To secure a date and time for your wedding, your first step is to phone the church office. The secretary in charge will obtain from you and provide for you basic information and inform the ministerial staff. Following this, you will receive a form which you should complete and return to the church office.

To confirm your wedding date, you need to make an appointment with a First Church minister who will be performing the ceremony. Until this initial consultation, your date is not confirmed. He or she may want to see you several times, well in advance of the wedding date, if possible. In certain circumstances guest ministers may be allowed to perform weddings, but a First Church minister must also participate.

Wedding Music
The First Church Director of Music, or an organist approved by the Director of Music or the First Church minister, will play for the ceremony. Please do not make arrangements for an outside organist until first speaking with a First Church minister. The First Church minister will explain to you the reasons for this request.

The music for the service may include the traditional wedding marches, but there is much fine music from which to choose. Please set an appointment for a consultation by calling the church office. Any requests for special music, soloists or instrumentalists should be discussed with the organist well in advance of the date of the ceremony. There is an additional fee for rehearsals with soloists.

Wedding Decorations
When you engage a florist, which is the responsibility of the family, it is suggested that floral arrangements be kept simple. Please let your florist know not to use adhesives or tacks to fasten floral arrangements to the church rail or pews.

Brass aisle candleholders and candelabra are available for your wedding for an additional fee. The candelabra, which sit on either side of the communion table, hold seven candles each. Please, no rice, birdseed or their substitutes inside or outside the church in consideration of others who will be using the premises following your wedding.

Photographers
The marriage ceremony is an act of worship, and as such we require that nothing distracts either the couple or their family and friends from this purpose during the service. While we recognize that the couple and their families will wish to have pictures taken, we ask that the following be observed by professional and amateur photographers alike:
•  Flash pictures may be taken during the processional and recessional only.
•  During the service, photographs may be taken only from the back of the sanctuary and only with available light.
•  A picture of the bride and groom coming down the aisle after the ceremony may be taken from the rear of the church outside the sight range of the congregation.
•  The minister will be happy to recreate part of the service after the ceremony provided that this has been arranged with the minister beforehand and takes place as soon as possible after the end of the service.
•  Your photographer should be asked to report to the minister upon his/her arrival at the church for a review of the guidelines.

Videographers
Please speak with the minister performing the ceremony concerning the policy on videography of your wedding.

The Marriage License
The license may be obtained in a Connecticut town other than Redding, but you must stipulate that the wedding ceremony will be performed in Redding. It is valid for sixty (60) days from date of issue. The minister may not legally perform the ceremony without a state-issued wedding license. Please plan in advance to give the minister the license at or before the wedding rehearsal. It is the minister’s responsibility to return the completed license to the town hall that issued the license.

Fees
The fees for a wedding in our church are available from the church office. Separate checks, payable to the church or the appropriate person, should be mailed to the church in advance or brought to the wedding rehearsal.

For further information or to begin planning your wedding with us, please call the church office at (203) 938-2004.