Below you will find a testimonial from of a wedding at St John's. You can access detailed information from our Weddings Brochure
Thinking of getting married? Confused about all the different options of where to actually get married? Well I can certainly recommend St John’s Church, Blackfriars Street, King’s Lynn.
After getting over the shock of my partner proposing to me, my acceptance and contemplating marriage for the second time, one of my first thoughts was where to hold the ceremony? In a hotel, in a Registry Office or possibly in Church? So many things to think about, going round and round in my head.
My partner and I discussed dates, venues for the reception, how many people to invite, etc, etc. We then discussed things with our respective children, this being a second marriage with 6 grown-up children between us we wanted to include them. But we still hadn’t decided where to actually hold the ceremony.
I rang the Church Office at St John’s to check the date we had agreed on was free in the Church Diary, luckily it was. Eleta the Church Secretary agreed to post out the “Wedding Information Pack” which she assured me would contain all the relevant information we would need. Eleta also gave me Corin Child’s (the Vicar at St John’s) telephone number to contact him to arrange a meeting. On the agreed date and time Corin came to our home and over a cup of tea we discussed with him what we had in mind. He was such a good listener, and suggested lots of things that we hadn’t thought of. He stressed that we could add special prayers, readings, hymns etc to the normal marriage ceremony to make it more individual to us. It was much easier for us to make a decision after speaking to Corin.
We were invited to a “Marriage Preparation Day” that was held in the Vicarage after the normal morning service. There were other couples there as well who were planning to get married at St John’s. After a light lunch, a short video and discussion, we all found the session very helpful at giving us guidance and insight into what being married would be like and helping us to “yes plan for a lovely wedding, but to think ahead to the actual marriage and how we can live in love and peace and make our partner happy”. The consensus of all the couples that day when asked why they wanted to get married in Church, was the marriage would have much more meaning being held in Church.
There was a meeting with the organist to discuss hymns. Nigel Singleterry was very helpful playing little snatches of hymns on the organ and suggesting different pieces of music.
A wedding rehearsal held in St John’s was arranged for about a week before the actual day where Corin ran through the order of service with myself, the groom, the best man and the person giving me away. This was very helpful because in the quiet of the Church away from all the hustle and bustle of the preparations, we were able to familiarise ourselves with the service ready for the day.
Finally the big day dawned, over a year in the preparation, so many details to decide on, sleepless nights about which hymns to pick, the guest list, table plans, what the weather would be like, etc, etc.
Actually I needn’t have worried because from the moment I stepped out of the car at the door to St John’s I saw Corin waiting to guide me in to the Church, nerves vanished and a sense of calm spread over me.
The organist started playing and we were off into the service. It all flowed like planned, the hymns were lovely, the prayers were listened to intently and with Corin and God’s help it became a very special day, I could feel the presence of God all around us.
As my new husband and I came out of the door smiling after the service, the sun began to shine, just in time for the photographs. At the reception everybody commented on what a lovely service it had been at St John’s and how well Corin had taken the service. So with Corin’s help and suggestions and the prayers of the congregation at St John’s, God had guided me towards what the best option was for us.