How much did you pay your church Pastor/Priest/etc. for officiating?

We are getting married in the church we are members of and where I went to high school. The fee for members was $750 and that included a wedding coordinator for the ceremony, florals, and the organist. We need to pay an additional $50 for the alter boys. We are going to give our priest a small donation/monetory gift. The handbook they gave us said that custom is to give a monetary gift that is equivalent to the cake cost. I about PANICKED. We definitely do not have an extra $700 laying around for that... but then again, it is our PRIEST, and I feel like what he is doing for us is the most meaningful thing of the entire day (marrying us, of course!) So we decided to get creative with his gift. Our priest is a HUGE cigar smoker and loves a good scotch. So, we decided to give him $200 along with a couple of cuban cigars and a nice bottle of scotch. I think he'll really appreciate this

Some people give their pastor a gift card, or they decide to make a donation to the church! I think it just comes down to preference and culture of your church

This is a case of "your mileage may vary".....Most of the pastors I know, in their own church, for members have a package that runs between 700-1200.00 including the organist/pianist, custodian, and of course, the ceremony itself.

An invite to the reception is not the same as a fee, nor is a donation.

What Id' do? I'd ask one of the church staff what is customary. It's awkward, but it's better to just know.

Mine is a $1,500 "donation".

I should probably mention that this church is very small, the only staff member is the Priest (we're providing our own ceremony music). They don't have many weddings so I don't think there's been much thought put into how much to charge. Plus, it's a summer wedding at a college campus, so there won't even be a service the following day.

75-100 not sure yet, he was originally a guest at the wedding but offered to do it for free.

This varies a lot by region. I'm getting married in a Catholic church and using the parish hall for the reception. It's basically free since I'm active, plus $125 for the organist and $100 cleaning fee. The priest is one of my close friends. There's no required amount, but a $100 stipend is customary around here. I'll probably do that plus a gift. I'll also be tipping the altar servers. I haven't figured out cantors yet.

But, this is a church in a smaller town that doesn't do a lot of weddings. I know at the cathedral in town, they charge $750 for members and $1500 for nonmembers and I think that includes the organist and cleaning and everything, but wouldn't include any direct payment to the priest or deacon.

If there is someone on staff like a secretary or wedding coordinator, ask that person what is typical.

We are getting married at the Basilica and it was a straight $1500 fee (as members) plus a donation to the church. A little pricey but its the Basilica. We plan on giving the Priest at least $300.

300 for the church (facility wise, a/c, use of items) and the priest appreciates an offering for him performing the wedding. We will probably give him 200-300 dollars.

The cost was $250.

We're paying $500 for the ceremony and that includes our Officiant (the Priest we picked) and the organist if we want to use him.

My mom is planning of getting a gift for our Priest, since she is very close to him, and he is coming back to do our wedding even though he has recently been moved to another church.

ETA: We're getting married in a smaller Catholic Church in NYC, we have 120 guests & our Ceremony is taking place at 10AM on a Saturday.

My church in NYC is $2500! Which is why we are getting married in Mexico it's $500 there. But we still have to pay my church $300 for "preparing" us for marriage (I.e. Doing all the pre-paperwork)

Oh yeah, we also had to pay for our "Marriage Prep" class & other stuff, which was about $300. idk if you're factoring that stuff into the overall cost

My parents are members of the church where we are getting married (we live in a different state) and the fee is $1,200. That includes time for the rehearsal, the space for a few hours prior and an hour after the ceremony, the pastor, coordinator, organist, and clean up of all spaces used is also included in that fee. We will make an extra donation or give and additional gift to the pastor on top of that fee.

Wow, some of those prices are really steep. We may have to rethink our budget on this one. I hadn't even thought that the counseling would be extra, and we're doing that part with a different priest because we live so far away.

Thanks for the help ladies!

We're paying $150 for our church.

The fee was mentioned on the paperwork he gave us to fill out. I think it was $100 if done in their church, $200 if he needed to travel.

He waived it for us though, since DH has been a member of their church for so long.

The fee here is $78.50, for a ceremony by a provincial commissioner, with more per hour if it goes over. I don't know of churches and stuff are allowed to charge more (other than for the location and such).