church weddings may rise by 50%

bubbles0169

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14089922

and unfortunately, like civil venues, it doesnt look like you can book now to save money i suspect youll have to pay whatever the fee is at the time talk to your vicar though

costcutterkaz

Well if it does happen, I'll be cancelling my wedding!:eek:

Could only just afford the £250 rise to change from registry office to church, got no hope if it doubles, there's nothing else I can make savings on!

Hollie84

Ours is £593 as it is,vicar took £100 off so £493 and he said it should come down more as that includes the organist and flowers and we dont want any of them but he said he will get back to us

costcutterkaz

Someone else said they were trying to make them more in line with each other but all churches can add extra on for bells, organist etc. if they want!

Hollie84

its ridiculous the organist at our church is £50 and they would only be able to play 1 out of the 3 songs we picked so we will use discs instead.they even charge if u want someone to record the wedding for you

Lavendyr

They've voted against it so no increase to prices.

Honestly some churches are really, really short on money (I attend a really large church and they have such high fixed overheads relative to the donations received that they are struggling incredibly hard to make ends meet). For us to marry at our church cost £475 (just to marry - bells, organist etc were all extra). We found this pricey but didn't begrudge it as we know how desperate the situation is. At the end of the day I would rather pay a bit more for my church wedding than not have a church at all.

TC1978

I've just written a cheque for £643.50. This includes a £100 contribution to church flowers (which I'd quite happily do myself for far less and the way I want them!), paying out £105 for the bells to be rung and also £85 for the organist and £26 for the use of the organ. I begrudge paying for the 'use of the organ' when the payrolled organist is playing it, and if we took our own organist we'd still have to pay the organist fee anyway!!! There's two weddings the day we get married- £200 in flower money!!! There will be no filming at our wedding- we can't afford the videoing license of £55+, or the increased charges for the organist if videoed

saintly_2

We booked our church wedding last Tuesday and it comes to £650 which includes the ceremony, the organist - £85, contribution to the flowers £100 and the ringing of the bells - £150. We were told to budget an additional £100 due to price rises in February.

we originally booked the Friday however due to circumstances we need to re book for the Saturday which we will do on Tuesday, from the price list it will be £80 cheaper to do it on the Saturday.

Mrsanders

Our church cost £461, which I thought was very reasonable, it was cheaper than the registry office which was nearly £600! :eek:

I think it was worth every penny and if I could afford it I would love to make more donations to church, I didn't realise how much they struggle for funds until we were having a chat with our vicar at the rehearsal as their only income is from donations and basically money that is left to them in peoples wills and the upkeep of a church is a lot of money, they recently had new lighting put up throughout the church which is absolutely beautiful but it cost them £75,000!

They also had some beautiful family crest paintings in there and they would really like to have them restored, but it will cost them another £25,000 just to have that done.

becca0417

I would pay whatever it cost to get married in our church. We definitely do not have an unlimited budget but I would cut back in any other area possible as to me this is the most important part of the day.

costcutterkaz

Hollie84 wrote: »

its ridiculous the organist at our church is £50 and they would only be able to play 1 out of the 3 songs we picked so we will use discs instead.they even charge if u want someone to record the wedding for you

Our vicar said that he's been told he's not allowed to charge for video recording! So if they insist go above them!