5 - 10% Donation to Catholic Church?

Most Catholic churches will give you a guideline. Are you a member of said church?

I haven't heard of this but I guess anything is possible. We were given a dollar amount and padded it a little.

We were specified a "donation" requirement of $1100 and are gifting to our priest a separate anount on the side. It wasn't a percentage of the total wedding cost...I think that's kind of ridiculous. ETA: We're going through a very popular church in San Diego. Another church in a less expensive area required a $400 "donation" for the ceremony.

We were asked to donate $250 to help with electricity, upkeep, etc for the day and if we choose to give the priest a gift as well.

Eta: but yeah, Catholic Churches never ask for a specific percentage, other churches do.

I've never heard that.

I've never heard that.

My catholic church wanted $1300 to do the ceremony there. We ended up doing everything at the venue and getting our own officiant and not having to deal with the dreaded GAP between ceremony and reception. I think it's ridiculous how much they want for a "donation"

I've never heard of that either! The donation at my parent's church is a minimum of $250 but you can pay whatever you want passed that.

That is steep. Catholic churches can be rough.

I couldn't believe it either especially after all the research I did. But it's written pretty clearly though in the packet they gave us. Our priest even said it's just a "recommended" %, the packet does state a recommended amount of $500 to the officiant.

Even though it's recommended it feels weird not coming close to the recommended amount, but I also know we're trying to keep within a reasonable budget too. I think our priest knows that too. But i'm glad i'm not the only one who thinks it was a little steep

I am paying enough just to get married there so no.

This is why I never wanted a catholic wedding. I was raised super Catholic and spent 12 years in Catholic school, so all of my family assumed we would get married in the Catholic church. I just couldn't do it.

I think it depends. We are paying $1,000 to get married there. I'll probably "tip" $250 for the priest since we've had several meetings with him and he's been generous with his time.

We are required to "donate" $300, and then $100 for the rehearsal

That's a ridiculous amount. I had a Catholic wedding and have been to a gazillion of them. It varies by region, but the norm is usually just a few hundred dollars if you're a parishioner there. Our church had zero requirement for us but we chose to give to the priests involved and of course we paid the organist and cantors. Technically the Church should not be charging you for access to a sacrament, only for incidentals like stipends for the organist and cleaning fee if you use a church hall.

I discovered that this really varies a lot from church to church. My FH's family church asked for $1500, while my family's church (a cathedral!) only asked for $100, plus whatever is required to pay the musicians I choose. You can guess which one we chose to get married in. Haha. I was told that often times the "fees" are negotiable and can be scaled based on your financial situation, but the high fee kind of turned us off from FH's church.

I will be choosing to give a little bit more as a donation, as my wedding budget will allow that, but likely not as much as 10% of the wedding. If I had to guess, I bet the suggestion for a large tip (5% - 10%) comes, in part, from the idea that the sacramental part of the ceremony should be as important as the decorations/flowers/party part, so if you're willing to pay $20,000 for a wedding, you should be willing to pay $2,000 for the ceremony, etc. I don't necessarily think that money spent is the best way to determine "importance" to you, but I've read enough Catholic wedding editorials/blog posts bemoaning how the reception gets all the time and money and blah blah blah, that I could imagine this is all part of that.

We are being asked for $300 for the church, they are giving us a great deal. We will then give a nice gift probably to make it a couple hundred dollars. We also are paying for their organist and singer separately, and will have cousins be alter servers, so don't need to tip them (might send them a small thank you gift card later)! :-)

I was told it's donation only and there's no suggested price. Most of the reception venues I saw charged an extra $800 for a ceremony site without an officiant fee. So, in my opinion $1k is a fair price.

We are actually paying about $750 for the entire wedding and donation and we aren't even having a full mass. We aren't having communion because while my family is Catholic, only 10 or less guests actually are. I think it's very pricey, esp if you are a parishioner.

R, did I miss if you answered are you a parishioner?

When we went to get our wedding put on the church schedule, they never mentioned anything about price. I know there is a fee for the priest and payment for the organist and soloist, but we were never told an amount. I guess I'd better call--after Easter--and find out!