Officiant Prices in/near Wilmington

squirrelcube

My fiance and I are getting married on Kure Beach, and are right in the middle of trying to find our officiant.  We have been in contact with several people, and are finding that their fees are somewhere between $200-250 for the rehearsal and ceremony together.  We're just wondering if this is a fair price.  We are on a limited budget and don't want to overpay, but at the same time we don't want a "you get what you pay for" situation either.  If there's any brides from this area that can weigh in on who you are using, what you are paying, etc., it would greatly help!  Thanks in advance!

carolinagal78

Glad you asked this! I'm getting married at Topsail and was quoted $500 by one officiate we met with. We thought this was crazy not to mention out of our budget. We are still looking.

ktyd8

Rev. Skip Corbett. He was wonderful. We did get a discout since DH was a marine. I think we paid $450 for his services plus an arch and sound system.

http://www.abeachweddingminister.com/

JessicaxLynn87

I don't live in Wilmington, but I encountered the same problem in our area.  I think you should definitely shop around because anything over $150 is ridiculous.  No one should charge that much for a short ceremony.  It is insane! I completely understand your tight budget because we have one as well.  Good luck! Don't settle for an expensive one though!

carolinagal78

Rev Skip Corbett was the one that quoted us $500. I thought that was ridiculous. He was going to make us use all of his equipment even though I already had it covered. His wife seemed to be more into pushing the wedding packages they offer and I already have a wedding planner.My wedding planner is awesome and they seemed to want to take over. I'm paying my planner a pretty penny so I didnt feel the need to pay for all the extras they were pushing. I just wanted a good officiate. We liked him but didnt need all his services, They wouldnt agree to just marry us. We had to use their equipment and etc. I personally think anything over $200 is crazy!

NcsuPsych

This might sound like a dumb question. . .but have you asked your planner (if you have a planner)?  This can also apply to a venue.

I'm the kind of person that misses obvious questions like that, so I figured I'd post it JIC.

I also dont know how well this would work, but you could maybe try finding a local church near your location and see if anyone would marry your outside of the church.  If they agreed, I wouldn't see their 'price' being very high, plus it would probably be donation to the  church instead of a cost paid to the officiant.

Good Luck!

kernvalerie

We're using a woman out of the Wilmington area and are paying $275 for the rehearsal and ceremony.  I had a hard time finding anyone we liked who charged less than this. 

I too was shocked at what people charge. 

ktyd8

carolinagal, wow that is crazy. they were more than happy to just offer us his services to marry us. his wife never pushed anything on us. i'm sorry this happened to you. he really did a great job.

alliegator8

We used Rev. Skip as well. For the rehearsal, ceremony, sound system and 14 benches, I think our total came to just under $600.  We didn't do any packages with them.  I too did not want the sound system at first,  but after all was said and done, I'm glad we got it.  Everyone heard everything prefectly and our band was about to plug into his system as well. So I could hear the music as I walked down.  I had a few issues with Rev Skip, but he is really good at what he does. As long as you are firm in what you want, but still respect that he does know what he is talking about, you should be fine and he'll work with you.

hmz819

I am using a minister my coordinator recommended...it's actually her Dad.  He charged $150 for the rehersal and wedding.  Our wedding is April 16 so I can let you know after that how it goes.  I don't expect any problems though as I wrote my ceremony and he said he would read any ceremony I prepared as long as it was based in Christian faith (he won't do pagan ceremonies or Indian ceremonies). 

sellis128

I'm using the pastor from my church, but he does do weddings for people outside of the church.  The only thing he requires though is that you do pre-marital counseling with him.  It's just reading a book and discussing things with your FI.  Not bad at all. 

squirrelcube

I don't have a planner, as we just can't afford it, so we're doing the planning ourselves.  Also, since we're probably only going to have 25 people there, we just can't justify spending too much.

Our ceremony is not going to be faith-based, and would be similar to a non-denominational or civil ceremony, so that pretty much has nixed any particular faith's ministers performing the ceremony.  Several that I've contacted wouldn't perform such a ceremony.

Kernvalerie, I wonder if you're using the same officiant we are currently considering.  We're strongly leaning towards Rev. Penelope Morningstar, who quoted us $250 for the ceremony and an additional $50 if we need a rehearsal, which we probably won't, since we have a very small wedding party.

Thanks for all the feedback!  Sounds like what we've been quoted thus far is very reasonable!