Booking a church for ceremony in covid right now?

Hi!! You may have luck with a Presbyterian church. I was raised Catholic and my husband is Presbyterian. Many Presbyterians do conduct same-sex marriages and if needed, can marry you outside the church (hopefully it won’t come to that for you as I see the church is important to you). We had to move our ceremony outdoors and the pastor was very accommodating. The Catholic brides in my area had a much harder time as the priests would only allow church weddings with immediate family only. Good luck ❤️❤️❤️

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Thanks so much! We may just need to find a non-church facility to have our ceremony only, hopefully.

Have you tried searching the "Venues" tab, above? Everything on WW should be LGBTQ+ inclusive (if it isn't, please report!!!).

So you want to get married in a church, but not necessarily a Catholic church, in Maryland, right? What part of MD?


I live in Baltimore and go to church every Sunday, so I know some churches are open and churches are allowed to be open. I'm surprised you haven't found any open ones near you.

View Quoted Comment Hi Rebecca,


Yes I have! I have not been denied once by any venues & one of the main reasons I chose Wedding Wire over the Knot.
Thanks so much!

View Quoted Comment I live in Montgomery County. The reception venue is in Boyds, MD. We are wanting to stay under a 30 min transfer from the ceremony & reception and baltimore is about 50 mins. I have looked in DC because they are relatively closer to us & still no luck 😅 Every LGBTQ+ church I have been in contact with isn’t accepting events yet. I have one possible, but they don’t want to book until October which is two months before my wedding & idk how I feel about it being that close!

View Quoted Comment I'm surprised they wont book in advance anticipating reopening. Sorry about that

Oh man, I definitely understand how you're feeling! Growing up, I ALWAYS wanted to get married in a church. It was a "must have" for me and FH was totally on board. FH and I spoke to our pastor and he was super excited to do our ceremony in the church. The problem for us was that we couldn't have alcohol at the church, so we would have had to have the reception elsewhere. Having a separate venue for the reception would have put us over budget, so the church wedding is something we eventually scrapped. We're now getting married in the garden area of an athletic club. (Sounds strange, I know, but it's really beautiful and we know a few people who've gotten married there.) Of course, our venue struggles are definitely different than yours and while I sympathize, I can't empathize with the additional struggle of finding a church that will allow a same-sex marriage.

I think with your wedding still being 8 months out, options will pop up. Especially with vaccines rolling out, it seems like places will be opening up. I'm in CA and just saw an article that stated our governor plans to open the state on June 15th as long as 2 conditions are met. Hopefully your state has a plan for reopening safely in the near future! I agree with Katie that a Presbyterian church would be a great option if you can find one that is open for ceremonies.

You say that getting married in a church is important to you - why is that? Is it about the building in particular? Are there maybe some elements from the church that you could use in a different venue if you're not able to use a church? One thing that was helpful for me (when we realized it just wasn't financially feasible for us to have separate ceremony and reception venues) was to really think about those things and figure out WHY I wanted to get married in a church. Some reasons were logistics - don't have to deal with wind, there are plenty of spaces for bridal party to get ready in, sound equipment is already there, etc. Some reasons were just general expectations that didn't take into account my actual feelings - I grew up going to weddings that were in a church so obviously my wedding also had to be in a church, right? The most important factor for me is what the church really is - people, not a building. Once I was able to reconcile that with my previous expectations, it was easier to focus on what really mattered - getting married to my best friend, the man who has been by my side through so much and always has my back. (Please note that I'm definitely not saying forget about the church and look elsewhere. If a church is what you want, then I absolutely hope and pray that works out for you. Keep that one possibility you already have in mind and maybe check in with them every so often to see if things have changed.)