How much for a church wedding?

It varies from church to church, really they can charge whatever they like! Ours is currently £400 not including bells, but will go up by the time we get married in 2014!

Exactly, I said to vicar 'it is what it is' - what else can you say?? My parents married at this church, grandparents buried here, dad cried when said I would get married here, can't really do anything to change it!

We asked ours what it would be for 2014 and they guessed around £550. It seems like a big jump if it wasn't a long time ago you booked, so I would ask why it has changed. If you are using their organist or choir etc then this could be the reason. Our venue is offering to keep this years prices if we get the deposit paid by a certain date, but I don't think many churches do this as weddings are one of the few ways they can actually make money besides relying on donations x

We booked in april 2011! ages ago!

Not using organist. mum a violin teacher so prob string quartet and mum is gonna do a recording of her playing for me walking down aisle!

It's a bit unfair for them to spring it on you, especially seeing as they would've known at the time that the price would be going up. If you had just asked for a price then that would be different, but if you book for a different year I would at least expect to be told that the price was a minimum and would probably go up x

We were told could go up, but this is almost double!!! ah well as I said that's just the way it is. I wanna get married there so will have to save elsewhere.

Hey Sparkle! that does seem like quite a jump, we booked our Church in Feb originally for 2014 but then changed to 2013 and the Rev told us the price difference straight away- think it is £550 which was more than i had expected for the service and organist (if we want one).

I looked on the COE website and think that the basic rate is around £300 but then different churches will charge different fees!

but if its what you want then its worth it i think!

That's annoying, as if it's not difficult enough to stick within budget. Makes me glad we're having a short engagement!

Ours is costing:-

But we're not having the choir. So nearly £600! Might not have the bells either...

Seeing as the church bit is technically the most important part of the day, I think you may just have to admit defeat on this one.

Ive budgeted £600 for our church but am hoping it comes in a bit less.

ETA when I say church bit, I mean specifically for the OP, not that church ceremonies mean any more than civil ones!

Ours is £400 for a wedding in two weeks time. We were expecting it to be anything up to £600 though.

Ours is £626 including organist, choir and bells... next years price is due to be £736 as the fee for the actual marriage is going up. Is worth it though to get married in a lovely place with the ceremony we want.. must admit is more expensive than I'd expected though!

Ours is £626 including organist, choir and bells... next years price is due to be £736 as the fee for the actual marriage is going up. Is worth it though to get married in a lovely place with the ceremony we want.. must admit is more expensive than I'd expected though!

Ours is £549 thats for the essentials and the extras of Bells, choir and organist

Ours is £480

That's included Bann's, certificates, service, bells and the organist.

It cost my daughter about £750 to get married in church. It was a lovely Norman building with original box pews. They had an organist and church bells too.

Not cheap, but these churches cost huge amounts to maintain and they have to recoup money somehow.

It varies from church to church.

Ours was £850 for the service, organist and banns, we also had to pay another £34 for banns to be read in our parish church.

It would have been another £280 for bells plus extra for choir and florist, we didn't have any of those!

Wow should count myself lucky with 500!

I'm budgeting about £1500 for my church with all additional extras!

The Church of England fee, for 2012, is £278.50 (or there abouts). Churches can add their own fees on top of this if they wish to. The fee has stayed the same for the past fews years, there hasn't been an annual increase.

The Government (or whoever it is that decide the charge) have put an increase on for 2013 and it's jumping to over £400.

So that would explain why it's gone up a lot for you.