Pastor Fee?

AprilH81

My former pastor will be performing our ceremony and he would never dream of asking me to pay and I would never want to put him on the spot by asking what he charges.  What is the going rate for a ceremony officiant these days?  

He is a minister and I don't see us straying too far from the traditional Christian ceremony.  At this point we are not planning on a rehearsal so it would be one day of travel and possibly one night in a hotel (we are considering picking up the tab on that if the budget allows).  He will be driving about 2 hours each way.

Also, at this time we are planning a late morning/early afternoon ceremony so it is doable to drive both ways in one day if needed.  Again, we are going to try to fit his hotel room into the budget.

Thanks!

Edit: Correct spelling error in title and clarify ceremony time.

photokitty

We are in a similar boat as the minister is FI's close friend. We are paying for their hotel and getting them a gift. If your wedding is a 2 hour drive for them you should probably offer them overnight accommodations, since they will already be paying for gas to come and marry you. Most minsters start at $200. Consider giving a donation to his church that you are comfortable with- good news is it is tax deductible :-)

photokitty

Not to pile on, but I was looking up tipping info to get ready for next week and thought this would help you address your question as if specifically talks about minister fees and tips:

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-budget/articles/wedding-vendor-tipping-cheat-sheet.aspx

But if you tip/pay that much you could probably forgo offering accomdations. :-)

GL!

AprilH81

$500 for an officiant?  That sounds really high to me for the midwest.  Am I out of touch?

photokitty

It says Donate $500+ to the church or synagogue so I think that assumes you aren't being charged a set price. Many churches charge a set price and then you tip the players involved individually. If it is for use of the church and minster services, that's not high at all. To get married by my priest at my church it is $750, but it does include somethings. My guess is smaller churches that don't do a lot of weddings don't have a set fee schedule like larger congregations or big city churches.

My coworker is a nondenominational officiant and one of (if not the) the cheapest in Columbus and they start at $175 plus tip. 

Sounds like you should just ask him how much he charges to conduct weddings. He might be waiting for you to ask and feel awkward about asking you for money. I straight up asked FI's friend and he refused to be paid, so we're getting his hotel room both nights and a gift.

GL, it's a sticky situation :-)

AprilH81

Yeah, when he did my sister's destination wedding my parents paid for him and his wife to have a condo a the beach for a week plus supplimented their airfare.  

We aren't getting married in his church so while I don't mind the donation I would rather just pay him.  I don't want to insult him by thinking he expects to be paid and I don't want to insult him by not paying enough.  Grrr...

photokitty

I feel for! It's tough. I'm trying to figure out tipping for vendors and that's no fun either :-\ Good luck, you'll figure it out :-)