How much should an officiant's fee be?

[ADSigMel]

Does anybody know how much one should offer a priest for officiating a wedding? All I keep hearing is "however much you think is appropriate," but I don't know if that's $25 or $100 or $500!

He is not my childhood priest, and it is not my childhood church, so I don't think a personal gift would be appropriate (I don't know him well enough to know what he would like).

Any advice?

[sublime311]

I ended up having an ordained friend officiate my wedding; however, when we were on the hunt for a reverend - most had a fee of $150. If you are uncomfortable asking directly what they would accept, you should consider contacting the church secretary, they often know what fee is customary.

Good luck!

[Sue]

My Pastor gave us a list of all the fee's that we had to pay for having the ceremony in the church, his fee was included on the list.

[ztaprincess]

My Deacon gave us the whatever you think is appropriate speech...I am leaning towards $100 and of course an invite to him and his wife to the reception....I am considering also inviting them to rehearsal dinner but just because I have known them for so long. I might bump it to 125 since we are getting married 40 miles from his home and gas is so expensive.

[lisainpink]

I think it all depends- on a ton of different things. We ended up giving our Priest $200. I think anything between $50 and $500 is acceptable. You know the drill- about the church stating that performing ceremonies is part of the Priests' duties. Have you asked the church what an average is?

[GeekGirl]

I personally think anything over $150 is outrageous. I had a priest tell me that he didn't really want to do my wedding, but if I gave him $500 he would reconsider. I told him to shove it and called the next church on my list!

[MarriedaGoalie]

Ours was $125, which I thought was really high!

[mlfallis]

Ours is a suggestion, highly expected though. It is $125 for the Pastor, $100 for the 5 manadtory councilling sessions, and that is without using the church.

[armadillo]

We paid $250.

[BethElena]

$50....he said that his fee was his wedding gift to us, but we still gave him $50.

[Janey]

We gave $300, which we felt was generous, but he is 'our' priest and what he doesn't keep for himself, we know he will put to good use. We also ave him a can of Cougar Gold (http://www.wsu.edu/creamery/index.html), because he loves it, and had a funny story about it. :)

[histulip05]

We are paying $200. The fee was stated with all of the other chapel charges.

[PG-rated]

Since the "customary offering" for our church was $200, we matched that as our officiant fee. I thought it was only fair, and oftentimes the priest ends up donating it anyway.

[Mrs.B716]

We paid $75. I know that the couple that got married about 2 weeks before us in the same church with the same priest had to pay I think almost $300 because of their "situation". They charged them for everything like- she was chatholic and he wasn't. One wasn't confirmed, They didn't plan on having their kids baptised in the catholic church and they lived together. Each thing brought the fee higher and higher. They didn't have a cake at their reception and the rumor was because they had to pay the church so much that they couldn't afford the cake!!!

My Journal (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=6224)

[sublime311]

We paid $75. I know that the couple that got married about 2 weeks before us in the same church with the same priest had to pay I think almost $300 because of their "situation". They charged them for everything like- she was chatholic and he wasn't. One wasn't confirmed, They didn't plan on having their kids baptised in the catholic church and they lived together. Each thing brought the fee higher and higher. They didn't have a cake at their reception and the rumor was because they had to pay the church so much that they couldn't afford the cake!!!

My Journal (http://www.constantchatter.com/showthread.php?t=6224)
Geez.. This reminds me of the corruption of the Church in the middle ages when people would have to pay priests for indulgences (to have their sins forgiven). It just blows my mind that priests can still get away with this!! :eek:

[ADSigMel]

I agree...that's just ridiculous. My fiance isn't Catholic, but it doesn't make a difference to my priest. He actually likes my idea to have a reading from the Q'oran in place of an Old Testament reading.

Thanks for your input, everyone! I'm going to try again to get an average amount from the secretary at the church, but if I can't get anything useful out of her, I'll probably stick with $100.

[StephieS2580]

We just went in today for our 1st formal meeting with the priest at our church. The fee, because FH is a member of the church is only 50$. But its like 200$ if your a non member! I cannot believe they can charge you more because you live together! They didn't make a mention of that to us thankfully! We live together, have a child, and while i AM catholic, i am not confirmed! Ugh! I think that is outrageous!

[lil_geek]

We are having an 'officiant' not related to our (or any for that matter) church or religion.

Our cost is $275. It includes a meeting or two to pick the ceremony/reading/etc. And would be an extra $50 if we want them at the rehersal.