What does the marriage journey involve?
When couples get married at Sans Souci Anglican, we want to support them in this journey so that they can have the best marriage possible. To do this, a minister of our church will meet with the couple for four meetings in order to: (1) get to know you and share a bit about the Christian understanding of marriage; (2) fill out the legal paperwork needed to get married in Australia; (3) plan the wedding service; and (4) do marriage preparation together. It is necessary for both members of the couple to come to all four sessions of this together. Finally, in the week leading up to the wedding, we will run a wedding rehearsal in the church, so that the wedding day runs according to plan.
It should also be noted that Anglican ministers are only permitted to conduct marriages, where one or both members of the couple have been divorced, by first receiving permission to do so from their local bishop. If this is the case, we will want to meet up as soon as we can to discuss the circumstances of the divorce and fill out the paperwork in order to receive that permission.
How much does a wedding cost?
For members of our church who have been attending regularly for a number of months, the cost is free. Otherwise, we ask couples to make a donation of $800 for their wedding. Many hours go into planning and preparing a marriage, and your donation allows us to free up the time of our ministers so that we are able to offer this service to members of our community. This donation covers everything described above including the marriage service. However, we are not able to provide someone to run the computer system or ring the bell during the service. The couple will need to find someone to do these if this is something they would like.