Gift for Officiant?

CJandRyan

I just booked the officiant for our wedding in June! (Yay!!!) She is a local judge who was recommended to us by the photographer. She said that she does not charge a fee but I still want to compensate her for time and effort, or at least give her something as a thank you. What is appropriate in this situation? Should I offer to pay and if so, how much is appropriate? Should we give her a gift? We live in another state so we don't know her and won't actually meet her until a couple days before the wedding so I wouldn't know what type of gift to give. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

amelisha

If she doesn't charge...I don't know what the going rate is in your area, but knowing what it is where I live, I personally would give her a gift card to a nice restaurant in her area that would be enough to cover dinner for two (including an app and dessert) and a bottle of wine and tip. For a reasonably nice but not super-high end restaurant that would probably fall in the $200 range.

LtPowers

amelisha said:

If she doesn't charge...I don't know what the going rate is in your area, but knowing what it is where I live, I personally would give her a gift card to a nice restaurant in her area that would be enough to cover dinner for two (including an app and dessert) and a bottle of wine and tip. For a reasonably nice but not super-high end restaurant that would probably fall in the $200 range.

Wow!  Where I live, $200 for two is super-high end.

amelisha

LtPowers said:

amelisha said:

If she doesn't charge...I don't know what the going rate is in your area, but knowing what it is where I live, I personally would give her a gift card to a nice restaurant in her area that would be enough to cover dinner for two (including an app and dessert) and a bottle of wine and tip. For a reasonably nice but not super-high end restaurant that would probably fall in the $200 range.

Wow!  Where I live, $200 for two is super-high end.

It was just a ballpark. That would be somewhere with, what, $40 entrees? which doesn't really say "super extravagant" or anything to me. It was just an estimation to suggest that you should probably go for a step up from, like, Outback or Red Lobster or whatever, but that you don't need to go full French Laundry fine dining or anything. 

An officiant is basically the most important part of your wedding, as you won't be married without him or her. So I think a nice dinner is pretty much the least you can do if she's not going to charge.