Calling Banns for a Wedding Elsewhere

For couples living here, marrying elsewhere.

If you live within the parishes of All Saints, Holy Trinity, or St Michael’s, but you’re getting married in a different church, you’ll usually still need your banns read here, in your home parish, as well as in the church where the wedding is taking place.

What Are Banns?

Banns are a public announcement of your intention to marry, read aloud during a Sunday service on three occasions before the wedding. They give anyone with a lawful reason why the marriage shouldn’t go ahead the opportunity to say so, and they’re one of the ways English law and church law confirm a marriage is being entered into properly.

If you live in one parish but are marrying in another, banns normally need to be called in both places.

Your banns reading is more than just a legal formality. It’s a small, happy occasion in its own right, a moment when the people gathered that Sunday hear your names read out and your wedding drawing closer. Many couples find it genuinely moving to hear it happen.

You’re very welcome to invite family and friends along to hear your banns read, if you’d like some of the people who matter most to you to share in it too.

What Happens Next

Get in touch with us, and let us know your names, your address, and the church where you’re getting married. We’ll arrange for your banns to be read here on three Sundays, usually in the months leading up to the wedding.

Once your banns have been read, we’ll issue a certificate confirming this, which you or your officiant will need to take to the church where you’re marrying. Please allow enough time, most couples arrange this a few months ahead of the wedding date.