Catholic wedding

You will get the guidance from your church, they will give you a booklet or some such thing to explain everything--music, readings, decorations and monies

I think it's more of a donation to the church than a tip for the priest. Our church gave a suggested donation amount for members ($350) and non-members ($550). I know this varies from church to church. We'll be giving the donation made out to the church, I don't think it's necessary to tip the priest.

ETA: In addition to the donation we're also paying the music director/musician a $200 stipend and the cantor a $125 stipend.

Ask your church; every church, Catholic and not, can give you guidelines for this and they are all different.

We just got married in the Catholic Church were we are members. Here is the breakdown of the costs/honorariums we went through (these can change greatly from parish to parish):

$300 for the organist (even if you don't use him he gets his fee)

$225 pre-cana retreat

$600 use of church

$250 honorarium for the priest

I disagree with Angela. From my understanding, on top of any suggested donation to the church, you also need to offer a "tip" for the priest. In addition, you should give a tip to the servers and any musicians/singers if they do not have a separate fee.

I am getting married in a Catholic church in just 2 weeks...we are planning to give a donation to the church but they have NEVER told us how much. So just in case you don't hear that either, maybe you can ask. I am going to have to ask specifically how much.

We had to give a mandatory "donation" of $1250 to use the church. Pre Cana cost $100. Music coordinator costs $200. I'm sure other costs will be thrown in there as well.

I don't think Catholic priests can accept tips, it would just be considered a church donation.

Oh they sure can!

In my church we had to pay for the church, which is the church donation. Then we did tip the priest. Make sure it is cash. That way he can decide if he wants to give it to the church or keep it to himself. I included a note with many thanks for how easy he made our process (H had been married before).

Our church "donation" is required and it's $200.

Our church recommends 5% of your total wedding cost ... umm I don't think so! We will provide a donation but not that much, because we already donate regularly to the church. They also suggest a separate tip for the priest - we were thinking $150 and he's invited to our reception.

As PPs have said, my church gave me a booklet that had recommended donations for the music director and priest. If you don't get one I'd ask at the parish office.

If you'd like me to help you set up an avatar photo let me know, I'd be happy to help

Since we aren't parish members we have a mandatory fee of $1200 to the church, not including the organist and coordinator the church provides. We will probably give the priest half the donation to the church, so around $600. It is really going to be determined by the parish. Talk to them and see if they have a recommended or preferred amount.

We paid the $500 fee to use the church. On the night of the rehearsal we gave our priest a thank you card, a bottle of wine, and $100 (inside the card) because he met with us a few times to go through the FOCCUS results.