How to grow back your wedding ministry

• Most churches have outdoor noticeboards and space in the porch to put up posters. If you only do one thing, put up a poster that lets people know your church is offering weddings and welcomes enquiries.
• There is a ready-made poster for this purpose on the CPO website. It’s part of a range of materials designed to encourage people to ‘Just ask’ about a wedding. See more materials like this.
• The range of ‘Just ask’ materials can also be put up around the local community with the relevant permission. If there are community noticeboards, shop windows, pub noticeboards, café’s, hotels which do weddings, or other places where couples will pass by or meet up, have a presence with a poster.

• If you have space, why not put up a special banner outside – on the churchyard railings for example. This is an especially good opportunity for churches in busy places, whether it’s locals or visitors who are passing.
• There is a ready-made banner designed for this purpose on the CPO website. It’s part of a range of materials designed to encourage people to ‘Just ask’ about how the church can help with any of the three life events – when a child arrives, when a marriage begins and when someone dies. See the full range just here.

Most couples will do research online before they get in touch. Have a look at your church web presence from the point of view of a couple and check the following:-

• Is your church’s profile up to date on achurchnearyou.com? This includes having the correct email address entered into the ‘Get in touch’ form on your church’s profile, so that when a couple sends a wedding enquiry via that form, it actually reaches the right person. It’s vital that your church’s profile is up to date, because it’s often the number one site that comes up in Google searches for church information, and many couples may therefore try to contact you this way.
• Is it clear who couples can contact, how they can do that, and when?
• Is the church’s message positive and welcoming?
• Is there a designated page about weddings which gives preliminary information and invites couples to get in touch?
• Is there a link to the Your Church Wedding page?

• If you have a church account on Facebook, X or Instagram, post about weddings, how much your church loves doing them and extend a warm invitation for couples to make enquiries.
• Keep repeating these posts every so often, perhaps a couple of times each month, or more, and especially around Boxing Day, New Year and Valentine’s Day, when marriage proposals tend to peak – posting just once will not be enough.
• Ask those who follow your account to re-share these posts to their own networks sometimes.

• Family can be one of the biggest influences on the wedding choices made by young couples. There may be people among your congregation who know someone in their family or network of friends who has just got engaged. Encourage them to give information to the couple and talk to them about the possibilities of having a church wedding – even if this may not be at your church. There is some printed information you can buy which can be shared within families/friends.
• Have a vision bigger than your church – it may be that the wedding doesn’t take place in your building, but you may still be involved in local couples’ marriages by offering prayers, or perhaps banns being read. If so, consider sending them a banns invitation card.

• Find out if any are planned in your local area and see if you can be a part of it – perhaps shared with another church nearby. You might even encourage your deanery to join up for this.
• Alternatively, if you have the appropriate space, be the host of your own wedding fair and invite local wedding businesses to be a part of it. Although there’s a lot of work involved, you’ll benefit from the opportunity to meet all the other suppliers’ contacts on home ground. Involving other businesses in this way also greatly widens the publicity.
• Read ‘How to be better presented at wedding fairs’.
• If possible, display some leaflets which couples can take away.
• Hand out your business card and encourage couples to get in touch.

Keep in close touch with couples who show an interest. Make a follow-up call, invite them to a church service, whether online or physically at the church building. If they eventually choose not to have a church wedding, let them know about other services they can have to bless their marriage.