Cantor Fee

AlexaNP

At my church, the organist and cantor is the same person, and you can use her for both at weddings, but FI and I decided to have her just play the organ and have a separate person as the cantor.  We finally found someone great: my cousin's friend who is the cantor at her church about 30 min away, and she agreed to sing at our wedding (she has a beautiful voice!!).  The only thing is, the only weddings she has been involved with have been family members' so she doesn't really have a set fee.  I was wondering what would be a fair fee to pay her.  I also intend to give her some extra, or maybe a gift card for a popular gas station around here, to help reimburse her for fuel since it's pretty far away and she will be coming in once to rehearse with the organist, then again the day of the wedding.

Using our organist actually "comes with" the church, and the total fee is $150.  What do you think would be a good fee to pay the cantor?  Thanks!!

professorscience

I want to say it's reasonable to pay close to the same fee you are paying the organist.  Maybe $100?

Could you ask the organist or music director at the church?

Calypso1977

the cantor at our church was $150 (we opted not to spend the money adn went just with an organ).  teh organ was $265 i think.

i would think anything around $100-$150 would be good, particularly if she has to learn songs she's not familiar with.

Tami87

The cantor we hired was also $150 and the organist was $300 but the organist was part of the total church fee. So I agree with previous posters that $100-150 seems to be the going rate.

AlexaNP

Thanks.  I have to call the organist this week to tell her our music selections, so I can ask her then (she is also the music director).  I was thinking the $100-150 range as well.

kgrawedding

The cantor fee at our church is normally $150.  We are having my aunt cantor, we are giving her a $100 gift card to a really nice restaurant.

itzMS

I would do $100 cash and a gift since you have a bit of a personal connection to her.

Perhaps $50-$75 value of a gift card to her favorite restaurant or bottles of her favorite wine/a nice set of wine glasses?

AlexaNP

Thanks for the advice everyone!!