church fees

I thought our fee was alot, plus we pade $250.00 for pre-cana. I thought this was all a bit much for a young couple starting out and also pay for an entire wedding on our own. My sister's didn't pay half as much when they were married.

This makes me happy I didn't get married in a church! $500+ for fees

I would ask them definitely. Thats alot of money, we arent parishoners at the church we are getting married at and its not costing us that much!
Ask, it cant hurt

This post is scaring me

Oh and we also did Pre-Cana and tha cost us $350.00 with the FOCCUS class..

I'd like to think I DIDNT get ripped off but I feel I am.. Some of us brides as you can see are not the wealthiest and are not having MTV weddings..

I'm not getting married in a church, instead we're having our ceremony at the Marina Del Rey. But when I WAS looking into a church wedding, the 'donation' was $1,200 and they wouldn't marry us anyway, because they don't remember seeing our envelopes in the weekly collections.

---

Posted by Lilac1543

they wouldn't marry us anyway, because they don't remember seeing our envelopes in the weekly collections.

---

WHAT? Are you kidding me.. What church is this?

See I think its all a scam.. I can understand asking for a 'DONATION' which is perfectly understandable.. But asking couples (especailly the ones that CAN NOT afford it) for over $500 is crazy!! Then including the MUST Pre-Cana which was also pricey.. Its killing me.

This was actually St. Barnabas Church in the Bronx and mind you I went to St. Barnabas Schools my whole life but had a nasty attitude b/c I don't give in the weekly collections.
I think it's all a scam too...I've been to a couple of churches who told me I could get married in their church but since I'm not a member it would cost over $2,000!!!....you don't have to pay to become a member of the church but you have to pay for everything else? Why should you have to pay for a Sacrament? I mean I can see giving them some money but $1200 is out of control. ISo, we now have a non-demoniational minister who's spending 12 hours on writing and creating our ceremony and she's only charging $300!

---

Posted by rkl1130

My church 'donation' is a total of $600

---

Me too

---

Posted by rkl1130

My church 'donation' is a total of $600

---

mine too...

and this is not my parish and he is going to marry us the next day at the hall too...(mini ceremony the day before for the sacrament and full blown ceremony at the RH the next day)

pre cana was an addtl $60...

IMO your donation is a bit high... the church in my parish was $450 plus precana $250 and organist $40...

where is your church?

First I want to say that everyone has different feelings for the church, and every other religion organized or not, so we should all try to be respectful of that. I hate when posts like this turn ugly, but it's natural because people have very strong feelings when it comes to religion.

Ok, off my soapbox Our donation was $600 because we are no longer parishioners there - I have moved and my parents switched to a less conservative parish. The organist fee - who I am not using - is $200. I feel like they should just make the total donation $800 since I have to pay it anyway! However, there was a note in all our church stuff that if you can't afford the fee they would work with you. However, if you are spending thousands on a wedding (not saying everyone is) you probably won't be able to negotiate lower. I'm not sure if all churches do this, but if my super old-school church does I'm assuming most do. They're even making us go back to pre-medieval processional! The groom has to walk down the aisle.

To the church and many people, this is the most import part of your wedding, so I can see why they would wonder why people question the cost. However, I also don't like the idea of forced donations - although I'm not sure I would know what to donate if I didn't have a guideline.

Ours is $650 with everything included.

eta. Precana was an additional $250 or $275 (don't remember). But we are not members of this church and they did not raise the donation amount.

Church donation: $550 plus Pre Cana $350 whopping total of: $900!!!!

That seems like a lot.

We had to pay $400 to the church, $250 to the organist, $10 to the altar boys and $50 to the priest.

---

Posted by EGreene79

First I want to say that everyone has different feelings for the church, and every other religion organized or not, so we should all try to be respectful of that. I hate when posts like this turn ugly, but it's natural because people have very strong feelings when it comes to religion.

Ok, off my soapbox Our donation was $600 because we are no longer parishioners there - I have moved and my parents switched to a less conservative parish. The organist fee - who I am not using - is $200. I feel like they should just make the total donation $800 since I have to pay it anyway! However, there was a note in all our church stuff that if you can't afford the fee they would work with you. However, if you are spending thousands on a wedding (not saying everyone is) you probably won't be able to negotiate lower. I'm not sure if all churches do this, but if my super old-school church does I'm assuming most do. They're even making us go back to pre-medieval processional! The groom has to walk down the aisle.

To the church and many people, this is the most import part of your wedding, so I can see why they would wonder why people question the cost. However, I also don't like the idea of forced donations - although I'm not sure I would know what to donate if I didn't have a guideline.

---

I'm not sure anyone was questioning religion.. I think we were more or less questioning the 'Donation' aspect..

I'm actually hurt that you would think I'm questioning my faith..