WEDDINGS AT CTK

It is our joy to celebrate marriages together as a church family! Apart from your commitment to follow Jesus, this is the highest commitment you can make. At Christ the King Church, we want to help you along the way to make wise decisions regarding your future and equip you for a lifetime of marriage.

If you are part of Christ the King Church, here's what you need to know to get ready for your wedding.

Church Family

It is our conviction that the most important thing a new Christian couple needs in marriage is a strong church family. Being connected to a church home is more important than premarital counseling, the wedding ceremony, the florist, the catering – everything! 

Because of this, it is our policy to only perform weddings for those who have taken steps to become members of Christ the King Church. If you are not yet a member of the church, that is your first step towards a healthy engagement and marriage. Start building good relationships. Get to know some people. Be accountable to a church family and to your pastors. This is the most important thing as you begin your new life together. 

Premarital Care

Our premarital care involves four components:  

1. The first component is completing a Prepare/Enrich engagement profile which is paid for by CTK. The P/E profile helps to accelerate the relationship between you and the pastor to best identify strengths and growth areas in your relationship. Your pastoral sessions will be guided largely by the results of your relationship profile. 
2. The second component is to spend approximately four sessions with a pastor to discuss your profile and other related topics that may arise. It is important to realize that the pastor’s job is not to solve all of your relationship problems. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and it takes a lifetime! The pastor’s job is to give you an objective look at your relationship and apply Scripture to your unique situation. The pastor will help you identify more clearly what you should be working on as a couple so that you are entering into marriage with realistic expectations.
3. The third component is to spend three date nights with other couples at CTK where you ask them questions about their marriage. The goal here is to learn from other marriages in community and also to help you continue to build more healthy relationships with others. From these experiences, you’ll have a front row seat to the challenges that different marriages face and how they have relied on God to work through them. 
4. The last component is to complete a Scripture study of key passages about marriage. This helps you build a level of comfort with one another in talking about the Bible together. The pastor will supply this study for you. 

Please note: the pastor reserves the right to suspend premarital care and even refuse to perform the wedding if it is determined that the relationship is not healthy or otherwise should not proceed. 

Out of Town Weddings

Christ the King pastors are not available to travel outside the Cincinnati region to perform out of town weddings. 

Use of 333 Warner Building

The 333 Warner Street building, which is home to CTK Uptown, is available for use for your wedding if it has not already been reserved for another event. There is a $650 fee for using the building to cover cleaning services, a facility coordinator, administrative costs, and a trained CTK sound tech. No exceptions.

The Wedding Ceremony

Christ the King Church uses a standard template for weddings that you can modify for your particular ceremony. You can download that template here. You will need to give the pastor a detailed itinerary for the wedding. Please let the pastor know in advance if he is responsible for running the rehearsal or if you have a wedding coordinator to run the rehearsal. 

Rehearsal Dinner and Wedding Reception

CTK pastors perform many weddings throughout the year, and may not be available to stay for the rehearsal dinner or the wedding reception. Please discuss this with the pastor in advance if you anticipate needing him for either.

Pastoral Availability

If you prefer a particular pastor to perform your wedding or premarital care, we will try to accommodate this. But in some cases there are scheduling conflicts that make this impossible. We will consult with you about pastoral availability if necessary. 

Pastoral Fee

The pastoral fee is $200 and will be invoiced prior to the wedding ceremony. This fee goes directly to the pastor officiating the ceremony for the time required to conduct premarital counseling, rehearsals, the wedding ceremony, and time away from the pastor’s spouse and children.

If you are only doing premarital care through CTK and a pastor is not doing your wedding, there is no fee.

Wedding Homilies

CTK pastors desire to do what we can to make your wedding day very special and are willing to work with you to make sure your desires are accommodated when possible. Most pastors have two or three carefully prepared wedding messages that you can choose from for your wedding. We do not write custom messages.