Mindful that the officiating clergy are being forced to wait for as long as 1 to 3 hours for wedding couples to arrive, the Brickdam Cathedral has now institutionalized a late fee deposit of $60,000.
In a statement on its Facebook page, the Cathedral stated that couples will be refunded once they are on time or deductions will be made based on the length of time by which they are late. A normal fee of $14,000 is usually charged for uses of the Cathedral and the main actors also receive a minimal stipend.
“Please note that the $60,000 is a late fee instituted, after consultation with the Finance Committee, due to past and most recent experiences last year of priests being forced to wait for as long as 1 to 3 hours for the wedding party to arrive. Not so long ago as last November the bridal party arrived three hours late. It seemed to have become the norm,” the Cathedral said in the statement. It indicated that priests having other appointments has had to face embarrassing situations. Consequently, a late fee of $60,000 was instituted as a deposit prior to the wedding with the intention to encourage couples to be on time. This sum is fully refunded, but if not, there will be deductions to the deposit based on the arrival time of the wedding party.
The statement made it clear that the couple will be fully informed of the reason behind the late fee at the time of their booking of the Church. This fee would go towards paying for electricity being used while waiting for the party to arrive to begin the ceremony. The Finance Committee has also approved new fees of $25,000 for marriage ceremonies and $20,000 for funerals at the Cathedral.
