Why do churches charge so much

Getting married is expensive!

It will cost just as much to have a civil ceremony. We are paying the registrar £450, £70 to give notice (the equivalent I reading the banns) and £675 room hire for the ceremony. So that's even more than a church.

Some registry offices are cheaper, I think totally around £350 fr a small ceremony room on a weekday.

Obvioulsy the getting married is the most important part of the day and what you need to budget for before even starting looking at dresses/party venues etc.

Why have they added £350 on ?

Surely you're not that short sighted?

Wedding venues charge that and then some just to hire the room you have the ceremony in!

Unlike hotels, churches aren't making profit - that money goes back into the upkeep of the church. Yes, your wedding may well be in the summer but that doesn't mean it doesn't need cleaning, the grounds don't need tending etc.

It actually cost us more to have a civil ceremony (room hire + registrar fees) than it would have done to have a church.

I am guessing that is for a organist and or choir as the basic fee is around £400 ish i think ... I know when i get married its £460 ish as i am in a different parish i need 2 lots of banns read.

Tbh if i am right i dont think you are getting a bad deal at all. I know that its cheaper for me to get married in a church than a civil ceremony.

It really surprises me that the cost can vary so much. The basic wedding fee in our church (i.e no organist, choir etc) is £280. You'd think there would be a standard fee across the country with the 'extras' varying between churches. Have they given you a breakdown of the cost? Could you do without some of the extras?

That seems about right. We're having our wedding in our local church, which isn't very big either, and we're being told that it's about £460 now, but it will rise (we're getting married in 2013) but our vicar isn't yet sure how much by.

I guess you have to decide on what's most important for you. Personally, I wouldn't ever consider a civil ceremony, so whatever the church asked for, I would probably pay. But don't forget, you don't have to have it all - there are optional items in there (like the choir, flowers etc).

My civil ceremony is costing more then that by the time you pay registrar fees and venue hire. Sadly weddings are expensive the cheapest option is a registry office but would not be much different to the cost of your church.

I'm budgeting £1500 to get married in our church but this will include bells, choir and organist.

Still I didn't think it would be that expensive and was quite surprised.

x

If you really, really want to get married in the church then the cost shouldn't matter to you. After all this is the most important part of the day (though you seem to have booked the reception venue before the church). I agree with others that civil ceremonies can cost just as much, if not more. And if this is a church that you love, then you can take comfort in knowing that what you pay will go to looking after the church and grounds.

All info is here

https://www.yourchurchwedding.org/your-wedding/the-cost-of-church-weddings.aspx

Its what my church linked me

Churches are pretty cheap when you think of the alternative.

Without sounding rude, I don't know why people make a big fuss about the cost of the church. The church is THE marriage. It's the part where you say your vows and "I Do's". I would have paid £4k for the church if that's what it would have cost (although I'm extremely glad it didn't!)

You can get a dress for £200, you can get flowers on the cheap, you can have your reception in a village hall. Everything else can be as cheap as you want.

Our registrar fees are nearly £700. That doesn't included ceremony room hire, that is just for the registrar to come out and marry us.

WSS. Most churches are historical buildings that need constant maintenance. They don't make a profit from the fees.

This!

You are paying for the vicars time, there are volunteers who tend the grounds tidy up after you, pick up all the left oos, clear the confetti away that people throw even when told not to etc...

You pay a fee for the vicar/ church of england as you would for a registrar and then you are paying for 'venue hire' as you would anywhere else.

This.

As with all things in life it's about making choices. If the church is important to you, it will rank high when you're budgeting.

I also don't think this is reason enough to get married in church.

Either you want to get married in front of god, in which case you'd pay the earth to do so.

Or you want to get married in a pretty building with some tradition, in which case you work out how much you want to spend doing that.

Or you choose to get married in a civil ceremony/building, which costs just as much.

I understand you being shocked, we are getting married next May and have just booked our local church, altogether we are paying just under £650, we also want a videographer for the service and have been told that we will have to double the organist fee of £110 and also the fee of the choir (£100) if we do have a video, hence we no longer will be having the choir, luckilly my mum will be doing the flower arranging for the front of the church as that would of cost £80.00.

As the church is so importnat to you and your family, continue budgeting in other areas so that it becomes more affordable, thats what we have done to get married in our church, it will be worth it and you will soon forget about how much the church cost.

x

This.

Or you have a registry office wedding which will be the cheapest option I imagine.

Yep... I think we paid under £400 in total for the room in our registry office (it was bigger than the standard rooms, would normally have cost under £200). Not that we sacrificed style either, IMO we got married in a pretty room in a pretty Town Hall ?

Found this which says that you can get a breakdown of fees and explains what they should be https://www.yourchurchwedding.org/your-wedding/the-cost-of-church-weddings.aspx

Why do Churches charge so much?

Because they have a whole lot of outgoings too and bills just like you. Nobody can work for free and a church cannot operate for free either, even a vicar needs to pay his mortgage, the organist might just have one too lol legalities, flowers, choir, cleaners dont come cheap either. honestly, what do you expect a church to run on for your wedding... donations?

You'll pay a lot more else where to get married, unless you go to a registry office and even then you will probably pay as much as your church. You state all of the good things about getting married in a church but don't expect to pay the price for it because its a 'Church'

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I have a lot of respect for what you've just said.

Just because you have a civil ceremony, it doesn't mean you get married in a grubby room with bad carpet - read Kharv's wedding report, her room was stunning. My friend got married outside on a beautiful summer's day, which was also gorgeous. And I am pretty sure it cost them roughly what it would have cost to marry in a church.

Three hundred and fifty quid! WOWZERS!

We've obviously got a bargain then - haha! We're having our marriage in a beautiful registry office in the UK then having the full-on ceremony (effectively a blessing, but it will be the part that means more to us) in Spain.

For the R.O., our total cost is £68 plus the £35 each for the Notice of Marriage (which I assume you have to pay wherever you get married).

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My partner and I are getting married in a registry office. The one we choose is beautiful and is surrounded in beautiful grounds. We paid 182 pounds to book the registry office and 67 pounds to do the notice of intention of marriage. Neither of us are religous or go to church every sunday and felt it would be hypercrittical to get married in a church considering we dont have a faith. I would have loved to have gotton married in a church, but my fiance has a point. Church's are beautiful though. But then so is the registry office we have booked.