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 you will have a lot to navigate in preparing and planning for your wedding. We also know that it is vitally important to get ready not just for your wedding day, but for your marriage which goes way beyond one day. We would love to come alongside of you by encouraging you to go through a premarital counseling process. Our desire is to see every marriage equipped to thrive for the glory of God.
What Do We Believe About Marriage?
While there is more that we could say, there are a few essential things that The Chapel believes about marriage. We believe in the sacredness of marriage and God’s design for a male and a female to come together as one. Our God created marriage to be a beautiful reflection of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and each party in the marriage has a part to play in this design. Because this is God’s purpose for marriage, we believe that marriage 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.”
We have a few prerequisites to get married at The Chapel or by a Pastor from The Chapel at another venue:
1) We require that both the bride and groom acknowledge Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
2) We require that both bride and groom are active participants within our Chapel family (regular attendance, serving, giving, etc.).
3) We require that both bride and groom are living sexually pure lives and reside in separate residences.
4) We require that the couple submit to the pre-marital counseling process with our team.
- 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 about six sessions with one of our pastors or trained biblical counselors. The amount of sessions will range based upon situation, life circumstances, and the discretion of our biblical counselors or pastors. In between the pre-marital counseling sessions, you and your fiancé will read assigned chapters in 12 Questions to Ask Before You Marry and are expected to come prepared to each session ready to discuss the content.
At The Chapel, we have a few different options that you can choose from:
Large Scale: $500 and this includes:
Pre-Marital Counseling Sessions
Rental Logistic Coordination
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
There is absolutely NO alcohol permitted on the 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: It is customary to give your Wedding Officiant an honorarium for his services. You can choose to give this to your Officiant on the day of your Wedding or at the Rehearsal.
Small Scale: $350 and this includes:
Pre-Marital Counseling Sessions
Rental Logistic Coordination
Ceremony Space Rental
1 Hour for Wedding Rehearsal
3 Hours for Wedding Day (includes 1 hour prior to ceremony until 1 hour following ceremony)
Access to Bride’s Room and Groom’s Room
There is absolutely NO alcohol permitted on the 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: It is customary to give your Wedding Officiant an honorarium for his services. You can choose to give this to your Officiant on the day of your Wedding or at the Rehearsal.
Offsite: Cost will Vary
It is customary to give your Wedding Officiant an honorarium for his services. This amount is at your discretion, but a minimum amount will be quoted to you, based upon several criteria. These criteria will include, but is not limited to, venue location, overall mileage, need to attend rehearsal, total hours needed to participate, etc. You can pay the honorarium in advance, or you can choose to give this to your Officiant on the day of your Wedding.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call our office at 716.250.5026 or send a message. We look forward to connecting with you!
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.
Other marriage Resources
Here are Four Teachings by our Lead Pastor, Jerry Gillis, on Marriage:
Here are three additional book recommendations on marriage: