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LARGE Destination Wedding

hmg1985hmg1985 member
5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
in Destination Weddings Discussions

I checked back within 20 pages of the most recent posts in the DW thread and couldn't find what I was looking for, so I aplogize if this question has been asked. Anyone have any recommendations for DW with a large guest list? I am going to be working with Beachbum travel but I was hoping to also get some first hand reporting from some of you girls. Our guest list for a local wedding is about 350. I beleive we will get that down to hopefully just over 200 for our DW guest list, but I still expect at least 100 to attend. I am looking for all-inclusive resorts, adults only (not a requirment but I will not be only inviting adults to my wedding), and we want a beach ceremony but open to indoors or other locations within the resort for our reception.

So I am primarily hoping to hear from girls who got married or are still planning their DW with a large guest list and what kind of pricing options you have gotten? How much pp are you having to pay for the reception on top of your all-inclusive stay rate?

I thought I would get alot of backlash from my family about us wanting to have a DW, but surprisingly everyone seems to be really exicited...which is nice but also concerns me that I will still get alot of the guests that I was thinking wouldn't be able to make it because of cost. I understand how insensitive that sounds - but when you have a total of over 175 people just in immediate family between both my fiance and I (this number only includes our parent's siblings and their children - all adults, our immediate families are very large) and still want to be able to have some of our friends on the list, it makes it hard to plan a nice wedding at a reasonable budget.

Looking forward to hearing about where you got married! Thank you so much!

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Re: LARGE Destination Wedding

  • saric83saric83 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
    We only had 40 people, and we were under the threshold of our resort to get unlimited free events included.  But I'm guessing that if you have that large of a group, you would qualify and might not need to worry about the basic cost of the event (which just wouldn't include decorations or any additional furniture or lighting that you would want to rent)

    We had our wedding at Beach Palace in Cancun, and that could definitely hold that large of a group.  There's a huge beach, and there's a very large open terrace that faces the lagoon size where you could fit tons of people for the reception.  We also went with Beach Bum, so I'm sure they're familiar with the Palace resorts if you wanted to check more into one of those. 

    Good luck!
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  • Fairyjen1Fairyjen1 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper
         Before we decided to go small we looked at Disneyland for around 140 people. This doesn't sound like the kind of destination you had in mind, but they quoted us a price of around 21K for their package. This price did not include photography, officiant or service fees, but did include floral, decorations, three course dinner. pre-reception appetizers (cocktail hour), DJ or Ipod hook up, cake, champagne or sparkling cider toast and a beer/wine/soda package. 

       We switched to their 20 person package for 5K, which includes tax and service fees as well as an officiant!
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  • dwhereicomedwhereicome member
    First Comment 5 Love Its Name Dropper First Anniversary
    @ hmg1985 You can do it. I looked at many, many hotels. I wanted a hotel that I could "buy out" ie one in which we were the ONLY people. When I've got to the caribbean before I saw couples getting married on the beach with people walking by in bikinis- NOT want I wanted. Here is a list of hotels I found that you can buy-out which can host the amnt you are looking for.
    The number is the number of rooms:
    Rosewood Jumby Bay Antigua 40
    flamboyant grenada 67
    Curtain Bluff hotel (50 rooms or more, our "All-resort Buyout" is the most economical option.) Antigua 72
    Coya Ba Grenada 80
    Coral Reef Club Barbados  88
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  • RiffRandell6RiffRandell6 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    We are getting married in two weeks in Mexico- Riviera Maya at the Excellence. While our guest list is only 80, this adults only, all inclusive has been such a pleasure to work with and they have made it super easy. I highly recommend looking into these resorts and their locations. (They have multiple!)  
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  • hmg1985hmg1985 member
    5 Love Its First Comment Name Dropper

    Thanks everyone for your good advice! Unfortunately after alot of talks with both of our families we have decided to stay in Michigan and have our wedding here. But luckily for us, Michigan has gorgeous beaches and a beautiful up north so I am getting alot of great ideas on venues. Good luck to everyone getting married in paradise!

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  • katev0815katev0815 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    I am planning a wedding at the beaches resort in turks & caicos and have a guest list of about 260 im not sure how many will make it  as the resort is a bit pricey however they do various packages and inclusions depending on how many rooms are booked
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