David Mitchell shares his thoughts on the changing face of modern weddings. The Church of England was accused in The Telegraph of ‘pouring misery’ upon the happy couple, profiteering and forcing the cost of a wedding up to an average of £20,000 (£321.50 is the basic fee for a wedding in the Church of England with no extras like bell ringers). It is amazing how small the ‘wedding part’ of a ‘wedding’ actually is, both financially and as part of the proceedings.
It is interesting to see what someone who sits in the pews or the comfy chairs at a hotel thinks is actually going on with these increasingly extravagant events.
It’s still cashing on at £321.50 for a basic wedding….. regardless of the percentage to the whole day……
I disagree. It costs more than that to pay for a band to play at the reception. Costs are costs.
I am more than happy to waive the fees for a wedding if the couple are in real financial hardship – or reduce them to 10% of the overall cost of the wedding in other cases. I also do not make a charge for regular church goers and have married people in the main Sunday service. If people really want to get married rather than ‘have a do’ I will help them make it happen.
As it is the wedding fee’s charged frequently don’t even cover the cost of the time I as a Priest spend on preparing the wedding and the couple. Even though it is a delight and honour to officiate at any sacramental union that cost of time has to be carried by someone – frequently our regular givers. If clergy time was charged to couples at the rate of photographers or comparable professionals such as solicitors then the fees would be considerably higher.
My husband and I got married 2 months ago last Thursday at the church where we worship every week and where I run a toddler group, teach in the Sunday school and run Messy Church. There was no reduction on our fee.
However, the total cost of our wedding was around £6500, most of which went on catering. We had our reception in the church hall, I made my own flowers, we made a playlist for ourselves on a laptop… It was a really beautiful day and felt like ‘us’. I find it hard to understand the point of spending much more, because you can have a good celebration on not so much.
It mattered most to us to get married in our home church.