The first was a couple of weeks ago when we got the letter from the church to confirm our booking for the wedding day. It was very exciting to actually see it all in print, and it was a bit of an 'oh my goodness' moment to realise that yes, this is actually happening!
The second moment was yesterday when we had our banns read for the first time. Because we're getting married in a Church of England church we have to have the banns read at the church we're getting married in as well as in the parishes we live in. Since we live in different parishes and we're getting married in Birmingham, this means three lots of banns.
Banns have to be read at some point in the three months before the wedding, and have to be read on three consecutive Sundays. Essentially, they're the "if anyone knows of any reason why this couple may not marry" bit which takes place during the actual ceremony, but repeated several times.
We had to give lots of information to the vicars - full names, addresses, age at time of wedding, status (widowed/bachelor/spinster) and where we're getting married - so that they could fill in the forms, and even more information to Aston, because they have to fill in the marriage certificate.Finally, after meeting the vicars and filling in the forms, our first reading of the banns took place at Holy Trinity Church in Oswestry yesterday. Although beardy man and I both go to the Baptist church, the banns have to be read in the CofE church, and I live in the parish of Holy Trinity.
The service started half an hour before the one at our church, so we decided to go along and listen to the banns being read. Paul, the vicar, welcomed us when we arrived, and there were quite a few people there that we knew from various places, so it was quite a nice welcoming church to be at. The service had a couple of hymns and readings before the notices, and then it was the banns. It was very strange to hear our names being read out in front of so many people, and it made me feel like it was actually official now - we're getting married! They prayed for us and another couple having their banns read at the same time, which was really nice, and then we snuck out to go to our church service.
While we were walking back I got a bit teary, which is really silly, but I got very emotional at the thought of us actually getting married! (Emotional in a good way, of course!)
Oh, and no one objected when the banns were read :-)
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