How much to donate to church for ceremony?

Monique0823

Hi everyone,
My partner and I are getting married in a couple months.  We have met with our priest twice
for our planning meetings.  I was wondering how much we should donate to the church/priest for the ceremony?  We will pay for the music separately.  There is no church wedding coordinator.  It is just a donation to the priest and she puts it in her discretionary fund.  Any ideas?  I was thinking $200.

Thanks for any advice.
Monique

misssunshine17

I'm paying mine $400, plus $100 for the church. 

mcda04

In Response to How much to donate to church for ceremony?:
[QUOTE]Hi everyone, My partner and I are getting married in a couple months.  We have met with our priest twice for our planning meetings.  I was wondering how much we should donate to the church/priest for the ceremony?  We will pay for the music separately.  There is no church wedding coordinator.  It is just a donation to the priest and she puts it in her discretionary fund.  Any ideas?  I was thinking $200. Thanks for any advice. Monique
Posted by Monique0823[/QUOTE]

The least I would donate would be $500.

mewebster59

I think you have to know your church, your area, and your budget.  IMO $200 doesn't sound unreasonable.  I gave my church $400.

dem068

Our church asks for $850, it includes a stipen for the organist and singer and a donation for the church (so the donation probably is around $600).

MrsMack10612

We paid $500 (not including the organist, wedding coordinator and music coordinator).  This is what the church recommended based on what the average member donates to the church every Sunday in the collection plate.

OliveOilsMom

Our church cost us $550. That did not include the organist/cantor or a tip for our officiant.

[Deleted User]

Ours was $250 for regular members of the church and $1,000 for non-members (I think-- maybe members was $500?).  Point: we are technically members but not active church-goers so we gave $750.  This does not include the money that we will be paying the organist, coordinator, etc.

MayDay513

We opted out of getting married at our church (for logitistical reasons). The 4 hour rental would have costs us $700 for rental, coordinator time, and av tech person time.

ohmrs2014

Before we decided to just have the ceremony at the venue, our church was going to cost us $1350, including the donation and organist fees.  I believe broken down it was $1000 for the church and $350 for the organist.

Monique0823

Thanks everyone for the replies.  This is a small church.  Our total expense for the reception is coming to about $4000.  We have about 75 adults and 25 kids coming to the wedding.  We are working on a budget, so there aren't many other expenses....no limo (driving ourselves), I am trading babysitting hours with a friend to photograph everything (she's a photographer), I am making our wedding cake and ordering cupcakes, my sister in law is making a few other dessert items for the dessert bar, no videographer (might have future father in law set up his video camera on a tripod in the corner), and my friend is putting together our flowers.  We have no wedding party, just us two and our four daughters.  It's a simple second wedding for the two of us. I will talk to my partner and see what we can come up with.  Thanks again for all the input.  52 more days to go!

 

Kate61487

The total for our church was $865, but that included alter servers, vocalist, organist, pre-cana, and the use of the church itself.  We had to write separate checks for everything so our breakdown was:

 

Church: $200
Priest: $250
Pre-cana: $50
Organist: $175
Vocalist: $75
Servers: $40
Paperwork: $75

Since our church is huge I don't think $200 sounds totally out of line for just the priest and the use of the church.  When in doubt you could ask others you know who married there or the church secretary what they did / what is typical

NYCMercedes

Church $150 Pastor $300 Organist $275 Coordinator $200 AV tech $75