Wedding
Request Form
You need to make your
arrangements for a date and time for your wedding through the Church
Office. It will always be necessary for the office to refer your
request to the ministerial staff to confirm dates and time. Baker
Memorial Church is a popular place to be married and chosen not only
by members of the congregation but by many persons who have no
relationship to the congregation. Please
note that weddings are not scheduled on holiday weekends, on days of
major community events, or during the month of December.
It is sometimes necessary to ‘juggle’
dates and times to provide maximum service to the maximum number of
persons. We schedule weddings no closer than three hours apart. This
provides the time needed for the necessary preparations for the
wedding (1 hour), the wedding itself (½-1 hour), and post-wedding
events (balance of the 3 hours). This time frame needs to be
strictly followed if there is a wedding before and/or after yours.
However, if there are no other weddings for that day, you may ask
the ministerial staff about arriving a little earlier or staying a
little later.
SANCTUARY OR CHAPEL: You may request
either the Sanctuary or the Chapel. The Sanctuary seats about 350
persons and the Chapel about 75 comfortably, 85 full capacity.
Your wedding invitations in the Sanctuary ought to read:
BAKER MEMORIAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, Main Street at Fourth
Avenue, St. Charles, Illinois; for the Chapel: BAKER MEMORIAL
CHURCH, Main Street at Third Avenue, St. Charles, Illinois. Both the
Sanctuary and the Chapel are handicapped accessible.
|
Sanctuary |
Chapel |
OPENING THE CHURCH: The church will be
opened on the date of your wedding one hour
before the time scheduled for your ceremony. Please be aware of this
and make necessary arrangements, such as with your florist,
photographer/videographer, to honor this time frame.
WEDDING FEES: The fee for using the
Sanctuary is
$1000.00; the fee for using the
Chapel is
$400.00. A
$300.00 deposit for the Sanctuary or
$300.00
for the Chapel against this is necessary before a date is entered on
the Church calendar. This deposit is due within
two weeks of the time the church
informs you of the confirmation of the time and date for your
wedding. This deposit is
non-refundable; however, if there is
a cancellation of your wedding and you reschedule with a year’s time
of notice of cancellation, you do not have to pay the deposit again.
All remaining fees are due 2 weeks prior to your wedding day.
CUSTODIAL FEE: A fee is payable for the
Custodial work in relation to your wedding. This fee is
$150.00 for the Sanctuary or
$90.00 for the Chapel.
CONFERENCE WITH THE MINISTER: After the
date and time for your wedding is set, the officiating Baker
Memorial Church minister will want to hold
one or more
Pre-Marital Conferences with you.
You must contact
the assigned minister at least two
months before
the wedding date for an appointment. The service for
the wedding will be a traditional Christian service. If you have
other expectations, please be prepared to share them with the
minister at this conference. Your wedding plans are not complete
until this conference. The honorarium for the minister is
$400.00. These services include
Pre-Marital Conferences,
the Rehearsal, the Wedding, and any phone consultations needed.
MARRIAGE WORKSHOP: We require that you
attend a 4-hour marriage workshop focusing on attitudes and skills
needed for a fulfilling marriage.
The
cost is $135
per couple which includes $35
for scoring
the PREPARE/ENRICH Marriage
Inventory. The inventory will be
interpreted by the pastor officiating your wedding as part of one of
your counseling sessions. Immediately following the workshop, you
will be expected to stay for an afternoon finance workshop. The fee
is $25 and includes lunch. Included
in a letter confirming your marriage date will be a schedule of
dates and times of workshops along with a registration form for the
workshops.
GUEST MINISTERS: Under appropriate
circumstances, we will permit a Guest Minister of your choice to
officiate at your wedding. Your request needs to be made known at
the time you schedule the date and time for your wedding. This
privilege is, of course, always subject to approval. One of our
Wedding Liaisons will, in any event, provide liaison services for
your wedding. A
$300.00 honorarium for our Liaison is a requirement in the
event you have a Guest Minister. Our Liaison will meet with you and
the visiting minister 2 months prior to your wedding, be available
to answer any questions you may have about your wedding at Baker
Memorial UMC, and be present at the rehearsal and in the building
during the ceremony to help and to answer any questions from your
minister.
MUSIC: Music plays a key role in your
wedding. Both instrumental and vocal music add an important
dimension to the service. We advise that the selection of music be
of a religious nature. The traditional wedding processional and
recessional are appropriate, if you so choose.
We request that secular love songs be reserved for use at your
reception and not in the service at the Church.
The
congregation has a policy that ‘live’ music is to be used during all
services of worship. Therefore, taped or recorded music is not to be
used even as background accompaniment.
ORGANIST: If you desire organ or
piano music for your wedding, we require that you use our Church
Organist. The Organist fee for your wedding is
$200.00 and is due at the time of the
rehearsal. We will schedule a meeting with our organist for you.. No
other organist/pianist can be brought in without the permission of
our principal organist/pianist and the payment of a bench-fee of
$50.00.
VOCALISTS & INSTRUMENTALISTS: You must
make your own arrangements for vocalists and/or instrumentalists.
The organist will be happy to make suggestions.
FLORISTS: You must make your own
arrangements with a florist. We suggest you keep floral arrangements
for the Church as simple as possible. If you plan to leave flowers
at the Church, please let us know so we may acknowledge them. Please
inform your florist that the use of wire or tape of any sort on the
pews
is not allowed. If you plan pew-end
bows or flowers, these must be tied or secured with rubber bands.
