Catholic church fees

JaniV123

Around here seem to be sort of outrageous! The average fromt he maybe15 churches i have called is $500 going all thew ay up yo $1000 for having the church ceremony! Is it like this everywhere?

NYCBruin

Depends on the area, but yes, especially if you're not a member of the parish.  

ei34

My (Catholic) church fee was $500.  Friends who live in my area have paid more.  As mentioned, it might depend on the area.  But your quote doesn't surprise me (unfortunately ).

Maggie0829

Yup, not really all that surprising.  Sounds about average to me.

lyndausvi

Sounds about right.  They have expenses you know?

banana468

That seems about right.

Cookie Pusher

All the churches in my area charge a minimum of $600, even if you are a member. They have operating costs just like everyone else. If you break it down, it's still less expensive than a lot of other options. For my area, it would cost $500 just to hire an officiant. For an extra $100, you get the venue too!

manateehugger

Sounds correct to me. FI's Lutheran church was $550. 

Keep in mind that you are reserving the church space, potentially requiring clean up, and requiring the church to pay more than one person to be on duty (the officiant and more than likely another staff member). 

CrazyCatLady3

If it makes you feel any better, we are not having a church wedding and paying more than that.  We are having the wedding at our venue, so we are paying a $500 ceremony fee to the venue (for chair etc set up and extra time at the venue) plus $1,000 for our officiant's fee.

HisGirlFriday13

Our church didn't charge us to use it, but we weren't getting married by the priest who's the pastor there; we were just using the space. My parents gave a donation to the church anyway as a thank-you for allowing us to use the church.

We donated our floral arrangements to the church for altar flowers (and since they were hardy, they lasted for three weeks, the secretary told us).

Our priest (who's the pastor of the church we attend, which is 2.5 hours from the church where we got married) did not charge us a fee, but we gave him a $100 gift certificate to a local Catholic religious items store and $100 in gift cards to be given out to people in need during the holidays (we got married in mid-October).

All told, we paid to the church almost as much as we paid our photographer, DJ, and florist, which was what felt right to us.

OliveOilsMom

Our chruch was $550 and we were members, non-members pay a higher fee.  This did not include the organist or singer, some ladies on here say that their musicians were included in their fees, so something else to consider.

Maggie0829

CrazyCatLady3 said:

If it makes you feel any better, we are not having a church wedding and paying more than that.  We are having the wedding at our venue, so we are paying a $500 ceremony fee to the venue (for chair etc set up and extra time at the venue) plus $1,000 for our officiant's fee.

Holy shit balls!  I should become a wedding officiant.

Tami87

Yes sounds about right to me as well. A lot of people seem to expect church weddings to be free or next to nothing but churches have operating costs too. They are keeping the building open, lights on and at a comfortable temperature for your event. These fees also often include church wedding coordinator who helps make sure everything runs smoothly and possibly a musician (although this may be a separate fee).

I agree with HisGirlFriday13, we paid a little more for the church than our DJ and about the same as the florist and photographer. That made sense to us. Our church fee was also on the high end because we chose a historic church that we were not members of (location was picked due to it being the easiest place to travel for our VIPs and the majority of our guests).

Also if money is truly an issue the church will work with you. Or you can even get married during a regular Sunday mass. But if you are willing to spend that amount on other wedding items I don't understand the sticker shock at the church price. I think a ceremony at another location would cost just as much if not more.

JaniV123

thanks! It took me by surprise becuse from other weddings i had been to and heard people talking about they put the church costs at around 300-500. But yes I understand they have maintenance and such. Just wanted to see if it was the norm

doeydo

We aren't getting married in a church, but the venues we are looking at offer outdoor ceremony spaces for about $500. 

CLI242009

Not surprising at all.

1) Depends on the area
2) depends on the church
3) non member vs member

FI and I chose a cathedral and it was $650 because we were non-members. Also this cathedral is used as the bishop's HQ. There was a smaller church (not even as beautiful as the cathedral) but because it's in the more upptiy area, that church was going for $800. So it really all just depends on the area....

CrazyCatLady3

Maggie0829 said:

CrazyCatLady3 said:

If it makes you feel any better, we are not having a church wedding and paying more than that.  We are having the wedding at our venue, so we are paying a $500 ceremony fee to the venue (for chair etc set up and extra time at the venue) plus $1,000 for our officiant's fee.

Holy shit balls!  I should become a wedding officiant.

Yeah, the problem with getting married in NYC.    All the cheaper ones were pre-packaged deals with [fill in name here] kind of ceremonies.