What you pay for your Rabbi?

tecah123

I knew to budget 500-700 for a rabbi but still was shell shocked when she said in the Boston area it's 900-1,000 dollars. She gave me a deal and is doing it for 750. Are you girls meeting  the Rabbi before hand and how many times?
Thanks, Erica

2dBride

Ours (in the Boston area) was $1,500.  Since we live in the DC area, we never actually met with him until the day before.  However, we communicated with him by e-mail and phone during the planning process, and he reviewed our ceremony and our ketubah.

october010bride

Our rabbi is free but I think I told you that already... we've met w/him 3 times already and he also had to approve our ketubah before we ordered it.

Frozenpenguin

We're paying $800 in Upstate NY. We have already met 4 times and we'll probably meet another 4-5 times before the wedding.

jsgpenguin

We live in Texas and I believe we have to pay the rabbi and cantor each $250.  We have met with the rabbi a few times but honestly I haven't been too happy with the whole situation because for us to get answers to questions (like, is this ketubah ok?) is like pulling teeth.  Also we were never given a choice with regard to whether we wanted the cantor or not.  Honestly the cantor has a good voice so it'll be nice I guess but I feel like they've been a little pushy and not very helpful.  I've had to email the cantor to harass the rabbi just to get an email back within weeks!

MrsMLRB

We live in Chicago and are paying $500. The rabbi who is married us is my childhood rabbi who recently retired so the fee was up to us. My parents are members of the congregation he was the rabbi for which is why we could choose our fee.

colourz

Wow. Our Rabbi and Cantor's fees are included in the Synagogue membership. I didn't realize it could cost that much.

Musicheals71

My parents' rabbi cost $500.  If I wanted the cantor also, it would've cost me an additional $400, so I declined the cantor.

We met with the rabbi four times between June 2009-August 2010.

We now have a free one-year membership to my parents' synagogue because we held our ceremony and reception there, but it's an hour away, so I don't think we'll be going there very often.  However, I thought it was a nice gesture from the synagogue.

caraellen23

OP - our Rabbi fee is about the same as yours.  We met with him twice before the wedding and he just did a beautiful aufruf for us this past weekend.  My parents belong to his congregation and we also receive a year of free membership to the synagogue.  I am sure he'll do a beautiful wedding for us and has been very helpful and flexible with our plans (which have changed a few times).

2dBride

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_jewish-weddings_pay-rabbi?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:399Discussion:ee946302-a4cb-416c-8754-0662dd4f762dPost:9f1b38fc-5c37-41bf-b80c-224c9a022f07">Re: What you pay for your Rabbi?</a>:
[QUOTE]Wow. Our Rabbi and Cantor's fees are included in the Synagogue membership. I didn't realize it could cost that much.
Posted by colourz[/QUOTE]
That might have worked for us if we'd been able to get married in our home synagogue.  However, as a same-sex couple, we had to get married in Massachusetts.  (We live in Maryland.)  We were therefore paying nonmember rates.

slbriz34

Cost varies by location and sometimes, what you are getting for services (extra counseling might mean more dollars).  In NYC, the standard starting rate is $500; that's what we paid our rabbi who heads out congregation.  We met and did lots of email exchanges and he approved the text of our ketubah.

We didn't add anything above that amount because he is our synagogue rabbi and we used our synagogue space, we weren't too happy with a lot of the last minute/day of changes he instituted.

Rachiemoo

Ours was a family friend and did it for free.  We donated $500 to the non profit organization he works for in appreciation.  We met with him 3 or 4 times I believe.  He did a great job.

alinaandjared

We got married at my parents' shul so we did not pay a fee other than to make donations to each rabbi's discretionary funds.

lynniearudner

We are paying $1500 in Upstate NY for a rabbi who was willing to do an interfaith service on a Saturday before official sundown. 

We designed the ceremony ourselves, and we have met with him once in person, but exchanged a number of phone calls and emails. 

We were also given a year of membership to his interfaith congregation, but as he is in NY and I live in Utah, we have not used it, nor will we be able to. 

As for recommending my rabbi -- im not sure i would. he is fine, and i think the service itself will be lovely. but im not wild about him for other reasons. 

jnj111410

400 for the rabbi and 300 for the cantor

chavanola

I'm not sure--hopefully not over $500 (my fiance's dept so I'm not sure, but that's a number we threw around)..cause I think that's ridiculous personally.  But I'm also getting married by an Orthodox rabbi in NYC...you can throw a stone in any direction and hit one.  The rabbi we're using happens to be a friend of my fiance.  Plus he's not doing anything..we're meeting with him maybe once to go over ceremony, but that's pretty much it.