Before you can get married, you need a legal license to do so. For most marriages in the Church of England, this is done by publishing ‘Banns of Marriage'. This is a series of three public announcements of your intention to marry, during Sunday morning worship. It is essential to make sure that all the legal requirements are in order. Without them, the marriage cannot take place.

Your banns need to be published in the local parish churches where each of you currently live, and also in the church where you are to be married. At St John's, banns are usually called in the month before the wedding. Different churches follow different patterns.

If you have booked a marriage at St John's, your banns will automatically be published at 11.00am on the 2nd, 3rd & 4th Sundays of the month before your wedding. If either or both of you lives in another parish, you will need to contact the parish church and fill in a banns application form, at least two months before your wedding date. You will then need to collect a banns certificate after your banns have been published three times. There is a modest fee for this. We cannot legally marry you until we have seen this certificate.

Where you actually live is important for banns. They rely on strict geographical boundaries. If you are thinking of moving before your wedding, please make sure that you inform us. If banns are called incorrectly, it may not be possible for us to marry you. It is a good idea to be at the service when your banns are called, to make sure that they are called correctly. 

If either of you is not a UK citizen, you will need a ‘Common License' instead of banns. Please contact the Vicar for more information about this. It is not a complicated process.