To all of you getting married in a church:

Im not a member of ours but my FH is a member and all we are required to do is attend premarital counseling and give a donation to the church. 525 is pretty high. Especially for a church you are BOTH members of.

1) We do not attend the church that we are getting married in because we are getting married an hour away from where we will be living (moving in a few months).

2)We are getting charged $250 for everything...pastor fee, church fee, custodian fee. If we were members it would have only been around $50.

I forgot to add my thoughts...haha! $525 seems high, but I think it depends on the location and church. You need to deicde what is important to you then spend your money on the most important things.

1) I'm getting married in the church I grew up in, but I live far away now, so I don't attend unless I happen to be in town. My parents are members.

2) We just have to do 6 hours of premarital counseling with the pastor, no fees (we will give him an honorarium, my mom said that $100-$150 is what he normally gets).

I'm on the fence about two churches. One I am a member and it would be free plus a donation. The other I am not a member and am not sure the cost yet. I think the norm is 200-300. 525 seems kind high esp. since you are a member.

Neither of us are members of the church we are to be married in and we are paying $350 for everything. Thats really cheap in the area we live in because a lot of the churches around our area don't like hosting weddings for couples that are not members so they charge at least $2000! We will attend a couple of services prior to our wedding date.

The $525 includes the pastor's fee, sound technician, premarital counseling (although this part is only $35 and covers a premarital inventory that we both filled out and will be used in our counseling sessions), and two wedding coordinators that will coordinate the ceremony. I might be able to get the fee lowered if I request not to have some of the above items, but a lot of the girls I work with have said that they didn't have a set fee at all for their weddings -- they just made a donation to the church.

We are members of the church we are getting married in. The church fees were $350 but that doesn't include the cantor or pianist or the premarital prep stuff we had to do to be eligible to get married in the church. I think 575 is pretty normal, maybe on the high side? But if we had a ceremony at the reception site we are using, it would have been 1,500 and that doesn't include music or decorations. The ceremony is the most important part of the day, it wouldn't be a wedding without it, so I don't mind spending the money to make us man and wife Your Church has lots of bills too and survives on donations, so maybe they have to get money wherever they can

Neither of us are members of the church we're getting married at. We're having the wedding an hour north of where we live. And I think our total cost is just over $600 for the pastor fee, sanctuary fee, office fee, sound tech fee, etc.

We are not members of the church but we are both Baptists anyway. $75 for the rehearsal dinner (we're having it in their basement) $100 for the church itself $100 for the pastor $50 for the AV guy.

I'm having an outdoor ceremony, but my sister got married at the church where we are both members. In the months leading up to her wedding the pastor kept telling her that the church did not charge a fee, they simply suggested a donation. Two days before the wedding he handed her a detailed bill that was over $700.00. They luckily had extra wiggle room in their budget, and weren't really all that upset about the cost, simply that they were told 2 different things. This church is in a small town as well, so the price was kind of high considering the location. $525 doesn't seem that bad if that includes cleaning afterwards and what not. My ceremony site is costing $400.00 and that's basically for the use of the site. We have to do all the set up and tear down, so the price is somewhat comprable. And I'm sure that every church is different.

OK...here are two extremes...We are part time members...live out of town and come in once a month and we are going to pay $300. But this is only for the priest, and us and two witnesses...No music or anything...We are having the REAL ceremony at another place.

The other extreme is for FH niece getting married next year at a church down in Long Beach Island NJ and they have to pay $1500 and they ARE memebers..So I would say....$575...sounds about right...Does it include music??

The $525 doesn't include any music, set up, clean up, or anything. We will not have access to the church for the reception, and we will need to pay an additional venue charge for that.

I realize everything comes with a price, but my church is HUGE, and it just seems that if small churches can offer wedding services on a donation basis, my multimillion dollar church should be able to absorb some of the cost of providing a wedding service for its members.

Yes, I realize that they are providing a service, and BECAUSE they are such a huge church, they do have expenses that need to be paid, but it just feels like they are nickel and diming us and treating our wedding as a business venture rather than the spiritual uniting that we were hoping it would be. That's why we wanted to get married in a church to begin with.

It does make me feel better that several of you are saying that this is an average price, and I thank all of you for the input that you've offered so far!

I'm not a member of the church we are getting married in however, my cousin is married to the pastors son of this church. This church does not actually charge anything they just ask for a donation and most donations made are like $100. Its a very beautiful church and an amazing place to get married at. I'm excited...I just found out today for sure that I got the church!

$385. This includes the organist, clean up, fee for a questionaire, wedding coordinator, and the 12 isle candles I opted for.

We are both members at the church we're getting married at. We paid about $800.00 for church rental. That doesn't include music, that's additional . It does include the flowers for the alter though- we get to choose the colors. The priest usually get a honarium of $100 to $150. and the alter kids.This annoys me although I like my priest alot because i feel that they should take his fee out of our site fee. We cannot have the reception there or juice and cupcakes for insurance reasons per the church. Also the church is very strict about pictures and wedding planners. We will get 1 to 2 planners with our fee. I heard around the church that non-members pay about $1200 to $1500. These are usually parishoners from other parishes. I just think this is ridiculous. My parents almost fell through the floor when we told them how much the church was. But it is very beautiful and I've wanted to get married there since I moved to this town. neither myself or FH are from here so we paid. Bamboozld

1.) Yes

2.) My church fee ia $100. I am paying an extra $150 to use the "faith screens" for my slideshow and have someone to work them. My pastors ask for a love offering. We are having a husband and wife team so we plan on paying them $150 each. So in total we are paying $550.

Does your price include the fee for the pastor?

1. The only way the church would marry us is having us go there and attend. so now you we go every Sunday.

2. it was 200deposit and 200refundable after the wedding to make sure every thing is clean. Then 50dollars for the audio.

so in the end it will only cost 250. for the church and everything.

@futureMrsK. I totally agree with you! Even though i paid my fee, I was shocked and appalled. It was so early on you know you book the church and the date before you book anything else, so my FH was like babe just pay it. We knew we wanted to get married here. You know our church is a popular Catholic church. But Im with you I feel if I pay tithes somewhere, my goodness, couldn't you cut me some slack. And if i am going to pay almost 1000.00 please take everyone fees out of it, Instead of me having to pay everyone else on top of it. So yeah I was a little bitter, but I paid, so what can I say.

I'm not exactly sure how much it costs, but I heard that at the church that FH and I will wed costs approx $700 and not sure what that includes... So I'm a lil scared, but if that is too pricey, we are going to marry in my church!