Church Donations

LaurenandTony24 · July 2010

Hey,

My church has a suggested offering of $100 for the deacon, $300 for the church and $200 for the organist. Should I pay the suggested donation or is it okay to give a little less (what we can afford)?

Riss91 · July 2010

I think what you can afford is acceptable. But, if the reason you can't afford the full $600 is because you're throwing a $50,000 wedding, that's not so acceptable, ya know what I mean? If you are throwing a larger wedding, I'd try to cut something out of the budget elsewhere to make room for the church donation.

ring_pop · July 2010

If you're a regular parishioner there and make weekly donations, I think it's OK to cut it a little if absolutely necessary. But I would still try really, really hard to make at least the suggested donation.

Calypso1977 · July 2010

i agree with Riss.

if you are having a $20K+ reception, $600 is nothing. i think if you can afford a fancy reception, you can afford $600. afterall, without the church, there would be no marriage/ceremony. $600 also seems to be the average going rate. we paid $100 for the priest, $100 for the church, and then the organist, i believe, was $260. we gave an additional $100 to the priest, adn $40 or $50 to each of the two altar boys. to put it in perspective, our reception cost about $2300.

id cut something like favors before i cut the church....but that's just me.

Theresa626 · July 2010

Are you sure it's suggested? Every church I visited had a mandatory donation or they wouldn't marry you and they were all much more money than you've listed. I would just pay what they say. They have a lot of control over your wedding day so best not to anger them.

[Deleted User] · July 2010

It depends on how it is worded. If it says "recommended," then I think you would be fine going a little less, but I agree with what Riss said.

If it says customary or something along those lines (like ours did), then I would say it is more set in stone, that is what you give, period.

sveva · August 2010

I have been confused about this myself. Our priest won't tell us a suggested or required amount. He just said a donation is usual. I've been at a loss as to what that would mean. Our church currently has no music director or musician so I'm bringing in outside musicisans for the ceremony. We are attending a one day pre-cana at another location with other couples in our area. Our priest met with us for about 15 minutes so far.
So is the average donation what was listed above?

mica178 · August 2010

Sometimes the priest won't know the "recommended donation" amount. I'd talk with the parish secretary, who is the one who keeps on top of the financial accounts.

The donation amount is recommended because it's the barebones amount to cover the cost of maintaining the church for the period of time of your wedding and the preparation leading up to it. Some of the bigger and "fancier" churches in my area charge a lot more for the use of the church for weddings, especially if you are not a parishioner because these places have elaborate stained glass to maintain and expensive electricity costs. If you cannot afford that amount, then you can pay less (although I'd discuss this with your church before assuming that it's okay). If you can afford more, go for it! We're planning on donating more because everyone at our church has been so loving and helpful and because we'd like to offset the costs of people with lower incomes to get married (we have made directed donations to scholarship for EE and future weddings).

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