Oh and at the bottom of the letter it says these prices will slightly increase after January 2011! xx

Not sure is my honest answer. This is the only church I wanted to get married in. xx

wowww...thats really expensive!! mine comes to a total of £550! expensive church!! a verger is the person who like cleans up the church etc (thats what my vicar told me anyway lol)

xxxx

Mine's nowhere near that!!
But then - we're not having an organist as there is facilities for an i-pod to be plugged in (plus our organist ain't great!) we're not having calling of the banns because we're a methodist church, having said that though we've got to pay £70 for the licence instead. The church doesn't have a verger or bells so that's that out and the church doesn't supply it's own flowers, so we're taking candle arrangements.

You're not actually obliged to have these so called essentials so I'd speak to your vicar. A verger is the vicar's assistant so you might not be able to get out of having him/her
hth xxx

Wow, does seem costly, especially to some one like me that actually does go to church and cant afford that kind of money!

Hmmm so no getting out of the video charge then! I know it sounds odd but not really fussed about flowers in church so may be able to save there. Bells, bells, bells do I need bells, maybe I could get the congregation to whistle/hum the wedding peel! (-: xx

Phew just found out the secular bell ringing wont apply to me. £300 saved. xx

Hmm it would be nice to have bells but I seriously need to trim this down, so good advice thanx. xx

wow and there was me moaning about the price of our church service.......... phew.........

Ours is £490 for the church and it includes banns, verger, organist and the certificate.

Bells are an extra £30, Choir an extra £40 and the video licence is £50

I thought mine was expensive but maybe not!!!

well if its december ur gettin married in then i would think heating in a church would be a top priority..u really dont wnt them havin to cosy up with scarves and jackets at ur ceremony? lol

lol speak with vicar..say ur demanding there be proper warmth and the feeling of christmas lolx

wow thats pretty steep! we are getting married in a church and are bells are only £20! and the organist isonly £50.. your fees r very high!x

er thats expesive. ours is only costing about 500, bells are about the same. 130, organist is only 65, we have to double that if we want to video the ceremony. i think the verger is the one who opens the doors and cleans up after. we have to pay 25 for ours. calling of the bans i would f thought were in the legal fees etc they are in ours.

I was really surprised some brides are paying about a 1/3 lulu, does make me wonder whats different with mine. I think h2b and I need to sit down and seriously consider having our wedding there now. It would have been lovely. Im not an avid church goer, I will be the first to admit it and I know very little about religion. At the same time when my eldest son was 10 months old he was diagnosed with a rare condition that may have needed brain surgery. I prayed like there was no tomorrow and I think it seriously helped me throught that time in my life. As it turned out, 18 months after he was diagnosed, hundreds of hospitals visits and countless mri scans we were told he wouldnt need surgery, and now hes fine. Divine intervention...no idea. I wanted a church wedding and the lil feeling that it had been blessed, but I dont want to start married life off, by being down by an extra £1500 or whatever it would eventually be. xx

Lol I know what you mean. We havent been asked so far to attend church for 6 months prior but we are prepared to be asked and are prepared to go, we only usually go when my son is there with St Johns Badgers, which isnt that often. It does already feel like we are just "using" the church for the day but how many others do that! Im not going to pretend Im all of a sudden going to turn into a regular church goer, as with my life that just isnt possible.
H2b just called and I went thru the charges and instead of going off on one, he said that if its what I really want then we can work a way around it. We dont have tons of cash to spare by any means but now its in jeopardy I really do want it. I think at the back of my mind its what my dad would have wanted as he was catholic. xx

Thanx Dove, I think we may leave the bells out of the equation until closer to the time and see if we can afford them. Im not too fussed about flowers so hopefully I can trim this down in a few ways. xx

I just paid the £490 and think my aunty jane and cousins will be ringing the bells. The fee is only for the time of the bell ringers but my family has loads to do with the church and will just ing them for me. :) It was suposed to be a surprise but i sorta messed that up. I insisted that i sorted payment out to give to the church and dad tried to stop me lol....then i wated to know why he as been so defensice and told him i would go down anyway and just pay lol.....so he had to tell me really.....whoops.

Hi all,

I'd like to set the record straight regarding the video fees for a license to film in a church. The simple fact is, you don't need a license to film in a church. What you do need to film ANYWHERE is the owners permission for the subject of your film. That means, if you're filming a wedding in a church then you will have to get permission to use their venue to make your film. Similarly, if you're filming a drama on board an EasyJet aircraft, EasyJet will no doubt want to charge you for the priviledge.

These rules only apply when someone is gaining, commercially, from photographing or filming. So, a professional wedding videographer or photographer is making money out of their video or photos which feature (among other things) a lovely church / gardens in the background. If your guests want to take pictures or video in the church, what are they going to do? Charge each person with a camera a fee? Not likely.

Ultimately, if the church charges you money to film or take photos within their venue and grounds, that's simply their cut of a commercial undertaking. If there really was a license, then it would cost the same everywhere, just like a TV license does.

Don't confuse this with church rules - many a time I come across priests and vicars that ban photography during a ceremony (for the same reason they ban mobile phones, airhorns and remote controlled helicopters). I have had vicars and priests that tell me exactly what I can and cannot do and it's very limiting. I have also done weddings where I have been allowed to move furniture, flowers and where people stand. Every church is different. I also once got told that it's illegal to photograph or video an official signing of a wedding register, but I have never confirmed that. In any case, most photos of a registry signing are posed after the actual event, so that would be fine.

As a videographer, I am really surprised that I have never had a client try to pass on these fees to me. After all, it is I that gains financially from using the church in my video because I am effectively selling the finished video to the client (usually the bride and groom) for profit. Having said that, if a client did try to pass on a fee to me, I would just up my price by the amount of the fee.

Hope that helps. :-)

Kind regards,

Andrew.
www.carillonvideo.co.uk

oh sweet jesus i cannot believe that bill!

first i think so much of it has to be optional?

surely you don;t have to have the bells and choir if you don;t want them. (secular just means non religious). the verger strikes me as you'd only need him if you're having a full mass. and is your wedding in winter? that's the only way you'll need heating in a packed church surely!

house of god taking the mick! i've gone to church all my life i've never seen a bill like that!

that does seem like a lot of money honey,
is this not your local parish church (in my understanding you shouldn't be paying for banns unless you are marrying outside of your parish in which case you will have to have the banns read in both your local parish and intended parish and pay for one only the other should be included in service fee's)
Flowers at the church are optional.(ask if you can provide your own)
Is they choir mandatory??
Hope this helps and hope you get it sorted xx

ive not even asked how much its gonna b lol maybe it might be a good idea we just booked it as the vicor is a friend of my cousin. Im dreading findin out now!

I wish I had the bottle or cheek to haggle with a man of the cloth! xx

you dont have to have all that am sure!? You dnt have ot have a choir or bells. I think they charge you for filming the ceremony because a church is technically a public place and you need a license?

We paid:
£257 for banns, marriage certificate, electricity and lighting, and marriage fees.
£100 for 6 bells

We didnt have a choir as we had a full house and knew we wouldnt need one. Our church was a big one that seated 300 people.

We didnt have to pay for having a videographer as we didnt have a choir.

wow....never realised a church wedding was soooo expensive!!! Kinda glad we're not religious now!!! Good luck xx