5 - 10% Donation to Catholic Church?

Our fee is $700 which gets us the church, musicians, a church lady (day of coordinator) and a program. While I think that also covers the priest, we're paying him something separate as a tip.

I believe you can also deduct the donation from your taxes.

"Give what you can" is a good rule of thumb. The church won't turn down a donation. Just be sure to keep the importance of the Sacrament with the importance of the flowers,dj, etc. We are really looking forward to the Mass and found varying fees from 200-2500 all over northern California.

We are paying two churches- one for preparation and one for the mass because of the destination wedding.

Happy Easter to the other Catholic brides!

Very well said Mrs. in September!! We are all too ready to prepare the details of the reception, yet we forget that the only most important thing is the actual act of marriage. The church doesn't charge a fee, they suggest a donation. The amount suggested is usually a small percentage of what other brides in that area are paying for flowers, DJs, reception halls, limos, etc.... Let's not forget that many churches have a hard time finding volunteers so, simple things like cleaning, electricity and finding people to lock up the church all has to be paid for. And yes it is tax deductible if it is a donation.

I've heard of minimum "donation" not an additional fee or charge "donation". That's a lot!

Tina,

We told our priest since we were new to the area we didn't belong to any specific one parish. But we would be active member at their Parish. We do go to mass at that particular parish, which we've seen our priest multiple times when we go.

But the guide he gave us wasn't like it was for non-parishioners and parishioners though. Thought what you suggest would make sense like in vs out of state tuition. but wasn't the case here.

We were asked to donate 250.

My church was free if you had been a registered parishioner for at least a year and $500 if you weren't a registered parishioner. It's one of the prettiest churches in town, so they get a lot of requests for weddings from non-parishioners. They didn't have a recommended amount to tip the priest, just whatever you felt comfortable with.

We are getting married in a Methodist church and we are paying a flat fee of $750 which covers officiant/pastor, coordinator and venue. I have not heard of tipping on top of it.

Thank you R!

Perhaps after you register and become comfortable in the parish and speak with other members it will become clearer

Seems like your particular church is hurting for money if they are asking for that amount...one of the many reasons the catholic church doesn't work for me anymore.

Great idea!

I was researching churches in san fran and they were around $2,500. One of them was $5,000.

My priest said he doesn't charge for weddings...thank the good Lord above!

But he did say to remember to pay the musicians who are singing at the ceremony. What I pay them is up to me.