Lots of questions for a wedding virgin

You know what I mean...I'm new to wedding planning obviously!! And I'm sure I got your attention haha!!

Question 1:
When we meet with the church to set a date, how long is the meeting usually? Do they expect you to set a date right then, or can you think about it and get back to them? Do you think we can figure the meeting would last about a half hour? We're meeting with the Deacon.

Question 2:
How much should I budget for ceremony musicians? I think I would like a guitar, flute and vocalist. Would you believe my parish STILL makes you pay for the organist & vocalist if you don't use them? Unbelievable...but music is too important to me to settle. I probably should check for local musicians that might not be in the 'wedding business' if ya know what I mean- when they jack up the price just because the W word is attached to it.

Question 3:
What should I expect to budget for limo and shuttle for guests? We have a small bridal party- 2 MOH, 2 Best Men, 2 Jr BMs (little ones though- not teenagers), 1 FG and 1 Jr Usher.

We've now switched to a Saturday night wedding so I have to cut corners like CRAZY with the budget....any advice you have is tremendously appreciated.

THANK YOU for listening to this long-winded post and TIA for your help!

hi. i can't help on questions 1 & 2 - we're getting married at the reception location and we're using cd for ceremony music to save $$$. on question 3.... you'll need to do a bit of legwork on this. we were initially quoted about $2500. with some searching and flexiblity (e.g. lincoln stretch instead of latest SUV stretch), we have managed to get a limo for 7 hours for well under $1K and a shuttle bus for guests for well under $1k. when all is said and done, we'll have spend about $1500 on both.

here's a hint, if you don't need the limo driver to help with lining up bridal party at ceremony, providing a runner, and not providing champagne, skip the wedding package and do an hourly rate. we found that to be much cheaper.

I can't help with all of your questions. But I will try

1. Our meeting with the deacon lasted 1 hr. I would plan for around that. We chose our date at the time because if not you have to go back and have another meeting so we did it all at once. It just made it easier.

2. We are just using th church organist and vocalist so those are $110 each for us.

3. We are doing 2 10 passenger limos but our bridal party is bigger. I believe the 10 passengers were $700. We have a shuttle bus for 3 guests that was $800 for the entire day.

Hope that helps!

Hi,
Well, I think it depends on your church. My first meeting was about an hour and it was fairly painless. They ask you questions like 'How long have you been together?' 'Have you ever been married before?', 'Have you both received the sacraments?' , 'Do your families approve?', 'Where did you meet?'

If you haven't both received the sacraments that's a problem or if you have been married before.

My friend had a totally different experience with her church. The priest asked a lot of personal questions about sex and their life together.

Thank God we weren't asked that! Well, we still have one more meeting and then Pre can. I hope it doesn't come up.

I have had two meetings with my priest and it has been pretty easy. I set the date on the first day we met, but we still have not been 'officially' granted permission to get married, It is in the book though.

Def. book the church first before your hall. I did it the other way around and almost got into trouble.

As far as music, well I tried to ask about that and decorations, but they really didn't want to hear it until it is 'official'. I am going to hire a lovely girl to sing 'Ave Maria' and maybe one other song.

I am not sure of a church will allow a band. I was told all the music must be about God too.

I would check out Craigslist. I found many people responded to me. Most were students from a performing arts school that were going to charge me next to nothing. One even offered to have her friends come with their instruments just because they love to play. It may be a cheaper route than a wedding orchestra, but get soemthing in writing to be safe.
Good Luck!

Hi! When we met with out priest to reserve a date the meeting was about 30-45 min. He asked us some questions about our religion and our parents' religion. Then he met with us separately and went through a list of 20 questions with each of us. Mostly, that we agree to raise our children catholic and are we entering this marriage freely and is there any reason why we should'nt be getting married, etc.
As for the ceremony musicians, we are only using the church organist and singer. Our church also makes us pay that fee even if we arent using them, but when we were shopping around to add a string trio or duo we were quoted about $200 per musician.
As for the limos, we are paying $1,000 for two 8 passengers and a Rolls. What makes it more expensive is if you go over three hours they charge you an overtime rate, but since we are going straight to the reception hall after the ceremony and not going stopping at another location to take pictures, we should'nt have any added expenses.

You are all so incredibly helpful! Thanks!!

I just have a feeling we wouldn't make it out to LI from NJ until 6:30...and I'm hoping that's when the Deacon could meet with us. But then we have a tasting at 7:30....yikes. I guess we have to find a way to get to LI a lot sooner. I have no idea what the traffic is like heading to LI from NJ at that hour on a Wednesday- I usually only head in that direction on Fridays!

Welcome first of all and congratulation on your engagement
#1)Meeting is about 1/2hr or so....DO NOT tell the church that you need to see when your hall is available b/c your supposed to book the church first(that's according to the church) but you can give a tentative date and change it if you want.
#2)I have no idea, I had to pay also so i'm using them!!
#3)it really depends on what kind of cars you want, and how long you need them for. But definitely decide that then price around. Go visit places and look at cars. I recommend royatly limo in Franklin square. Just an example, I booked a caddy escalade truck for 6 hrs and a RR fancy car for 3 hrs, they threw in a limo to pick us up and take us home after the reception and a car to take us to the airport for Honeymoon and I paid about $1000. I think that's a steal!!!

But they also have 6 -8 passenger town cars that will be much less. I haves used them before, I think they are fair priced and have extremely good service!!

1) our meeting took about 1/2 hour initially. the priest is a family friend, and he asked what dates we were looking at. fortunately all 3 were open. he knew we had appointments 3 days later for halls so he penciled us in all three and then said to call him immed when we made a decision so he could put us in permanently.

2) our music is in the price the church charges. I think its $350. but check out places like Bravura .. they provide ceremony music (bravuraentertainment.com).

as for #3 .. I am doing limos within the next few weeks but I have a much larger BP so I wouldn't want to tell you what I am quoted since I'll need more/bigger cars

good luck!