Wedding
Your guide to Hope weddings
This page is designed to give you all the information you need if you desire one of our leaders to conduct your wedding ceremony. We understand that planning a wedding from start to finish is a busy season and we want to make any involvement that we may have in your wedding be a simple and straightforward celebration.
Christ-centred Marriages
Right off the bat, we want to be upfront with you about our beliefs and convictions on weddings. Within the stated by-laws of our church and our heart to honour the Lord in all that we do, Hope Niagara staff members only perform Christian weddings with a focus on Jesus Christ. Since God is the One that instituted marriage, we will strive to ensure that His name is proclaimed and His intentions honoured when leading a couple through a marriage ceremony. It is our heart to bring everything, including marriage, back to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Your guide to Hope weddings
This page is designed to give you all the information you need if you desire one of our leaders to conduct your wedding ceremony. We understand that planning a wedding from start to finish is a busy season and we want to make any involvement that we may have in your wedding be a simple and straightforward celebration.
Christ-centred Marriages
Right off the bat, we want to be upfront with you about our beliefs and convictions on weddings. Within the stated by-laws of our church and our heart to honour the Lord in all that we do, Hope Niagara staff members only perform Christian weddings with a focus on Jesus Christ. Since God is the One that instituted marriage, we will strive to ensure that His name is proclaimed and His intentions honoured when leading a couple through a marriage ceremony. It is our heart to bring everything, including marriage, back to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Your guide to Hope weddings
This page is designed to give you all the information you need if you desire one of our leaders to conduct your wedding ceremony. We understand that planning a wedding from start to finish is a busy season and we want to make any involvement that we may have in your wedding be a simple and straightforward celebration.
Christ-centred Marriages
Right off the bat, we want to be upfront with you about our beliefs and convictions on weddings. Within the stated by-laws of our church and our heart to honour the Lord in all that we do, Hope Niagara staff members only perform Christian weddings with a focus on Jesus Christ. Since God is the One that instituted marriage, we will strive to ensure that His name is proclaimed and His intentions honoured when leading a couple through a marriage ceremony. It is our heart to bring everything, including marriage, back to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Your guide to Hope weddings
This page is designed to give you all the information you need if you desire one of our leaders to conduct your wedding ceremony. We understand that planning a wedding from start to finish is a busy season and we want to make any involvement that we may have in your wedding be a simple and straightforward celebration.
Christ-centred Marriages
Right off the bat, we want to be upfront with you about our beliefs and convictions on weddings. Within the stated by-laws of our church and our heart to honour the Lord in all that we do, Hope Niagara staff members only perform Christian weddings with a focus on Jesus Christ. Since God is the One that instituted marriage, we will strive to ensure that His name is proclaimed and His intentions honoured when leading a couple through a marriage ceremony. It is our heart to bring everything, including marriage, back to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Your guide to Hope weddings
This page is designed to give you all the information you need if you desire one of our leaders to conduct your wedding ceremony. We understand that planning a wedding from start to finish is a busy season and we want to make any involvement that we may have in your wedding be a simple and straightforward celebration.
Christ-centred Marriages
Right off the bat, we want to be upfront with you about our beliefs and convictions on weddings. Within the stated by-laws of our church and our heart to honour the Lord in all that we do, Hope Niagara staff members only perform Christian weddings with a focus on Jesus Christ. Since God is the One that instituted marriage, we will strive to ensure that His name is proclaimed and His intentions honoured when leading a couple through a marriage ceremony. It is our heart to bring everything, including marriage, back to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Your guide to Hope weddings
This page is designed to give you all the information you need if you desire one of our leaders to conduct your wedding ceremony. We understand that planning a wedding from start to finish is a busy season and we want to make any involvement that we may have in your wedding be a simple and straightforward celebration.
Christ-centred Marriages
Right off the bat, we want to be upfront with you about our beliefs and convictions on weddings. Within the stated by-laws of our church and our heart to honour the Lord in all that we do, Hope Niagara staff members only perform Christian weddings with a focus on Jesus Christ. Since God is the One that instituted marriage, we will strive to ensure that His name is proclaimed and His intentions honoured when leading a couple through a marriage ceremony. It is our heart to bring everything, including marriage, back to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
Wedding FAQs
Due to the size of our church and the number of requests for weddings we have designed an approach to conducting weddings that ensures that we can meet the needs of our people by sharing the weddings across our qualified staff. We have a Wedding Approval Process to facilitate a reasonable schedule for our pastor and staff in respect to conducting weddings.
The vast majority of weddings require a 15-20 hour investment per couple, as follows:
- Meeting to discuss your readiness for marriage, outline the pre-marital counselling session and discuss specific desires for the wedding ceremony.
- Pre-marital counselling sessions (8 – 10 meetings) designed to equip and prepare you for a Christ-centered marriage.
- Wedding rehearsal.
- Actual wedding.
Pastors
This process is very simple. If you would like an officiant from our church to perform your wedding ceremony, please fill out the wedding application. No congregant or pastor/elder is allowed to by-pass this process. All wedding requests must go through the Wedding Approval Process and individual staff members cannot agree to perform a wedding apart from the approval of the elders. We would ask that you not approach staff members directly with wedding requests as we want to care for our staff by carefully ensuring all weddings balance with their work and personal schedules. As a means to protect our staff members’ family commitments as well as their overall health and balance, we limit the number of weddings each can perform in a given year (4-5 weddings in a typical spring/summer/fall season).
During the Wedding Approval Process you will be assigned an officiant for a wedding based on the following four criteria:
- Schedule availability of pastor/elder
- Number of weddings already assigned
- Request for a particular pastor/elder by the couple
- Relational connectedness of pastor/elder to couple
To be assigned a pastor/elder and thus receive Hope leadership approval for a Hope wedding you must complete this application in full, and submit it to the office. A reply will be returned within 2-4 weeks indicating acceptance and the pastor/elder assigned.
Additional Staff
Please note – additional staff involvement in your wedding (music, production, etc) is not an expectation and will be your responsibility to arrange. Weddings are not considered a part of the staff role.
We realize some weddings are planned far in advance and some are last minute (hopefully not many). For our own planning purposes (officiates and churches) we require that requests not be submitted more than one year prior to the wedding day nor less than two months prior to the wedding day.
Hope Bible Church's facility located at 10 Arlington Ave is now available for weddings. It's available for weddings and receptions for Hope members/those who regularly attend Hope (priority is given to members). Rental fees are available upon request.
When you rent our facility you agree to the terms of the Facility Rental Agreement.
- Basic A/V equipment would be included in the cost of your rental
- Basic supplies such as tables and chairs. Please note this does not include tablecloths, plates, cutlery, lighting, etc., which will be your responsibility.
The following items should not be expected at a Hope wedding:
- Office equipment/supplies will not be made available to produce handouts or programs for the wedding (ie. the office/photocopier).
- A/V equipment for venues outside of Hope is not included. Couples are responsible to organize their own and should not expect Hope staff to make these arrangements.
Some Biblical injunctions regarding how to treat and care for pastors/elders as they give themselves to various ministry calls and requirements are found in 1 Timothy 5:17-18, Romans 4:4, and 1 Corinthians 9:3-18. In light of these considerations Hope leadership asks that you be gracious, kind, considerate, and generous to the pastors who are walking with you through your wedding plans. With this in mind, we have not established mandatory fees for our staff officiating your wedding, but simply ask that you appreciate their time away from their families, hard work and investment in your lives with an appropriate honorarium. The same is true of any staff assisting you on your special day, in proportion to their involvement.
Wedding FAQs
Resources