Please have your florist decorate no sooner than one hour before
your ceremony.
To prevent your wedding party from slipping on our
marble floors, aisle runners, flower petals (real & silk), and
glitter are not allowed.
CANDLES - SANCTUARY: The candles on the
altar and the seven-branch candelabra are liturgically correct and
appropriate. You may also use the church’s Unity candle set which is
available to you at no additional cost. Eighteen pew candle holders
are available at $5.00 each or
$90.00 for all eighteen. These
holders fit on the ends of pews. You may use fewer than the eighteen
at the $5.00 cost per holder. We can also provide candles for the
window sills of the sanctuary for
$5.00 each or $45.00 for the nine
windows. For use of all candles (eighteen pews, nine window sills),
the cost is
$135.00.
CANDLES - CHAPEL: Being a smaller space,
it is possible to have a service with only candlelight. The candles
on the altar and the seven-branch candelabra are liturgically
correct and appropriate. You may also use the church’s Unity candle
set which is available to you at no additional cost. Candles
enclosed in hurricane chimneys are available for the ten window
sills at
$5.00 each for
$50.00. The pew candle holders used
in the sanctuary are also available for the Chapel at $5.00 each.
For use of all the candles (fourteen pews, ten window sills), the
cost is $120.00.
PHOTOGRAPHER/VIDEOGRAPHER: We recognize
how important the role of the photographer will be in your wedding.
We request that during the ceremony itself the photographer take
only available light photos from the back of Church or balcony. We
ask that no flash-aided pictures be taken during the ceremony. If
you plan a printed program, we recommend that you include a note to
this effect in the program. If indicated, we will make an
announcement at the beginning of the ceremony.
REHEARSAL: The Rehearsal is an important
part of the preparation for your wedding. We encourage you to have
present at the rehearsal all the persons who will be participating
in your wedding. You should determine ahead of the rehearsal the
order in which your attendants will enter and which woman will be
paired with which man. This can be a time consuming process and
should be completed beforehand so you can inform the Minister or
Coordinator of this information at the beginning of the rehearsal.
For a rehearsal in the Sanctuary, entry to the building is through
the 307 Cedar Avenue entrance. For a rehearsal and wedding in the
Chapel, entrance is through the Third Avenue door.
We understand the vagaries of travel and
other circumstances surrounding a wedding, but we encourage you to
make certain the members of
the wedding party know the exact time of the rehearsal and
plan to be on time so that the rehearsal can begin as scheduled.
Your rehearsal is scheduled for one hour. It is necessary, in order
to accommodate others, to insist that your rehearsal be completed
and the sanctuary or chapel be vacated in the one hour time period.
LICENSE: You will need a
Kane County Marriage License. This
license must be issued at least one day before your wedding. For
information on the License, you may call the County Clerk’s Office
at 630/232-5950. Please bring the License
with you to the Rehearsal and give it to the Minister at that time.
FEES: The fees mentioned in this
brochure should be prepared separately for each person, either check
or cash. The church and candles can be combined. All
fees must be paid in full two weeks before your wedding day.
FEE CHECKLIST
Church ___________ Minister /Coordinator___________
Organist ____________ Candles _________
Custodian: Mike Hardesty ________________
DRESSING: You may wish to dress at the
Church on the day of your wedding. This is becoming a standard
procedure. We are happy to arrange for the women to dress in the
Parlor, on the ground floor of the Church, and for the men to dress
in the Nursery on the main floor of the Church.
ADDITIONAL ROOMS: You will note that we
have set aside the Sanctuary or Chapel, the Parlor, and Nursery for
your wedding. Requests for the use of additional rooms will be
honored if they are available and will require additional Custodial
Fees.
RICE AND OTHER SEEDS FORBIDDEN - Due to
the possibility of legal complications and the additional clean-up
required, we are forced to forbid the throwing of rice, bird food,
grass seed, or any other items, whether in the Church or anywhere on
the Church grounds. You may blow bubbles, ring small bells, or
release butterflies, only outside on the church grounds. We hope you
will cooperate with us in this matter by discouraging your wedding
party and guests from throwing rice, etc. If you plan a printed
program for your wedding, we recommend a note to this effect.
BALLOONS FORBIDDEN: Ecological
stewardship concerns force us to forbid Balloon Launches as a
commemorative activity.
ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES FORBIDDEN:
The customs and usages of the United
Methodist Church
absolutely forbid the possession and
use of alcoholic beverages - beer, wine, champagne, spiritus liquors
- on the property or in the building of the Baker Memorial Church.
Please advise your wedding party and guests of this prohibition.
PARKING: There is limited parking space
around the Church. There are two city parking lots on 3rd Avenue and
a tri-level garage on the south side of Main Street. Do not park in
the Yurs Funeral Home parking lot.
TIME: Here is a special note about time.
As has been noted elsewhere in this brochure, Baker Memorial Church
is a popular place for weddings as well as other religious
ceremonies. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that your
rehearsal and wedding start on time. Further, we encourage you to
insure that the members of your wedding party and your guests know
the exact time of the wedding and they plan to be present in plenty
of time to allow the service to proceed as scheduled. Ordinarily, we
expect the Sanctuary or Chapel will be vacated by the agreed upon
time for your wedding. This is simply to insure adequate clean-up
and preparation for the next wedding.
Wedding Request Form
