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Thats similar to what I am paying!
Don;t worry about it - alcohol is expensive... and worth it ;-)
I think that's fine! Seriously, alcohol is expensive! Also, she's not making a big trip or anything! I think it's all going to be fine :)
We didn't spend anything on our officiant because he was our brother in law, and we spent a TON on the bar (that's what you get when you underestimate consumption :/). Honestly, the ceremony is always going to be so much cheaper than the reception. For everyone. We all know the ceremony is the important part of the day, but the reception is the gift you give your guests for supporting and loving you and your new husband. I wouldn't worry about it.
Um... our officiant is free and our alcohol will be about 1k. so I'd say its ok :)
I think that's more than fair. If she's willing to do it, I don't know what there is to feel guilty about.
The way I look at it, it really doesn't have anything to do with what you're spending on the rest of the wedding.
Honestly (and I'll blog about this later) how important something is isn't always related to costs.
If the ceremony is the most important part of the day, you can show that by the time and effort you put into designing it and the solemnity of the ceremony. But there's no way that 15 minutes (plus necessary prepwork) by one person is going to match the cost for food & drinks for your entire guest list. It's just logistics.
Umm yeah. Our officiant was the cheapest part of our wedding. $150. The bar was... considerably more.
Totally normal. Most officiants run between $100 - $500. Alcohol is way more expensive, especially open bar!
I don't understand comparing the two. Obviously the ceremony is the most important part, yes, but officiants come in all price ranges. Alcohol is expensive by default, no matter how much or little you serve. The fact that the alcohol costs more has nothing at all to do with the importance factor of each. Unfortunately though, many people do put more importance on the alcohol than the officiant.
My officiant charges $250. If he charged $25/person, I'd probably be getting married at a courthouse!
I would have thought this was the case for almost all weddings. We paid $500 for our celebrant. Only our dancing music was cheaper than that, because we used an iPod! I don't think what you pay for a celebrant signifies the importance of your ceremony - that comes from the ceremony itself.
The officiant will be there for an hour tops. If you think about how much money they're getting for that amount of time (although yes, they also do need to do prep work and meet with you, etc) it's a lot of money. Alcohol for a whole wedding's worth of people? It just costs more.
Thanks Bees, I feel better about it now....we're doing one Irish Blessing as a reading and a sand ceremony, I think it will be lovely and elegant and simple...just like what we always wanted.
Umm, our officiant came part of the package when we reserved the registry office for that day! We gave both the officiant and the registra a favour box to say thank you at the end just because I had made loads extra and that was it. I say it's fine :D
Don't feel bad. The bar is the bride's reward for not killing everyone in her path during the stressful wedding planning process.
At least that's what I tell myself, anyway. Lol. ;)
Regardless of importance - if the officiant is only doing the ceremony (no pre-wedding counseling) they're actually being paid more PER hour than you're paing for your bar - hope that makes you feel better about it!
I think it's that's the norm. To pay more for alcohol than for the officiant. Strange as it is, the officiant seems to be the least expensive of all the vendors!
Alchohol/open bar will be multiple times as expensive as your officient. No worries, I think you are in the average with that!
We're the only people I know who actually spent less on open bar than on the officiant. But that was because we got a price of $250 for a five-hour open bar for 60 people!
We paid $350 for our officiant, and that covered one counseling session, the rehearsal, and the ceremony. I think $250 is fair if all they're doing is the ceremony.
hrm.. even if your ceremony was an hour... $250 per hour is some pretty dang good money for a 15 mile drive. so when you think about it.. she's making out even better. i think it's ridiculous to ask for $450 for 15 min of talking. After all... land of free speech ;)
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I don't belong to a church so I found a local Interfaith Minister online and she gave me a price of $450. I'm having a small, basic ceremony & cocktail & hors de hoerves reception. I had only planned on about a $250 donation to a Pastor or their church to do our service and I let her know that, and she thought I was a decent sort of person and said she would do it for the $250. That's awesome, right, but I feel kind of terrible because the ceremony truly is the most important aspect, but I'm spending 4 times that on alcohol for the party afterward. Is this a normal ratio or what????
She only has to travel about 15 miles for a 15 minute ceremony and said she won't expect to attend the rehearsal dinner or stay much past the ceremony, all of which is fine with me. I just don't want to stand there at the altar feeling guilty for bargaining with the person who's making my marriage official, knowing what I spent on my dress and chaircovers and decorations....it's not like I'm unemployed or broke, but my budget is tight and this is one of the last things I'm booking. I felt like a tool when we were talking about what we do for a living because we have decent jobs...but we just bought a house and are paying for this thing ourselves so stuff adds up super-quick...agghhh