General Etiquette > Etiquette Hell Classics

Classic Tacky: We Didn't get Married Here, We Just Want The Church As A Backdrop

<< < (7/14) > >>

Thipu1:
In my experience (Roman Catholic) you do not pay a 'fee'.  You make a 'contribution' to the church.  We were married in a beautiful church and the contribution, which included an organist, was only about 50 USD. 

Catholic churches and, I believe, those of most mainstream Protestant denominations are semi-public property in that they are usually opened during the day for private prayer.  Unless the guest list for a ceremony is large enough to fill the entire church, anyone may come, sit in the back and watch the Wedding.  When I was a teenager, this was a standard Saturday morning entertainment. 

     

Sophia:
I might know the church from the story.  I say might because there is probably more than one Episcopal church that looks like a Gothic English castle.  I am Episcopalian in a nearby church and I have heard that this is regular occurrence and a huge problem.  Enough so that members of the church sometimes get married in another church just so that they don't have to deal with the angst of having to chase off random wedding parties.  I've heard stories of one showing up just as another is chased off.   Anyone with the gaul to take photos at a random church are not going to be chased away easily.

Jocelyn:
It would seem to me that the church could solve this by asking for volunteers to represent the church and keep random wedding parties from disrupting their weddings.  Any sufficiently bossy member with a cell phone would do. I'd volunteer for it!  ::)

WillyNilly:
Ok obvious the WP in the OP were rude because they were in the way of legitimate church business (the couple who were getting married there), but whats wrong with using a lovely church as the backdrop to photos so long one isn't in the way?  Such as in the  end of the story where the WP returned as the writer and his folks were leaving. 

Where I live (NYC) churches are tax free entities and its illegal to park in front of them.  So that means they are profiting off the surrounding community, even the community members who are not members of the church (by getting the benefits of the area without paying into the tax system that provides those benefits).  (We actually have a big problem in my neighborhood and have had to stop allowing new churches in because we were loosing too much of a tax base and on a personal level people were complaining about less street parking available.)

I think so long as they aren't disruptive, it should be perfectly fine for anyone to use a lovely church as their photo backdrop and I'm just not seeing the outrage...

Piratelvr1121:
There are some really pretty churches around our town, and some that are as old as the Civil War, if not older.  People like that would have an absolute field day here.  I'm talking stone churches complete with elaborate stained glass windows and steeples.  I could totally understand wanting pics of them, but to take a photo in front of it when you weren't even married there is really messed up!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page