Thank you very much for considering holding your wedding at Holy Trinity Church in Darlington.

Churches are special and unique places in which to get married, the prayers, promises and the whole service of celebration become part of your marriage, on the day itself and beyond.

Marrying in church will add a spiritual dimension to your wedding. In particular a minister has a very particular role to play in this. They can blend ancient tradition and modern experience to reflect your story. Through your relationship with the minister, you can be involved in choosing how to make your wedding personal, memorable, meaningful and beautiful.

An essential preliminary to a church wedding is the ancient legal tradition of the reading of Banns. This is the public announcement of your intention to marry and an opportunity for the congregation to be invited to pray for you both. Couples normally wish to attend a service to hear their banns being read but we extend a warm invitation to you to join us for other services if you wish to.

Special Considerations

At the moment Holy Trinity is in the process of appointing a new minister to the parish. Church life however carries on as normal (apart from the added difficulties caused by Covid 19). The only impact this has on your wedding is that we cannot say for sure at the moment the name of the minister who will be taking the service but this will be clarified around six months before your wedding date if not before.

The Preliminaries

There are some matters to consider before booking your wedding:

(1) You must have some form of connection to Holy Trinity Church or the parish: This is called your ‘qualifying connection’, for more information on this just get in touch.

(2) You must be old enough: If you are under 18 years old you will need your parents’ consent to marry and by law you cannot be married in the UK until you are 16.

(3) Day and Time of wedding: The wedding must take place between 8am and 6pm but can be on any day of the week, however a wedding on a Sunday will need to be scheduled around other church services and for practical reasons will need to between 2pm and 4pm

(4) Changes to same-sex marriage legislation: Although same sex-marriage legislation is now in force, it remains the case that it is not legally possible for same-sex couples to marry in the Church of England.

(5) Guidelines for divorcees: There are special guidelines on marriage in the church if you are divorced. There may well be a way forward, but you will need to talk about your situation further to explore the possibilities for you. 

Please contact us if you have a concern about any of the above before going to the next stage of booking your wedding.

Here are some of the costs for you to take a look at, while considering whether to be married our church.

There will be a deposit to pay of £250 to secure the booking.

Fees for a wedding in church are set by the Church of England on an annual basis. The applicable fees will be those in force at the date of your wedding but as a guide the fees for 2021 are:

- Full Wedding £505 (including statutory fees, banns fees, registration and Marriage certificate,)

- The fee for Banns to be read at an alternative church £46 (Banns need to be read in the parish where each of you lives as well as the church in which you are to be married, if that is somewhere else).

- A wedding blessing (if a full wedding is not possible) £253

- A supplement of £55 to cover heating costs from the end of September to the end of May

- Organist £104 (including a video fee of £17)

- The charges for a choir or bell ringers are by arrangement

Contact details

You can contact the church as follows:

- telephone 07735 499744

- by email [email protected]

- a postal address can be provided if required. Please do not write to the Church directly.