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Options and Stipends/Fees for Musicians

These fees apply to weddings celebrated in 2025:​

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Standard Options:

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Option 1: Wedding Liturgy with Separate Accompanist and Soloist

  • This would involve hiring both an accompanist and a soloist at the fee rates listed below

  • Approximately fifteen minutes of prelude music before the wedding liturgy would be provided

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Option 2: Wedding Liturgy with Accompanist who Sings

  • This would involve hiring only an accompanist (probably the music director) who would both play and sing; see the fee rates listed below

  • Approximately fifteen minutes of prelude music before the wedding liturgy would be provided

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Option 3: Simpler or Convalidation Wedding Liturgy with Accompanist who Sings

  • This would involve hiring only an accompanist (probably the music director) who would both play and sing (piano and organ only, no synthesizer) for a reduced, all-inclusive fee of $275

  • Music choices are limited to songs in the parish hymnal or on the suggested music page for each part of the liturgy; no special requests that are not already in the parish wedding music repertoire

  • No prelude music​

    • Option to add 15 minutes of musician's choice piano instrumental preludes before the wedding liturgy: $50 extra, for a total of $325; no special requests for prelude music with this option​

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Fees for Services:

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  • Accompanist/organist/pianist/synthesizer keyboardist, usually the music director himself but may also be someone else selected by the music director: $325

    • If the accompanist also sings instead of having a separately hired soloist, $75 will be added to the accompanist's fee​

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  • Soloist cantor/song leader selected by the music director: $225

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  • All fees are to be paid in full one month prior to the wedding. An invoice will be prepared itemizing the musicians and services you select, and payment may be made via Zelle (preferred method), Venmo, check, or cash.​

 

Optional Services:

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  • Live or archived streaming via YouTube and recording of the wedding liturgy on a flash drive might be available, conditional upon a church video technician being available on the day of the wedding. The video would be streamed/recorded using the church's video recording system, which has permanently mounted cameras at the back of the church, and would be similar in style to the church's streams of weekly Sunday Masses: $150 fee payable to St. Francis of Assisi Church.

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  • Bench fee for the music director if you yourselves make all the arrangements for guest musicians to provide the wedding music: $225​

    • The reason for the bench fee is that the music director will have to be present for the wedding to set up and supervise the use of musical instruments and sound equipment by guest musicians. He will also have to review and approve the music selected to be performed before and during the wedding.

    • The organ, piano, and sound equipment will be set up in the church for the guest musicians to rehearse and warm-up starting seventy-five minutes before the wedding liturgy’s scheduled start time. If an earlier rehearsal and warm-up start time is desired, the bench fee will be increased by $50 so guest musicians can start practicing up to two hours before the wedding liturgy’s scheduled start time.

    • If a rehearsal in the church by the guest musicians is desired on a separate day prior to the wedding liturgy, the fee for setup and supervision of that rehearsal will be $225 for up to a two-hour rehearsal, and $50 per hour or fractional hour beyond that.

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  • Additional singers arranged for by the music director: $225 per singer

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  • Additional instrumentalists arranged for by the music director (such as flute, trumpet, violin or cello): $225-$275 per instrumentalist, subject to availability.​​​​

  • Creation and operation of projection screen slides for the wedding liturgy: $250 for a slide file in the style of what the parish displays at Sunday Masses; includes up to two hours of labor to accommodate special requests for content or slide formatting.

    • ​Additional labor to create the slide file billed at $25 per hour.

    • Fee includes the cost of hiring an operator to manage the projection system and slides and run the sound mixer during the wedding liturgy.

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  • At no extra cost the music director can provide you with graphics files of music and lyrics for most hymnal songs if you want to include them in a booklet that you create.

    • Booklets that contain graphics of copyrighted music provided by the church must include the following notice: “Copyrighted music used with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-720993.” The notice may be inconspicuously placed at the end of the booklet; it just has to appear somewhere.​​​​​​

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Late Fees and Policies:

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  • Music plans that are not finalized more than one month before the wedding date might result in higher musicians’ fees due to lack of availability; it’s wise to finalize plans for music and book musicians well ahead of time.

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  • Fee payments not received by 4:00 p.m. on the tenth day before the wedding date must be paid in cash or via a payment app such as Zelle or Venmo. If any fee payments are not received by 4:00 p.m. on the third day before the wedding date, unpaid services will not be provided.

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