Weddingbee boards

Hi gals,

We met with our priest again over the weekend.  We aren't members of his parish as we're newish to town, but we love him dearly and he has provided great guidance and support to us.  We asked him about a honorarium to compensate for his guidance and service marrying us.  He said usually it's $300 when married in the church, and slightly higher when married off site to compensate for travel.  Our location is probably 45 minutes away from the church.  And he's performing our sacrament ceremony in the church 2 days prior following one of their weekday masses.  How much should I make the honorarium out to??  $350?  $400?  More?  I don't want to offend him, but I want to make sure we're being fair.

Thanks so much girls, I know I can always count of you all!!

Any advice ladies??  I'd really appreciate it if you could share your thoughts!! :-)

I'm not sure if it's exactly the same thing, but we give our church $400 and we're long time members. They set a "price," as awkward as that sounds, to alleviate the dilemma.

Our church has an honorarium of $200. What about compensating him $350 + $0.55 cents per mile from the church to where your ceremony will be? That way you're being fair but not necessarily over paying him. (I work in the entertainment industry and the rate of $0.55 is what we typically pay our prod assistants per mile for gas). Hope that helps