AtFierce Church, we believe a person’s wedding is one of the most important spiritual moments in their life. Therefore, we take our potential involvement in your special occasion quite seriously. Our goal is not only to help you have a memorable wedding day but to help prepare you and your future spouse to build a successful, lifelong partnership. While a lifelong, loving marriage partnership doesn’t come easily, we believe that with Jesus’ help it’s within everyone’s reach. We’re excited about how God can work in your relationship over the upcoming months!

Fierce Church pastoral staff members perform weddings. Please review the information below so that you’ll have a clear understanding of what the wedding process at Fierce Church looks like from start to finish. After reading through the information, the next step is to complete the wedding request form below.

Here’s what will take place once we’ve received your completed form:

The Wedding Request Form will be reviewed by a member of Fierce Church pastoral care team to determine if the bride and/or groom meets the requirements to be married at Fierce Church. If the Wedding Request Form is approved, a member of our pastoral care team will contact you to confirm your wedding date and time and to let you know which Fierce Church pastor will perform your ceremony.

Once a Fierce Church staff pastor is assigned, they’ll contact you to schedule a meeting to discuss the wedding date, plans, and other ideas. At this meeting, the Fierce Church Wedding Agreement will be reviewed and signed by the couple and the Fierce Church staff pastor.

For a Fierce Church staff pastor to perform a wedding, the couple must:

Complete six weeks of premarital counseling by a Christian counselor licensed in the State of Illinois. The counseling must be completed at least two months before the wedding date, and a schedule of three follow up counseling sessions is set for three months, six months and 12 months after the wedding day.

At the conclusion of counseling, the counselor is required to send a letter to the Fierce Church staff pastor stating the sessions were completed including the dates for the three follow up sessions. This letter must be received no later than 45 days before the wedding.

If a couple wants to be married by a Fierce Church staff pastor and they are living together and/or sexually active, the couple must agree to stay apart sexually from the date of signing the Fierce Church Wedding Agreement until the wedding night. Because the Bible’s direction is that a man and a woman should not have sex before they’re married, we believe this commitment before marriage is the best way to start fresh and do things God’s way.

The Fierce Church staff pastor and the couple will meet two additional times before the wedding ceremony. The first meeting will be conducted to finalize wedding plans and the second meeting will be the actual wedding rehearsal.

It’s the responsibility of the couple to obtain the marriage license before the wedding. The Fierce Church staff pastor will be responsible for mailing the marriage license to the county office following the wedding.

On the day of the wedding, the ceremony will take place with the Fierce Church staff pastor arriving approximately 45 minutes before the wedding and leave after the ceremony is completed and the marriage license is signed. While the staff pastor and his/her family may choose to join the wedding party for the reception, this may not be possible.

Fierce Church staff pastors believe that God’s intention is that marriage is for life; however, they also understand that people make mistakes. Fierce Church staff pastors will marry those with divorce in their past. We do require that the couple make this a major area of exploration in their counseling sessions.

Please note

• Tech available for the wedding is minimal. The technician can run slides, turn on lights, and play MP3s provided by the bride and groom. No members of the bridal party or family will be provided access to run or use any tech.
• Fierce is in the marriage business but not the wedding business. As such, receptions will be be available at the church. 

The fee for the wedding ceremony is $300 and is to be paid directly to the Fierce Church staff pastor performing the ceremony.

If the Fierce Church is building is used, there is a fee of $250 for usage. Should sound/technical support is required from Fierce Church during the ceremony, an amount of $25/hour is to be paid directly to the technician.

To meet the requirements for a Fierce Church wedding, we recommend you initiate the wedding process 12 months before your wedding date. Fierce Church does not schedule weddings on Easter and Thanksgiving weekends or the weeks before or after Christmas.

Please send an email to hello@fierce.church if you have additional questions.