We would love to welcome you to celebrate your wedding together at Holy Trinity, where couples have been coming to be married for the last 1000 years.
Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, is a superb venue for weddings, with a stunning interior, fine organ, beautiful grounds for photographs, and an impressive Church Hall adjacent to the Church called Jacob's Well, an ideal venue for a small reception. Other businesses in Micklegate and the Mount can help in other areas of wedding planning.
Hopefully, this page will answer some of your questions about who can be married here. It also details the choices you have about the contents of the service and accompanying aspects such as choir and flowers, and how much it all costs.
Can we get married here?
As with any Parish Church in England, anyone who lives in the parish of Holy Trinity Micklegate automatically qualifies to be married here. If you are not sure whether you live within the parish area, you can either contact us or visit the website www.achurchnearyou.com to make sure.
In addition, you are also eligible if one of you:
- has at any time lived in the parish for a period of at least six months or
- was baptised (‘christened’) at the Holy Trinity or
- was confirmed at the Holy Trinity or
- has at any time regularly gone to normal church services in the Holy Trinity for a period of at least six months
OR if one of your parents, at any time after you were born…
- has lived in the parish for a period of at least six months or
- has regularly gone to normal church services in the Holy Trinity for a period of at least six months or
OR if one of your parents or grandparents was married in Holy Trinity.
If none of the above applies to you or your partner, then you can attend services of worship here regularly (i.e. at least once a month) for a period of six months or more. Times and days when services take place are advertised in the priory church or on our website.
NB. Under current regulations affecting the Church of England, we are not able to conduct same-sex marriages at the Abbey.
Is it a problem if one of us is divorced or if one of us is a foreign national?
No – not as a rule. However, if either of these applies to you, you need to contact us first to begin discussions.
Where in the Priory Church can the service take place?
The options are the ‘Nave’ (the central part of the Priory Church) which seats up to 150 people, or the smaller St Nicholas Chapel at the west end of the church, which seats 15 people.
What choices do we have for the service?
The words of the service are fixed (although you can choose between the traditional or more modern language options). Any additional readings or poems, music, and whether you want the choir any extra flowers are all up to you.
The service can be videoed if you wish, and the photographer can take photos throughout (as long as they are discreet action shots during the service itself, with specially posed photos done before and after).
Do we have to get married on a Saturday?
No – it can be any day of the week (including Sundays) as long as the time slot is free. It does have to be between 8.00am and 6.00pm however as legally we can’t do evening weddings.
How much does it all cost?
There is a required legal fee for marrying in a church. In 2021 it costs £541 if you marry away from where you live and £495 if you marry in your home parish. This is set by the Church of England nationally and is the same for every church.
Optional extras are as follows:
Organist: £100
Choir: £250
Verger: £40
Orders of Service: £50
If we have been married elsewhere, could we have a ‘Blessing’ at the Holy Trinity?
Yes, whether you would have just been married or are celebrating an anniversary from some years before.
As a service of ‘Blessing’ isn’t governed by Marriage Law, you would not have to ‘qualify’ by living here or by one of the other categories above. Please contact us for the level of fee or donation that would apply in your situation (any of the optional extras you might wish to include would cost the same as above).
Further Information
If you have any further queries or would like to book a date for your service, contact us at info@holytrinityyork.org
More information and ideas about marriage in the Church of England can be found at www.yourchurchwedding.org