Quick question on the Church

yom 1

We have booked the date for our wedding next year. Its not in our area so have been looking for a church near the hotel. We found a real old fashioned small country church which we would like the ceremony in. I rang the parachial house and he told me there is a charge of €500 for the church.

Is this the norm?

dame

Did you expect it to be free?

Zambia

Its more than I paid but its not that bad.

rusalka

Yes, it's the norm. If you are not a parishioner, there's usually a charge for the use of the church.

Some parishes also charge for use of the church even if you ARE a parishioner, but do not attend church (the implication being that you thus also do not contribute to the upkeep of the church via dues/annual contributions/etc.).

Heating/lighting/painting/insurance/other structural upkeep/etc. are not free.

yom 1

dame wrote:

Did you expect it to be free?

Not free no but not 500 either.

thanks for your help folks

hot fuss

Eek - that's a lot! Do you have to give the priest, sacristan and servers money on top of that too?

yom 1

I was told that i would have to get my own priest to marry us before we could book the church so id say so

CathyMoran

We had to pay about that and also had to pay for the priest on top of it. It is the norm.

JoeyJJ

When you mention the W word everything costs alot, you'd better get used to it.

hot fuss

Have to disagree about it being the norm though. We just gave a donation to our priest, sacristan and servers - that was it!

No fee for using the church..

And you don't have to get used to getting ripped off if you're getting married. You only get ripped off if you let it happen. It's easy to cut back on silly, uneccesary expenses with a bit of creative thinking and organisation.

Zambia

hot fuss wrote:

Have to disagree about it being the norm though. We just gave a donation to our priest, sacristan and servers - that was it!

No fee for using the church..

And you don't have to get used to getting ripped off if you're getting married. You only get ripped off if you let it happen. It's easy to cut back on silly, uneccesary expenses with a bit of creative thinking and organisation.

Was it your local church ?

JoeyJJ

I agree, we are not paying for the church either as we both attend mass their when we are in the area.

We have also shopped around and made alot of savings for the wedding from making our own invitations, mass booklets and having bridesmaids dresses done by my mum and doing as much as we can for as little as possible without sacrificing much if anything at all.

Its essential to shop around because there are alot of vendors who charge more when they hear Wedding, doesn't mean you have to go with them though.

hot fuss

Yes, it was my local church - that's obviously why they didn't charge us. Just wanted to point out it's not the norm everywhere!

And joey you're right about shopping around.. There are definitely ways to bypass being ripped off!

Talliesin

hot fuss wrote:

Just wanted to point out it's not the norm everywhere!

Firstly, "the norm" is not disproven by a few counter-examples.

Secondly, unless your church doesn't charge people who aren't parishioners then it isn't even a counter-example, it's just an irrelevant comment on something completely different.

OP, yeah that's pretty much the norm.

hot fuss

Actually, I have friends who have gotten married in churches that aren't their local church and some of them haven't had to pay any extra charge. Some of them have had to pay a donation, but always a lot less than 500 euro. I have never heard of a donation that large before.

So, before you swallow some more pedantic pills, it's not "the norm" for everywhere and everyone. And I was only answering a query, no need for the snide comments.