Couples are well aware getting hitched can be an expensive business. Weddings represent the most important days of their lives, it’s the moment two people make lifelong vows to each other and then go on to celebrate their union with their families and closest friends. So when it was announced the cost of getting married was to rise dramatically this year, understandably many people were instantly up in arms over the massive increase.
Getting married in a church in the UK with all the trimmings will cost a couple around £1,000 or more which represents a 40% rise in the price of a white wedding. In hard cash, this means their wedding bill will cost them £406 just for the ceremony alone to take place in a church.
However, fees don’t just end there, because on top couples have to pay for the services provided by the verger and then another fee for any heating should it be needed during the ceremony. Neither of these charges are included in the initial fee of £406. Should an organist or maybe a choir and bell ringer be booked as part of the service as well as flowers in the church – the bill would reach the £1000 mark in no time at all.
These new fees met with approval from the Church’s Parliament, known as the General Synod, and with more and more couples having chosen to be married in a church in the last eight years, this is an unwanted increase that comes at a bad time for all. The reason more people chose white wedding over the last few years was because they could choose the church they wanted to get married in, rather than having to do so in their closest parish church.
The Church of England believe the increase will see an end to what many of its leaders referred to as ‘Ryanair’ weddings – where couples got married and then had to face a barrage of extra costs that were tagged onto their overall bill. But if the truth be known, couples will still have to pay extra fees even with these increased fees in effect. In brief, the Ryanair situation has not been resolved at all and sadly this new increase in church fees, could see a drop in the number of couples who choose a white wedding and that would be a terrible shame.
Advice on Church Wedding Fees
Your legal requirement for a church wedding should not cost any more or any less than £460 and this fee is expected to be in place for the next two years. It is up to couples as to what extras they would like to include in the ceremony and these would have to be added to the statutory fee.
If you decide to get married in a church outside of your own parish, your own church will need to read the wedding banns too – you’ll need a banns certificate which means your statutory fee will increase accordingly.
Written by: Natasha Brown – an independent fashion blogger and bubbly fashionista.
