Church costs

This really depends on your region. In my area, that’s actually very reasonable. Most of my friends who have gotten married in a church have paid well over 1k and that was for less than 3 hours time.

Yeah we paid $1k for the church, which did include the marriage license (over here it’s done by the officiant so the priest did it), organist, and some basic flowers. Now that I think about it there may have been someone there to run the sound as the priest definitely had a microphone on! It didn’t seem unreasonable to me.

We are from a very small town and I dont live in a region that is very costly so it just seems unreasonable for the area.

To me that seems crazy, but my church does “rentals” to members for free. We have to pay the tech person, and we will donate some money to the officiant and the church, but it’s not required. I know it’s all based on locations and how popular the churches are for weddings.

That seems high to me. We got married in a rural area and paid $250 for the church and officiant. We didn't need sound (tiny rural church and a friend played piano). My mother is also a member there, so we got a slight discount. However, my old church in downtown DC charges $650 for using its space (but that's still less than $950). The facility fee (the person to open and close) does seem about right and the tech fee. Do you get the deposit back? Also, why is the sanctuary cleaning fee so high? Why is there a mandatory wedding planner and a pastor/officiant? Is the wedding planner helping with the rest of the wedding? Finally, the $250 for the pastor seems about reasonable, but I would negotiate. My husband wrote our entire ceremony and gave it our pastor. A friend gave a short sermon/homily. So maybe if you guys plan the ceremony yourselves without a sermon then you can ask for a slightly smaller fee.

My friends church wanted $4000 but my church would have been free. It just depends.

Our church is $900 for the ceremony. This includes the staff and a musician. Our reception is at another location.

I’m getting married in a Catholic Church by the Indiana dunes for $1,100 for a 45 minute ceremony lol your price sounds good tbh

View Quoted Comment For the area it really seems crazy. I haven't known of any other church in the surrounding areas to charge so much. We expected to pay something but not $950

I'm in the same boat, our church is non denominational with several locations. We're paying I believe $900 for the church but there's no breakdown of what the pricing is. I just know it includes the ceremony space, the rooms for us to get ready in before if we decide to do it there, the chairs, and a sound person/use of the sound equipment plus a ceremony coordinator. Anything we want to pay the pastor is separate.

My church is charging us a $1,200 “donation fee” with a breakdown of the donations. ANDDDD we go every week and put 10 dollars in the envelop

You get the deposit back, so $750 if you do no damage. But a cleaning fee that is ridiculous. Considering they do regular services and major crowd type cleaning more than once weekly, how are 2 people likely making no more than $25 an hour needing more than 3 hours todo bathrooms and entryways, and vacuum and wipe seats or pews? $150, may well be. $300 is gouging, considering . 400-600 is not uncommon for a winter fee here, as it may include many walkways and stairs and edges or parking lot snow cleanup throughout , not just before use, that cannot be done by plow. Most venues are at least $400 for just a ceremony. Though the local churches only charge a fee for the pastor, and about $100 janitorial, for any member of the congregation, or immediate family of a member. They figure that church events have 5-8 gatherings of crowds a week, and cleaning is not that much more on a basically clean facility. I think it is high, and though costs here are not as sky high as much of northeast, we are not in a low cost region. We use church halls and meeting rooms, commercial type kitchens, and restrooms, for quilting shows for local guilds. And $300 will do nicely for a 3 hours night before prep and 6 hour event and 2 breakdown the next day.

Added - And the mandatory wedding planner is ridiculous. I would pay for a general donation to the church , but never this.