Christmas Day wedding

[stanmapstone]

From A practical treatise of the laws relating to the clergy
11. Marriage Fees.
No fee is due to the clergyman of common right for performing the marriage ceremony. In a canon of Archbishop Langton, it is directed "We do firmly enjoin that no sacrement of the church shall be denied to any one upon the account of any sum of money, nor shall matrimony be hindered therefore; because, if anything hath been accustomed to be given by pious devotion of the faithful, we will that justice be done thereupon to the churches by the ordinary of the place afterwards".
Marriage fees seem at common law to be recoverable in such places and cases only where there is a custom for the payment thereof upon performance of the duty. http://www.rootschat.com/links/01e68/

Stan

[Redroger]

Yes it was free on Christmas Day, the day most of my ancestors who did marry chose for their weddings!

[andrewalston]

Some churches were VERY busy. Manchester Collegiate Church on Christmas Day 1814 saw 14 marriages, 7 burials and 104 baptisms.

Not exactly a holiday for the clergy!

The witnesses for the marriages are the same pair who had signed at the vast majority of weddings all year.

It's by no means a record for the year, though. I randomly counted up Monday 21st February and arrived at 21 marriages, though only 2 burials. Most baptisms had been tidied up on the Sunday - 58 of them.

[Rena]

I believe that it was customary in some cases for the church vergers to earn a few coppers by being witnesses.

[stanmapstone]

Free marriages on Christmas Day. See http://www.thebirdtree.co.uk/showmedia.php?mediaID=65
The image is from the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Thursday 27 December 1900.

Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 24 December 1928
London Clergymen to be Hard Worked
Taking Two Couples at a Time
Christmas Day will be one of the busiest days in the year for clergymen in the East End, for more people are married in the East End on Christmas Day than on any other day of the year.
"I shall be marrying 16 couples at my church" said the Rev. Martin Davidson, vicar of Holy Trinity, Canning Town. He could not account for so many marriagesthen, but he said it might be that some couples liked to combine the marriage and Christmas festivities.
"They are generally poor people who get married on Christmas Day" said Mr. Davidson. "Curiously enough, every Boxing Day I have to marry just one couple. This comes as a relief after the Christmas rush. On Christmas Day I shall marry two couples at a time, as I have done in previous Years."
Sentiment
The Rev. James Fitkin, of All Hallows, Bromley-by-Bow, said that he would be marrying nine couples. "This is more than at any other time of the year", he said "We do not get such a large number of marriages on Christmas Day, however, as there are at Bromley Parish Church. There is a certain amount of sentiment which attracts a great number of those about to get married to the parish church."
At Holy Trinity Church, Mile End-road, 20 couples will be married. Mrs. Osborn, wife of the Rev. G. Osborn, the curate said: "Each couple will be married separately. We do not agree with those who marry couples two at a time."
On Saturday a record was established at the register office of the Edmonton Board of Guardians. Three officials were busy marrying people, 48 ceremonies being performed between 9 a.m. and 2.30 in the afternoon. The total number of weddings over the holidays at the office is estimated at 70.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

The Times, Tuesday, Dec 26, 1911; pg. 4; Issue 39778.
Christmas Weddings In The East-End.
At St. Luke's Church, Canning Town, yesterday morning, Canon Buckley, the vicar, married no fewer than 35 couples, just two below the number for whom he performed a similar service last Christmas. Only about a dozen of the couples drove to the church in carriages. The others walked, accompanied by many friends. The gay costumes of the brides stood out in contrast to the sombre garments of the bridegrooms, the majority of whom were ship's firemen and trimmers. The marriages began at a quarter to 9 o'clock, and so precise were the arrangements that the register had been signed in the vestry - a few a the bridegrooms found it necessary to make their "marks" - and the last couple despatched a full quarter of an hour  before the congregation assembled for the usual 11 o'clock service. 

Stan

[stanmapstone]

The witnesses for the marriages are the same pair who had signed at the vast majority of weddings all year.

It was common for there to be "professional" or regular wedding witnesses. When you see the same names cropping up over and over again they were usually those of the parish clerk or churchwardens, who stood in if the bride and groom didn't have their own witnesses.
However From "The Marriage Law of England" by James T. Hammick, 1873.
The witnesses should, whenever practicable, be the relatives of friends of the parties. For the clerk or pew-opener to act frequently as attesting witnesses is objectionable, especially where  many marriages are celebrated, because these persons will seldom be able to testify  afterwards to the identity of the persons married from personal knowledge or recollection.

Stan