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How much to donate to church for ceremony?

Monique0823Monique0823
First Anniversary First Comment
in Wedding Etiquette Forum
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
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Re: How much to donate to church for ceremony?

  • misssunshine17misssunshine17 member
    2500 Comments 500 Love Its Fourth Anniversary 5 Answers
    I'm paying mine $400, plus $100 for the church. 
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  • mcda04mcda04 member
    Fifth Anniversary 1000 Comments 25 Love Its Name Dropper
    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.
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  • mewebster59mewebster59 member
    100 Comments
    I think you have to know your church, your area, and your budget.  IMO $200 doesn't sound unreasonable.  I gave my church $400.
    Daisypath Wedding tickers in progess... Planning bio
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  • dem068dem068 member
    100 Comments 25 Love Its First Anniversary
    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).
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  • MrsMack10612MrsMack10612 member
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Love Its 1000 Comments First Answer
    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.

     

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  • OliveOilsMomOliveOilsMom member
    Tenth Anniversary 5000 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    Our church cost us $550. That did not include the organist/cantor or a tip for our officiant.
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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] member
    500 Love Its 500 Comments First Answer Name Dropper
    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.
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  • MayDay513MayDay513 member
    500 Love Its 1000 Comments 5 Answers First Anniversary
    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.
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  • ohmrs2014ohmrs2014 mod
    Moderator 500 Love Its 1000 Comments Fourth Anniversary
    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.
    Anniversary



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  • Monique0823Monique0823
    First Anniversary First Comment

    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!

     

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  • Kate61487Kate61487 member
    2500 Comments Fourth Anniversary 250 Love Its Name Dropper

    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

    image

     

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  • NYCMercedesNYCMercedes member
    Sixth Anniversary 2500 Comments 500 Love Its 5 Answers
    Church $150 Pastor $300 Organist $275 Coordinator $200 AV tech $75
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