.00 |
| Additional Services and Fees | |
| Heating (1st October to 31st March) | £195.00 |
| Organ Fund contribution | £100.00 |
| Organist | £120.00 |
| Bell ringer | £25.00 |
If you hire a professional videographer there is an additional organist fee of £120. This is instead of repeat performance fees.
The Church of England reviews its charges at the end of the year, so there may be a slight increase in fees for 2025.
People choose a church wedding for a whole range of reasons, perhaps because of tradition or the attractive building. However, the most important reason for getting married in church is that you will be making your wedding vows in the sight of God and asking God to be part of the whole of your married life together.
