20 September 2012
More couples have felt inspired to explore the option of a
church wedding. Unique visits to the Church of England's 'one-stop'
weddings website www.yourchurchwedding.org
increased by nearly 50 per cent in 2011, to 410,044 (up from
273,746 unique visits in 2010).
This rise in interest, which follows a change in the law in 2008
to make it easier to marry in church, has also been seen at the
Church of England stand at wedding shows around the country, with a
noticeable increase in couples visiting the stand to ask questions
about church weddings in 2011 compared to 2010.
The Revd Rosie Harper, who is part of the church weddings team,
said: "Church of England weddings increased by four per cent in
2010 and it's great to see more couples wanting to find out all
about marrying in church. We'd love to be a part of their big day,
so we'd encourage everyone to come and talk to us."
One couple married by Rosie and featured in the Your Church Wedding video said: "We weren't
sure as to whether it was appropriate that we would be to be
allowed to be married in church and we were delighted to find that
it wasn't going to be a problem, and that our local vicar was very
happy, in fact insisted on marrying us."
Staffed by friendly and knowledgeable vicars who love conducting
weddings, the Church of England stand will be meeting couples, and
answering all of their church wedding questions, at the following
shows this autumn:
The Wedding Fair, Bluewater, 21-23
September
UK Wedding Show, St George's Hall, Liverpool,
22-23 September
National Wedding Show, Earl's Court, London, 28-30
September
UK Wedding Show, International Centre, Harrogate,
29-30 September
National Wedding Show, NEC, Birmingham, 5-7
October
UK Wedding Show, Newcastle Racecourse, 7
October
UK Wedding Show, Manchester Centre, 20-21
October
Notes
For more on the wedding shows visit:
http://weddingfairatbluewater.com
http://www.theukweddingshows.co.uk
http://www.nationalweddingshow.co.uk
Statistics on church weddings in 2010 are available here.
Details of the 2008 Marriage Measure are available here.
High res pictures of vicars talking to couples on the Church of
England stand are available on Flickr here.