Cost of church for wedding

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neil

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anybody know the typical cost of a church for a wedding ? As far as I know you make a "compulsory donation" but do not know how much it is. Don't want to be too tight nor too generous either. tks
 
Average "voluntary" donation to the priest I would estimate at being €300.
However, you also need to set money aside for flowers, servers, organist (in many cases even if you provide your own music) and the sacristan.
I would budget €1,000 for this, the most important part of your wedding!
HTH
 
It usually costs about Euro 500 here. I hate it when the wedding party take the flowers from the church to decorate the buffet table at the villa. I hate "church flowers" on the buffet tables.
 
mo3art said:
Average "voluntary" donation to the priest I would estimate at being €300.
HTH
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Can you not pay the "voluntary" donation? Surely by paying it the priest is getting paid twice for the one job (couple getting married pay once and then he gets his pay cheque from the church).

Anyway is marrying people not a part of the priests job? Why should he get extra for doing it? Sounds like a money making scam to me.
 
"Anyway is marrying people not a part of the priests job? Why should he get extra for doing it? Sounds like a money making scam to me."

I am not a member of any organised religion, but I do think that a wedding is supposed to be a religious ceremony, and you should pay a contribution to the church.
It has not been stated what religion the original poster is, but in most churches, the upkeep of the church comes from the people who use it, so
why should someone have a wedding there and not contribute.
 
Quite frequently in Ireland you are asked to pay a contribution to the priest and possibly to the alter boys/sacristan (this totally depends on if they're actively involved in the mass/preparations). Its not always the case that you have to "pay the church". If you get married in your local parish church there usually isnt a cost. I got married in university church which did have a charge (400 euro which is quite steep) if Id gotten married in my local parish where I grew up there wouldnt have been a charge, churches like University Church/TCD church/UCC church etc do charge as they dont have a dedicated parish from which they collect donations to maintain the lighting/heating etc.

On top of that there is the contribution to the priest. In my case the priest travelled to university church to say the mass and met us twice before the mass first of all to discuss the marraige then to the go over the mass leaflets.
He also tried to learn some swiss german to greet my husbands family at the beginning and end of the mass. Bare in mind that a wedding mass can be about half a days work for a priest and he should be renumerated for that. We gave him 250 euro. Its also nice, if you can, to invite him to the dinner.

I did ask advice from another priest as to how much I should pay our priest, he said anything from 100 euro up is the norm, but whatever you do dont give them 20 euro as its just insult.

We didnt give anything to the sacristan or alter boys who werent really involved in the ceremony. I hope that is some help. www.weddingsonline.ie have a religious and legal forum that cover these types of questions extensively.
 
casiopea said:
On top of that there is the contribution to the priest. In my case the priest travelled to university church to say the mass and met us twice before the mass first of all to discuss the marraige then to the go over the mass leaflets.
He also tried to learn some swiss german to greet my husbands family at the beginning and end of the mass. Bare in mind that a wedding mass can be about half a days work for a priest and he should be renumerated for that. We gave him 250 euro. Its also nice, if you can, to invite him to the dinner.

.
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I think the point made above by someone is quite relevant though. It's half a days work for which a priest is already being paid by virtue of the fact that he is a working priest and therefore his job (for which he is paid by the Church - bearing in mind I don't know exactly how priests are "paid" but will use that term to cover the fact that the Church gives the priest money to live on while he is doing a job) is to do things like saying mass and marrying people. Paying the priest again is like paying an exorbitant service charge.
 
Janet said:
I think the point made above by someone is quite relevant though. It's half a days work for which a priest is already being paid by virtue of the fact that he is a working priest and therefore his job
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On the pre-marraige course I attended this was discussed and unfortunately Ive forgotten the details of the explanation. However a priest is paid to be a parish priest but not necessarily for all the work that comes with a wedding, for example in my case the following wasnt covered by his salary:

- the 2 meetings where he met us "after hours" at home.
- help with readings/gospel, prayers of the faithful
- traveling to another parish and dealing with that sacristan and organist (who was a bit of a difficult character)
- the personal touches ie trying to learn swiss german in my case.
- help with our paperwork (which was very complicated as I was marrying a foreign catholic ironically if my husband wasnt a catholic it would have been so much easier)
- running the rehearsal

I dont want to get into a debate about priests simply as I dont know enough about how much they get paid etc. I will say for an event that is ridiculously expensive (the wedding itself, flowers, hotel, dresses, tuxs, favours, meals, music, drinks, cars, gifts for wedding party etc) the priest and the church (the most important part of a catholic wedding) were the most financially reasonable.

