Wedding Vows & Ceremony Discussions

Officiant fees?

Hey all Just curious the average price of officiant fees.... I've only emailed 2 so far but the first told me between 5-600$. Just wondering if this is average that I should expect or where on the price range this one fell?

Re: Officiant fees?

  • Our priest didn't charge us a fee, but we gave him $100 in a gift certificate to a local religious store, $100 in gift cards to local groceries stores for him to hand out during the holiday season (we got married in October), and then my parents made a donation to the church where we got married (which was not the church where our priest is stationed).
    Anniversary

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    I'm gonna go with 'not my circus, not my monkeys.'
  • Officiant fees do vary.  $300 is not uncommon.
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  • Around here (MA) they are typically $200-400. 
    Do you have someone in particular that you want or you're just emailing random referrals? I decided why pay to have a total stranger that doesn't know us...our friend/ old roommate is going to do it for us. She gets a license/ permit for the day for $25 from the mayor's office and that's it! 

                                                                     

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  • It depends. One we considered had a $300 fee. The one we went with was a minister who was the husband of a work colleague and said to just give him whatever the going rate was for a JOP in our area. I think it was $200. 
    What did you think would happen if you walked up to a group of internet strangers and told them to get shoehorned by their lady doc?~StageManager14
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  •  Here the going rate is around $300. It varies though depending on where you go, and what you want. Generally if you go with a Church ceremony, you pay whatever the donation is, and it includes the officiant. (This a lot of the time is more than $300). There are also ways to get ordained online. If you were to have a family member or close friend that you could see marrying you, this is another route. These generally aren't very expensive. (Less than $300 for sure). You'd definitely want to pay for this for them, and also make sure to give them a gift for doing it. 

     A couple of ideas anyways! Good luck!

     *J
  • The 4 officiants I've emailed have all said $3-400. I think it varies by region. Having quotes from a few will help you figure out the going rate in the area.
  • Ours was $600+1 night hotel room since he was OOT.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • Most of the officiants we contacted were between $4-600. Several charged fees if they had to travel more than X miles to the wedding and rehearsals cost extra. This was for basic ceremonies with no readings or anything - they charged extra to have those, unity candles, etc. I think price varies by region.
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  • I was married in my Catholic church by one of the parish priests hubby and I knew well.  The fee to be married in the church was $500, and it included the priest...I'm not sure what percentage of that fee was the officiant fee.
  • We just booked ours this weekend, she is a judge. Her fee is $100.00, $150.00 if we want a rehearsal. I had contacted others, and noticed their fees were all higher, $200.00- $400.00. Maybe, contact your venue, and have them send you a list of JP's they recommend, that's how we found ours!
  • sypresse said:
    We just booked ours this weekend, she is a judge. Her fee is $100.00, $150.00 if we want a rehearsal. I had contacted others, and noticed their fees were all higher, $200.00- $400.00. Maybe, contact your venue, and have them send you a list of JP's they recommend, that's how we found ours!

    oh wow! drastically less compared to what others are saying-what area are you from?! My cousin is an ordained minister so we might go that route to eliminate the cost as a whole but wanted to see if we found anything  more affordable before deciding for sure!
  • edited January 2014
    Here in the Detroit area, we've been quoted $350 and $400, which includes any additional ceremony we want to include (unity candle or what have you) and the rehearsal. No extra fee to travel to our venue because it's relatively close (within 30 miles). We wanted someone "official" who was a great speaker rather than a friend.

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  • I'm in New Hampshire!  Good Luck on your search :)
  • The pastor I used was $150.00 which included a $75 janitorial fee, but then I also gave him a gift & extra donation to the church. So all in all I think I spent $300

  • definitely varies by area.  Ours was $500, and he gave us rates for all over Nor Cal which varied from $400-$850 depending on what county he was going to be in.
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    Anniversary
  • Ours was $675 which included the pastor, organist, church rental, janitorial fees, & all other fees, etc. The prices have gone up to $725 recently though. This is for a very nice, but small church in Indianapolis, IN.
  • My officiant was kind of pricey.  She is a good fit, so I feel like the cost was really worth it.  We are having our wedding in Buffalo (not an expensive city) and she charges $395 (why not $400, I'll never know.)  The ceremony will be held at our reception venue, not at a church.  Is it customary to tip on top of that?  Or do you not tip or give gifts to officiants when they have a higher than usual officiating fee?
  • As pp said it depends on the area. We found prices between $500 and $1000.
     
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  • WOW! I had no idea officiants could cost so much! Fortunately, we are being married by an ordained relative. Hell, even the prices I quote to someone to perform their wedding (I'm also ordained) is a tiny fraction of that! 

    Maybe I should reconsider my fees LOL
    ~*~June 21, 2014~*~


  • The total for our officiant that we are paying is $290. We aren't religious so we found our officiant on TheKnot (vendors list) and they are working with us the way we want.
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