Wedding
Love is worth celebrating.
Marriage means above all living together, rejoicing, loving and deeply committing to life with other person. At marriage ceremony held in church, wedding couple affirms their commitment to one another in love and faithfulness, and God’s blessing is prayed for the marriage.
Before church wedding you have to choose a wedding place, a wedding day, a pastor who conducts the service, and a church musician. This can be done by contacting parish office. (lisää linkki). If wedding service is going to be held after longer time period, names of the pastor and the church musician of the service can be told later when the ceremony is approaching.
By its nature church wedding is much similar to other church services because it proceeds with lead of a pastor. Music is also essential part of the ceremony. Wedding couple and church musician choose together in advance the music which is going to be performed in the wedding service.
Church wedding is possible when both bride and groom are confirmed Christians. Church wedding is also possible in case when one member of the wedding couple is confirmed member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the other one is a member of some other Christian denomination.
Same-sex couples can have civil weddings which are officiated by the heads of local register offices, district registrars or public notaries. An investigation into impediments to marriage can be done for same-sex couples by parish office but church wedding is not possible.
An investigation into possible impediments to marriage is carried out to all couples planning to marry. The investigation is carried out to ensure that there are no impediments specified in the Finnish Marriage Act and that the couple can marry. Couples can request the investigation online, or they can print and fill out an application form and bring it to the office of Rovaniemi Parish (in Finnish kirkkoherranvirasto), street address Rauhankatu 70, Rovaniemi. Read more about the investigation into possible impediments to marriage, Here.
Did you know…
…An official engagement time is not needed
…Possible impediments to marriage are investigated to make sure that wedding couple can marry legally.
…Such impediments to marriage include already being married or being underage. Marriage between close relatives is also illegal.
…Church wedding is possible if one member of the wedding couple is confirmed member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In that case the other one must also be either a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church or a member of some other Christian denomination. If both are members of Church, both must be confirmed members.
…If there are no impediments to marriage, the couple planning to marry will receive a certificate of no impediments to marriage within one week after the request of the investigation has been made.
..Certificate of no impediments is valid for four months.
…Wedding ceremony can also be held elsewhere than in the premises of parish. The pastor who conducts the service and the couple planning to marry decide together which place is most suitable.
…Wedding service must have at least two witnesses.
…Civil marriage can be blessed in church.
…Couples usually meet beforehand with the pastor who conducts the service to plan the ceremony. In the meeting, pastor is also informed about details such as surnames which will be used after the wedding. It is possible that wedding couple take same surname or that both can keep the surname they had before marriage. It is also possible that person whose surname changes after being married adds the old surname before the new one.
I slept but my heart was awake. Listen! My beloved is knocking. -Song of Songs 5:2