Again, its at the discretion of the bride and groom to pay the priest, if you wanted to you dont have to give him anything. That cant be said for any of the other bells and whistles that come with "white-catholic" weddings now days.
 
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AFAIK the donation to the priest is passed on to his parish...he does not keep it himself.

We got married in the University Church. We had to give a donation of €400 for the use of the church. AFAIK had we got married in our own parish church or that of our parents there would be no charge for the use of the church.

We also had to source our own priest. We gave the priest €150 for performing the ceremony and €20 to the sacristan. (We had planned to give him €50 but he didn't show up the the rehersal as promised, to show the priest where everything was) We didn't have any altar servers.
 
our contribution was €200 as it was my parish and it was split €50 for the servers and €150 for the priest. I was not asked to pay a thing.

it is part of the catholic faith to support the priest financially. Also it is often the part of the parish council to state the "fee" for the church where someone is not a parishioner - eg a blowin who has not contribute to the parish but just "loves the decor" of this particular church. eg the yanks that fly in to shannon hit Annacotty and then Dromoland or the students using their old college chapel.

But seriously if it is stated in the press that in 2004 the "average wedding" cost 23k then the cost of the church and priest and servers was less than 1%. If it was a civil ceremony I bet the room & celebrant would cost more than 200 notes.

The donation is in thanks for the help given to you in one of the most important decisions and events in your lives, well thats what i took it to mean anyway. When i went to my rehersal my parish priest was iorning out grease from the carpet in the front aisle obviously so it would be clean for my wedding the next day. Now thats dedication and attention to detail and as you can imagine i had no problem paying him.
 
Priests are paid about €12,000 euro a year. That isn't very much to feed and cloth themselves and run a house is it?

Most couples who has the traditional wedding fork out about €10,000+ for the reception, so a few hundred euro towards the church isn't really a lot in comparison. The church is a big place that needs to be heated and lit up (just like the hotel) plus there are loads of people in the background helping out.
 
pricilla said:
Priests are paid about €12,000 euro a year. That isn't very much to feed and cloth themselves and run a house is it?
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Doesn't accommodation normally come with the job? Is it taxable as a BIK? I reckon that if I was single, no kids to support and had accommodation provided I'd get by comfortably on €230 net p.w. I survived on a lot less for many years in the past in similar circumstances (not that I was actually a priest of course).
 
We paid 250Euro for the use of a church for our wedding(2004) as it was outside our 'parish'. We then had to pay the Priests and Alter Boys after this. It felt like we were renting out a hall or something, very strange.
 
Cyrstal said:
We paid 250Euro for the use of a church for our wedding(2004) as it was outside our 'parish'. We then had to pay the Priests and Alter Boys after this. It felt like we were renting out a hall or something, very strange.
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In effect you were.
The church was heated and lit by parishioners contributions as well as church funds so hense you were paying for what you used. - why is that strange?
 
ClubMan said:
Doesn't accommodation normally come with the job? Is it taxable as a BIK? I reckon that if I was single, no kids to support and had accommodation provided I'd get by comfortably on €230 net p.w. I survived on a lot less for many years in the past in similar circumstances (not that I was actually a priest of course).
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Are you serious or taking the proverbial?:confused: Of course a single person with no dependents can survive on €230 per week. (So could a Senior Counsel or a Hospital Consultant but so what?) But do you think mere survival level existence is appropriate? It is the duty of the faithful (if they wish to practise their religion) to support their clergy. What standard of living do you think should be provided? Bear in mind that a priest is a qualified professional with 7 years third level education, irregular and unsocial hours and virtually always on call.
 
nelly said:
In effect you were.
The church was heated and lit by parishioners contributions as well as church funds so hense you were paying for what you used. - why is that strange?
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I found it strange because the church is not 'rented' out in my own parish, that's all, hadn't know that they'd do that.
 
Observer said:
Are you serious or taking the proverbial?:confused:
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Of course I was serious. What's the problem with discussing this issue other than the fact that it might be slightly off topic and merit its own thread?
Of course a single person with no dependents can survive on €230 per week. (So could a Senior Counsel or a Hospital Consultant but so what?) But do you think mere survival level existence is appropriate? It is the duty of the faithful (if they wish to practise their religion) to support their clergy.
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Note that I said "comfortably" above.
I recko What standard of living do you think should be provided? Bear in mind that a priest is a qualified professional with 7 years third level education, irregular and unsocial hours and virtually always on call.
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So what? That's their choice/vocation. I don't think that there should be minimum rates of pay for religious practitioners other than the normal statutory minimum wage if applicable. Of course if they want to start their own industry lobby group or union they have a constitutional right to do so.
 
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