Wedding Etiquette Forum

How much to pay a personal friend to be an officiant?

I hired someone I knew from college to be my officiant because she's done a few weddings professoinally, and I really like her. We're not close friends, but she is someone I trust and am grateful she is able to officiate my wedding. I asked her how much she charges, and she said she wouldn't charge me, but enjoyed gift cards. How much is appropriate to give her?

Re: How much to pay a personal friend to be an officiant?

  • How much do officiants charge in your area?  Whatever that amount is, I'd give her that.
  • We had a family friend officiate our wedding. We gave him a $250 gift card to one of his favorite restaurants. That was about the median cost of the other officiants we had been looking at.
  • I officiated my sister's wedding.  I did not expect anything.  I did it because I like writing (I helped her write her ceremony), I'm an attention-whore who likes talking in front of people, and she's my sister.  Apparently she worked with my boyfriend to find a place to where I'd like a giftcard and gave me $300 to a B&B in a cute near-ish by town.
  • Our very good friend officiated our ceremony.  We didn't pay him but we did get him a very nice thank you gift.

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