Help.....How much should I pay my officiant?

OH IDK, if my pastor doesnt TELL Me how much, I plan on donating money to our CHURCH and then giving him a montary gift as well, for him! But for HIM, i was going to do like $50 or $75 only cause i am inviting him to dinner as well...so there is food....so its a gift for HIM, for Church and IDK! but since its a friend..maybe 100???

The minister we are looking at using charges $175. (I am in Florida)

We still have to shop around a little bit, but $175 isn't too bad. We are having our ceremony on the beach and she provides a PA system if needed and she also provides the little table with tablecloth for the sand unity stuff.

Our pastor has a $100 fee. We're in the DC area.

Thank you all for your input. My friend is not a minister and our wedding will be held at a theater, not a church, so we've decided that $100 would be our offering. Also, he was going to be invited anyway.

If he's not a pro, 100.00 is plenty.

We are paying ours $750.00 fh has been going to his church 18yrs since youth group he also did our before wedding counceling and rehearsal diner he great we are located in new jersey

I'm in PA and our friend is doing ours for free. HE OFFERED, BUT he NORMALLY charges $50

My officiant was $425. Don't care, he's worth it!

Ours was our home church pastor so he did it for free. We gave him and his wife a $30 gift certificate and donated $100 to the church. This was in Santa Barbara, CA.

Ours is $300, and I am in DC!

Give it to him in a card expressing your thanks and call it a love gift and you do what your heart tells you. My Bishop who is my Godfather did my wedding and we gave him a love gift for $100

We're having a Catholic legal ceremony in DC before the wedding---we've had 1 marriage prep class already but I totally forgot to ask---and he hasn't mentioned charging us. But my uncle is going to officiate in PR when we go a few days later for the "big" wedding.

Should I give $100 to each of them? Good question Tara!

(maybe I should make a separate post about this?)

Thank you everyone and Mrs. Reid, keep them coming. Never thought about putting it in a card, but will surely use that idea.

We had to give our church a deposit of $100, and we will pay them small fees for candles, aisle runner, videographer, sound person etc. 35-50 each. Small potatoes. We will invite our pastor and his wife to the rehearsal dinner and reception. We will give him a thank you card with $100 in it. The church's wedding book says the gift to the officiant is totally up to us.

Mine is 150.00 plus 20.00 for the rehearsal.. CLeveland Ohio

@dinerlove. Is that the discounted church rate for being a church member? Thats WOW high. (but then again every church is different)

We are are in Jersey. And when we called around to some churches who we werent members too the highest I heard was $500.

We settled on one in Elizabeth, its an extremely old church and the church fee is $200.00 and includes cleanup and everything.

I would ask if their is a discount, (in case you havent already)

@Tara. I would say a donation of $100 is good especially since you are inviting him to the reception.

That is what my FSIL did for her wedding.

@reina j. he also did our counseling and rehearsal my fh also went to the church since he was a kid so no he didnt charge us that price we gave it to him because he did an excellent job and we would of gave him more if we could of my thoughts on it was we paid alot for everything else hes the one making it come together so yes it was worth it

A kindly written card definitely would be good. I've had friends pay in various way (travel costs, gifts of jewelry). It sounds like $100 is plenty since he's a family friend. However, if your wedding is going to be quite elaborate or if you're hoping to have a lot of meeting and work from his end to put together the ceremony, consider upping it a little.

If your wedding is in Virginia, be aware that Virginia does not accept online ordination. Couples' try this for a friend all the time, but it won't work. If your officiant is not authorized, you can contact HLAM Ministries right away to get one of their churches to take care of the paperwork. That's what we did, and gave our friend $200. If you don't get your friend authorized, you will be paying over $500 for an authorized minister to come to the ceremony and rehearsal, since Virginia no longer has Justices' of the Peace.