Weddings at St Nicolas Taplow – Updated January, 2024
Congratulations on your engagement.
St Nicolas is a beautiful large church in the picturesque village of Taplow, South Buckinghamshire. We offer small intimate weddings or larger weddings with a maximum capacity of 300 seated guests and anything in between. Every union is a unique, wonderful and personal event and we would love to help you to achieve your dream church wedding.
Please contact the Reverend Jane Cresswell with any questions:
Jane.stnicolas@gmail.com or 07848 228456
When you get married at St Nicolas, Taplow, there are a number of wedding reception venues within the local area, including: Cliveden House Hotel (where the Duchess of Sussex spent the night before her wedding); Hedsor House; Burnham Beeches Hotel; Taplow House Hotel; The Grovefield Hotel and The Tudor Barn in Burnham to name but a few. In recent years we have been blessed to host a number of celebrity weddings who chose St Nicolas, Taplow whilst using a local reception venue.
Facilities
St Nicolas, Taplow can seat 300 guests and pictures of the inside of the church can be seen on the Gallery page. The church building includes accessible toilet facilities. There is parking available close by in the village car park. The local village pub is situated close by and available to guests who arrive in Taplow well in advance of a wedding. The village green provides an ideal backdrop for memorable wedding photographs.
Wedding Packages – From January, 2022
The basic fee for your wedding at St Nicolas during 2024, from January is £787.00. This fee covers:- Marriage Preparation, Reading of the Banns at St Nicolas; Preparing Document to Register the Wedding; the Wedding Service; the services of the Church Director of Music & Organist; and Vergers to assist at the service.
Your Marriage Certificate will be issued by The Register Office for a fee, currently £11.00, which is payable to The Register Office.
St Nicolas Church has a retired florist who will be delighted to advise you on flowers and other decorations that you might like to use in the church; the charge is in the region of £150 for a pedestal. We can also provide liaison with your chosen florist, for a more elaborate approach.
From September to May we charge an additional £90.00 to cover the cost of heating the Church (this portion of the fees is refundable if the heating is not needed).
You can choose to include the Church Choir in your wedding service, as an optional extra, this incurs an additional fee of £150.00.
At the time of booking your wedding we ask for an initial deposit of £40.00 due to the popularity of St Nicolas as a wedding venue. You pay the balance of your fees eight weeks before your wedding.
If you do not live in the Parish of Taplow you also need to make arrangements for your Banns to be read at your local Church on the same date. Your local Church will make a charge for this and provide a Certificate to confirm Banns have been read. This Certificate will need to be given to the Vicar who is taking your Marriage Service.
Each year the Church of England reviews the fees payable, the fee revision is usually published around November and the increase is typically £10 to £20.
The fabric of St Nicolas Church is very expensive to maintain, with on-going operating and maintenance costs running at approximately £1,800.00 per week. Couples marrying at St Nicolas are invited to make a voluntary donation to the church to help meet these expenses. Any donation, of any value, would be very gratefully received, and if you indicate that you are a UK tax-payer then the donation can be even more valuable thanks to “Gift-Aid”.
Wedding Timings
We are able to accommodate up to two weddings on one day, allowing plenty of time for the first set of guests to leave Taplow village before the second set start arriving
Do we need to live in the parish of St Nicolas Taplow to get married there?
If you would like to get married at St Nicolas Taplow, there are some legal conditions which have to be met, but we will do our best to accommodate you. Please have a chat with the Vicar who can advise you.
If you live in the parish of St Nicolas, Taplow your first step is to contact the Reverend Jane Cresswell on 01628 661182 or jane.stnicolas@gmail.com for availability. When you meet with her you will also be asked to complete a banns of marriage form.
If you don’t live in the parish, you could still be married at St Nicolas, Taplow if meet one of the following criteria:
- You were baptised (Christened) in Taplow parish by a Church of England form of baptism
- You were confirmed by a Church of England service and the confirmation is entered in a register belonging to this church.
- A parent or grandparent was married in Taplow parish by a Church of England service.
- You have had your usual place of residence in Taplow parish for at least six months. Applies whether or not you are still resident in the parish. (If you need a map have a look elsewhere on this site).
- A parent has had their usual place of residence in Taplow parish for at least six months during your lifetime. Applies whether or not they are still resident in the parish.
- You have habitually attended public worship at Church of England services in Taplow parish for at least six months (this means six months before your wedding so if there is enough time you can do this after booking your wedding). This applies whether or not you are still attending worship in the parish.
- A parent has habitually attended public worship at Church of England services in Taplow parish for at least six months during your lifetime. Applies whether or not they are still attending.
Weddings in another Church
If you live in the parish of St Nicolas Taplow and are planning to get married in another church you will also need to fill in a banns form, and send a copy of it to the minister of the church in which you wish to get married. At St Nicolas we read the banns in Church at the 10:45am Sunday Service. Contact Jane to make an appointment to complete a banns form.
Do I live in Taplow or another Parish?
To check your local parish church visit: www.achurchnearyou.com and enter your residential postcode. If you have more than one address your banns of marriage will need to be read in each relevant parish, in addition to the church in which the wedding service is to take place.
What if one or both of us are divorced?
