Congratulations!
Your Wedding Day is a Big Deal! On behalf of all of us here at The Chapel, we want to say congratulations to you on your engagement! We know that preparing and planning for a wedding can be a lot to navigate, but we also know that it is an exciting time. As you plan for your wedding day, we believe that it is vitally important to get ready not just for your wedding day but for your marriage which goes way beyond a day. We would love to come alongside of you as you look forward to marriage by encouraging you to go through a premarital counseling process as we desire to see every marriage equipped to thrive for the glory of God.
What we believe in for the design of marriage
We believe in the power of marriage and God’s design for a male and a female to come together as one. The oneness of marriage is a beautiful reflection of the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we realize that this is bigger than just the happiness of two individuals. It is about representing the faithfulness and love of the great bridegroom, Jesus, to His Bride, the Church. This can be clearly seen in Ephesians 5 specifically in verses 31-33: “ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
Getting Started
To get started, we'll have you fill out some paperwork to get to know you both better. First, please fill out this form to allow us to get to know more about you and to get some basic information about your wedding day. After completion of this form, someone from our team will reach out to you. Next, both bride-to-be and groom-to-be should fill out Premartial Questionnaire and each purchase a copy of the book 12 Questions to Ask Before You Marry by Clayton and Charlie King. You can either purchase the book at Stir at our CrossPoint Campus or here is a link to buy the book online. After your forms are complete, someone will contact you to set up your first pre-marital counseling appointment!
No matter what your circumstances are, we would be glad to invite a conversation with you on our convictions regarding marriage and God’s design for it. To get married at The Chapel, we require that both the groom-to-be and the bride-to-be acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In addition, we require every couple to go through our pre-marital counseling process with our team and fill out a corresponding PDI form. Lastly, we ask that both parties are leading pure lives and willing to live in separate residences prior to their wedding date.
- To get started, please fill out this form to allow us to get to know you better and to get some basic information about your wedding day. After completion of this form, someone from our team will reach out to you.
- We also require that both bride-to-be and groom-to-be fill out this Pre-marital Questionnaire.
- Lastly, please purchase the book 12 Questions to Ask Before You Marry by Clayton and Charlie King, you will need this for your first Pre-marital Counseling session. You can either purchase the book at Stir at our CrossPoint Campus or here is a link to buy the book online.
Our pre-marital counseling process typically involves four sessions with one of our pastors or trained biblical counselors. The amount of sessions may range based upon situation, life circumstances, and preference of our counselors or pastors. We will go through the book 12 Questions to Ask Before You Marry by Clayton and Charlie King, so we would ask you to purchase the book, complete the reading assignments, and come prepared to each session ready to discuss the content.
Large Scale: $600
Pre-Marital Counseling Sessions
Ceremony Space Rental
2 Hours for Wedding Rehearsal
4 Hours for Wedding Day (Includes 2 hours prior to ceremony until 1 hour following ceremony)
Access to Bride’s Room and Groom’s Room (absolutely NO alcohol is permitted on property. These rooms are strictly for Wedding Party dressing/holding area)
Live Stream of Ceremony which includes a private link to share with family and friends
Programming of music for ceremony (music from Spotify is recommended due to restrictions of live stream)
Technical Support to run live stream, music, microphones and lighting
Chapel Representative on site to assist with any building needs
*Pastor Honorarium
Pastor Honorarium: It is customary to give your Wedding Officiant an honorarium for his services. This amount is at your discretion, but we recommend a minimum of at least $150.00. You can pay this in advance and we will include it in your Wedding Fees or you can choose to give this to your Officiant on the day of your Wedding.
Small Scale: $350
Pre-Marital Counseling Sessions
Rental Logistic Coordination
Ceremony Space Rental
1 Hours for Wedding Rehearsal
3 Hours for Wedding Day (includes 1 hours prior to ceremony until 1 hour following ceremony)
Access to Bride’s Room and Groom’s Room (absolutely NO alcohol is permitted on property. These rooms are strictly for Wedding Party dressing/holding area)
Live Stream of Ceremony which includes a private link to share with family and friends
Programming of music for ceremony (music from Spotify is recommended due to restrictions of live stream)
Technical Support to run live stream, music, microphones and lighting
Chapel Representative on site to assist with any building needs
*Pastor Honorarium
Pastor Honorarium: It is customary to give your Wedding Officiant an honorarium for his services. This amount is at your discretion, but we recommend a minimum of at least $150.00. You can pay this in advance and we will include it in your Wedding Fees or you can choose to give this to your Officiant on the day of your Wedding.
Offsite: $150
It is customary to give your Wedding Officiant an honorarium for his services. This amount is at your discretion, but we recommend a minimum of at least $150.00. You can pay this in advance or you can choose to give this to your Officiant on the day of your Wedding.
Ceremonies can be held at any one of our four Campuses (The Andrews Chapel at our CrossPoint Campus or one of our Main Worship Centers at our Cheektowaga Campus, Lockport Campus or Niagara Falls Campus). Ceremonies can also be offsite based on the availability of our pastors and location.
While we only allow Pastors from The Chapel to officiate weddings onsite, we would still be glad to help and support if you are getting married offsite by another officiant. Specifically, if you wanted to still receive pre-marital counseling from our team, we encourage you to do so! Please view our “How to Get Started” section above.
Pre-Engagement Counseling
While most of the content of this page is geared to couples that are already engaged, we also want you to know that if you are in a serious relationship and are considering marriage, we highly recommend pre-engagement counseling. It can be really helpful to sit down with one of our pastors or trained counselors to talk through taking that next step of an engagement. Before getting into the busyness of planning a wedding and having some of the additional pressure that comes with that, it can be very beneficial to have space and time to process through your relationship and ensure that you both are ready to take that next step together. We would be honored to help support in any way that we can! To get started please fill out our PDI and call/email Mindy Witte to set up an appointment.
Other Marriage Resources
Here are Four Teachings by our Lead Pastor, Jerry Gillis, on Marriage:
Part 1: Before You Say I Do
Part 2: Why You Say I Do
Part 3: Now All I Do
Part 4: What Did I Do
Here are three additional book recommendations on marriage:
The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller
Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
Marriage: 6 Gospel Commitments Every Couple Needs to Make by Paul David Tripp