Weddings

If you’re interested in getting married in Brentor – congratulations! We’re here to help, and we’d love you to celebrate your special day with us.

Legal Aspects:

To get married in a Church of England chapel or church, you have to meet certain legal requirements; to learn more about these, see the Church of England’s Weddings website. In summary (although there are a lot of details!):

One of the couple must be a UK citizen, and both must be legally old enough (18 years, or 16 with parental consent).

There needs to be a legally recognised connection to the parish in question. Legal connections include:

• Residency in the parish — permanently, or in some cases for a certain number of nights
• A close relative being resident in the parish
• Regular worship in the parish

In addition, if either of you have been married before there is additional paperwork required (but in most situations it isn’t a barrier to a wedding).

The Church of England does not currently offer same-sex weddings.

If you meet, or can meet, these legal requirements, you’ll need to contact the vicar to arrange the details.

If you’re not sure, or need more advice, please feel free to contact the Churchwardens.

If not, don’t worry – we can always hold a marriage blessing which, while not legally a wedding (that would need to be done in a Registry Office) allows the couple and their family to celebrate the marriage in the church immediately afterwards.

Practical Considerations:

Although we can, and do, offer weddings in Christ Church, the majority of people opt for St Michael’s.  However, if you’re going for a wedding on the Tor, it is important to remember a number of things…

It is a steep climb, across potentially muddy terrain, to reach the church, so good footware is essential! It is usually possible to arrange a small number of lifts in 4x4s, but there is a cost implication – the landowner needs to be paid for allowing vehicles across his land (£30). In some situations, we may be able to hire a Land Rover (it’s about £35) but if you may need this, please contact us as soon as possible as we cannot guarantee that it will be available on any given date!

Think about how many people you will want to seat. We can fit about 40 in the pews, if you have more, we can put out seating for another 10-15 easily enough. More than that, and it will either be standing room only at the back, or you may have to forgo bellringers so that we can put people in the tower. In practice, we’d normally reckon that 60-70 is the maximum practical (although there are records of congregations of 150 for weddings, it isn’t something we recommend!).

The weather cannot, sadly, be guaranteed… We would normally advise no weddings after October or before February, but even in the summer, strong winds and heavy rain can make the climb unpleasant. In addition, there is no heating in the church. If you book a wedding at St Michael’s, we will also hold Christ Church as an alternative venue, if needed.

We would also like to remind all couples that in the wind, Brentor can be cold, even in the summer. We strongly advise that guests are forewarned, and that brides and bridesmaids in particular have suitable jackets or shawls for warmth!

We do not provide a formal wedding flowers service, although there will always be flowers on the Tor as organised by our dedicated team of flower arrangers. If you want any formal decorations, we advise that you contract with a professional florist. If you want to talk to our flower arrangers about colour-coordination etc., please call Helen on 01822 810845.

Weddings at St Michael’s are truly magical – but make sure you’re prepared in advance!

Fees (from 1st March 2023)

Basic fee: £505

Consisting of:

Diocese  – £229

PCC – £276

Verger – £30

 Add:

Banns (PCC) – £34

or common licence (separate fee)

or archbishop’s licence (separate fee)

and  heating (Christ Church only, October – March) –  £40

Permission to take vehicle up Brent Tor (per round trip) – £30

Optional extras:

Organ £50
Bells £180

Diocese, PCC, Verger and Banns fees should be paid to the Parish Office
Driving permission, organ and bells fees should be paid in cash to the verger

Please make cheques payable to ‘Tavistock PCC Fees A/C’. for basic fee plus banns, and heating (if applicable) payable one month before proposed date of wedding. Please bring cash to the rehearsal for organist and bells

**Publication of Banns only, with Banns Certificate: £46
(payable to the parish in which you live)