Whilst we affirm marriage as a lifelong commitment, we recognise that some marriages do fail for all sorts of sad and painful reasons. Each couple’s circumstances will be different, but please contact the Reverend Jane Cresswell on 01628 661182 and she will be pleased to talk through with you the possibility of remarriage in church.
Preparation for Marriage
Your wedding is an exciting and important day, but it is only the first day of your married lives. As part of your preparation for marriage at St Nicolas, we invite you to attend our marriage preparation course. This is an informal gathering with the opportunity to meet other wedding couples and reflect on the vows you will be making.
The Wedding Service
It is good to think about planning your service before other things take over. You will need to choose music, hymns and readings. You will also need to consider what flowers you would like in church.
There are many helpful websites that enable you to think more about what to consider when planning your wedding. You may find the following helpful.
Preparation for the Wedding
Most weddings at St Nicolas are taken by the Vicar. However sometimes they maybe taken by other Church of England clergy, either as a special request or if our own Vicar is unavailable. Whoever is taking your service will be in touch with you some months before your wedding date to arrange meeting you both and talking about the options which are available to you for your wedding service.
Once you know who is taking your service please get in touch with them if you have any questions you need answered. They will be expecting to meet you both several times to go through the various details necessary as you prepare for your wedding. Our hope is that, by the time your wedding day arrives you will have a clear idea of what is going to happen in the service, and that you won’t be worrying about “what you have to do and when you have to do it”.
Parking
Whilst there is not a vast car park in the area, the village car park (to the north of the village green) will take 30 or 40 cars. There is also scope for parking in the roads around the Church, but please ask your guests to be sensitive to local residents, and not block people’s access to their own drives! Please don’t use the Pub car park – this is for their customers only.
Flowers
You have several options when it comes to the floral decorations for your wedding.
OPTION 1
You can accept whatever the flowers happen to be in Church on the day of your wedding. There are normally some floral decorations in Church, though in Lent (6 weeks up to Easter) and Advent (4 weeks up to Christmas) we don’t have flowers in Church for Sundays.
OPTION 2
You can arrange for your own choice of professional florist to prepare decorations for the Church. Because of the liaison work required by this, we have to charge a facilities fee of £25 if you choose this option.
OPTION 3 The Church’s own team of flower arrangers are prepared to arrange for some modest extra displays for your wedding. If you are interested in this option then contact Mrs Fiona Uden (see below)
Please note that (for reasons of health and safety) we are aware there is a problem with the use of candles in flower arrangements – therefore all use of candles needs to be approved in advance. In particular, all use of small candles placed on (or near) the floor is forbidden.
Whatever course you decide upon you must contact Mrs Fiona Uden 07435265813 or fjuden@hotmail.co.uk and make sure she knows what is planned.
Music
There is plenty of choice in the music you can have at your wedding. You may want traditional wedding music, or you may want something a little different.
Whatever your preference you will need to talk to our Church organist well in advance of your wedding. You don’t have to have made up your mind about what you want before you see him, but it is usually helpful if you have some ideas – he will be happy to advise you.
In the first instance, please contact our Director of Music, Neil Matthews, 01628 639796, and he will confirm who is the organist for your wedding. You can have two or three hymns at your wedding. Choose hymns that you think your guests will know! And if you know your guests are not regular hymn singers, please give serious consideration to booking the choir.
Above all, make your musical arrangements in plenty of time.
Choir
What about a choir? Of course, you can choose not to have one, but if you do want a choir you have three options
OPTION 1
The Church Choir is of a good standard and members of it are usually available to sing at weddings. You need to be aware that whilst we shall use our best endeavours to provide you with the Church Choir when you have booked it, the members of the Choir are volunteers who only receive expenses for singing.
OPTION 2
Some people are happy to book the Church Choir but feel it would be helpful to boost their numbers with some additional experienced singers. This can be arranged through our Director of Music though, obviously, there is an additional cost involved.
OPTION 3
Some people wish to book a professional choir to sing at their wedding. We are happy to arrange this for you. If you need advice on this option, please speak to our Director of Music who will be able to give you advice and guidance. Any of these choir options will provide a good lead in the singing of hymns, and they will also sing (by arrangement) during the signing of the Registers. If you are thinking of having a visiting soloist sing at your wedding then you will need to talk to the organist about this so that arrangements can be made for them to rehearse with the soloist.Our Organist is:
Neil Matthews 01628 639796 Director of MusicPlease, do ask your ushers to be at the church at least half an hour before the service (even if there is another wedding before yours). At least one Verger from the Church will be on duty, usually at least 45 minutes before the wedding, and will be happy to advise them or give information.
It would be helpful if, at the end of the service, one usher would wait until all your guests are out of the church and then retrieve spectacles, camera cases, etc., which tend to get left behind as well as remove any florist’s cardboard boxes (provided for buttonholes) and the like. Also retrieve the CD or tape if we have used the sound system.
Please do advise your guests who have young babies to feel free, during the service, to get up and take them into the lobby or outside for a while if they get fractious – they needn’t feel that they have got to stay in their place trying to keep the baby quiet.
We don’t want to spoil the fun but we would be very grateful if you could ask your guests to keep confetti outside and away from the church. It can blow back into the church if the doors are open!
