Fees for Humanist Ceremonies

While surfing around the British Humanist Association website, I was amused to find the page giving Fees for Humanist Ceremonies. The fee ranges are given as follows:

• Funerals/Memorials - £130-£175
• Weddings/Partnerships - £320-£700
• Namings - £130-£250

Currently, the corresponding amounts for me would be:

• Funerals - £119 under the same arrangements (payable to funeral director as part of charges for disbursements) although this fee is not in any way insisted on.
• Weddings - voluntary donation. I am normally given something like £100-£150. £300 would be exceptional.
• Baptisms - voluntary donation. I am normally given something like £20-£50. £100 would be exceptional.

I'll remember this next time someone says to me that they don't want to get married in Church because it is too expensive. Bear in mind also that we do not charge for the use of the Church whereas presumably the couple have to pay for a venue at which to hold the humanist partnership or naming ceremony in addition to the fee for the humanist "celebrant".

Curious to find out what happens at a naming ceremony, I had a quick google. There is one with Richard Dawkins taking part as a celebrity humanist (but not the "celebrant") and here is a sample ceremony. The humanist ceremonies are not at all unlike the kind of creative liturgy you get offered at some Catholic retreat centres. They made me revise my opinion of the humanist fees: I don't think £250 would be enough to make it worth sitting through something like that, let alone presiding at it.