One hundered and sixty quid to play the organ for an hour??! Is that the going rate??

[kittyletteItBe]

Or is my church organist ripping me off??

I seriously cant afford that.

Bllody hell, looks like Ill have to trawl the internet for a CD of hymns

Are you having a video?

do you have any friends who can play an instrument? we had a friend play jewish folk melodies on the viola at our wedding..

I dont know.

We have a photographer but not sure we can afford a video too.

Whereabouts are you?

Not if you are lovely friends with the lovely lovely organist!! I didn't pay a thing to the church for my wedding (the first one)

Manchester.

tortoise - the thing with the video - as I mentioned above is that a lot of people don't have an official video done - but friends/family end up recording either on mobile phones, camcorders, or even digital cameras.....which in essence is the same thing.

Id settle for a pianist

Id settle for a pianist

although if I KEEP having weddings then they are going to start charging

there is the cheethams school of music.. see if a student would play for you for cheaper

and there are lots of colleges and unis, see if you can find a photography student who could do your pics and video

you ahve to think outside the box, if funds are limited and time is short

Kitty I would ditch the photographer and get an organist instead

Organ music at a wedding is LOVELY

The photographs are extortionate and everyone's got a fab camera these days

when are you getting married........and what's the sort of price you would be looking at......?

Photographys sorted.

And my dad has a new camcorder so thats OK.

Yea I might phone the music school.

But will have to find out from the preist if there will be a fee for that.

MIL says hes a bit of a moneygrabber, lol

MP a friend is doing the photos for cheap.

when are you getting married........and what's the sort of price you would be looking at......?

22nd Dec, I was thinking about 60/70

lovely date to get married - church will be decorated really nicely

what time are you doing it? Had a friend get married at 4pm in December and church was lit with candles... aaaah

Phone the Royal Northern College of Music - they have a list of students who play at things and will be cheaper - probably between £60 - £100 an hour. We got a pianist from there to play for an hour at our reception - think it was £80 - our wedding present from my in-laws!

12pm as its the shortest day of the year.

You do need to just check that the organist won't charge their fee on top of a fee for a visiting organist though.

I do understand about videos QoQ!

you just said your dad has a camcorder, so its being videoed.

I know an organist in the Manchester area but he would charge more than you have been quoted esp if he was going to be permanently on a video of the day. He would charge slightly less if he were playing a keyboard with an organ sound.

Another thing you could potentially do (depending on your organist!) is to only require them for half the service - so perhaps get a chamber group of students to play for the signing of the registers/recessional, then the organist can sneak out half way - they might then reduce the fee a bit (although tbh they might not as they would still be entitled to the full fee as they can't take on another engagement).

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