All Saints Chapel, Orr’s Island is available for a variety of reservations for special occasions, including weddings, memorial services, and baptisms.

Front-Left view of the Chapel

WEDDINGS
All Saints Chapel’s simple beauty and quiet setting often draws couples to seek to have their summer and early autumn weddings celebrated there. If couples worship at the Chapel, support it, or are affiliated with it through their Harpswell area connections, they are welcome to inquire about their interest in using the Chapel space and garden. Given that the Chapel is a Summer Chapel of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, all services use the marriage rite according to The Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

Date Availability: Please contact the Chair of the Chapel Committee to discuss and reserve your chosen wedding date.

Chapel Usage Fee: For regular attendees and contributors who support the Chapel, a $250 offering of thanksgiving for the use of the Chapel is required; for all others, the fee is $500. These must be paid in full prior to the day of the wedding.

Officiating Clergy: Officiating clergy must be ordained in the Episcopal Church, and canonically resident in the Diocese of Maine and receive officiation permission from the Episcopal Bishop of Maine to preside at the marriage. If a couple has not already made wedding arrangements with a specific Episcopal clergyperson, the Chapel can provide a list of area clergy who may be available to preside at the marriage. It is the responsibility of the couple to contact and secure the services of the clergyperson. The Diocese of Maine requires marriage counseling in preparation for marriage in its churches; and, in the event of past divorce(s), the bishop’s agreement for the marriage to proceed is required.

In lieu of the clergyperson’s time and care in premarital counseling with the couple, and due to his or her service working with the couple to make all the particular arrangements in the wedding design, a separate fee for the officiating clergyperson must be negotiated with him or her and paid no later than the day of the wedding.

Wedding Music and the Service of the Organist: A couple’s selection of wedding music requires careful discernment and substantial guidance from the organist who understands the chapel space and the capacity of its electric reed organ. As with the separate fee for the clergyperson, a separate fee for the organist must also be negotiated and paid in advance.

Wedding Flowers: The couple to be married are responsible for making all their own arrangements with the florist of their choice, and to ensure that flowers are delivered in a timely and convenient way for all the chapel principals involved. Altar flowers are required, and must be placed in the chapel’s own vase inserts, which the couple may deliver to the florist in advance of the wedding day. Arrangements must be of a height no higher than the height of the altar cross. Allowable dimensions are available at the chapel. No ribbons are allowed on the altar. After the wedding, it is traditional for the couple to leave the altar flowers in the chapel for worship services that often follow the wedding day.

Other than altar flowers, the use of any other flowers, such as decorative bouquets attached to the ends of the pews, must be removed after the wedding unless alternative arrangements have been made in advance. However, any cleanup of flower petals or rice, and any rearrangement of chapel furnishings must be restored to the regular arrangement of the chapel and must be accomplished after the service to ensure that the chapel’s regular service schedule will not be disrupted in any way.

Wedding Photography/Videography: No photographs or videotaping may be taken during the service. One photographer may stand at the rear of the Chapel and take photographs while the music is playing during the processional and recessional. Please notify your photographer of these restrictions. The Memorial Garden adjacent to the Chapel is a lovely setting for photographs before or after the ceremony.

Chapel Bell: It is traditional for the bell to be rung at the end of the service. We will be happy to review this with a designated ringer after the wedding rehearsal.