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Setting Budget for Wedding Guests

Knottie93184442Knottie93184442 member
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in Destination Weddings Discussions
Completely stressed. I fell in love with a resort in the Dominican Republic which is also where we got engaged. Found out its one of the expensive resorts, go figure. Chatted with a few family members and friends and they all balked at the price.
I'm so sad. I love the resort because it's amazing and the wedding decor is amazing.
Everyone is used to Mexico prices, $1200-$1300.

How did you set a budget for your guests?

Kelly
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Re: Setting Budget for Wedding Guests

  • msuprincess04msuprincess04 member
    5 Love Its First Answer Name Dropper First Comment
    edited October 2014
    We didn't "set" prices. We tried to keep it around $1500 per person, and yes, this was in Mexico. But, best of all, we didn't block rooms and people were able to stay where they wanted, including some cheaper resorts. however, we did not get married at a resort. At the end, it'll always be too expensive for a lot of guests whether it's $500 or $5000. Whether to choose that as your location and risk an even high decline rate, or choose something more affordable that more people can go to is your choice. 
    "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." -Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Reading and Writing"
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  • Knottie93184442Knottie93184442 member
    First Comment
    Thank you! I'm trying not to drive myself crazy. I told my fiancé, no matter what we decide it won't be the right date or price for someone. We have to worry about immediate family and that's it.

    It's still hard because I do want some friends there. Oh the decisions!!!

    Kelly
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  • kimberly0315kimberly0315 member
    First Anniversary First Comment Name Dropper 5 Love Its
    We chose where we are staying in Hawaii.  It is an amazing resort that has everything we want.  It is not the cheapest, but it is also not the most expensive.  We chose an area that had a variety of different hotels and resorts with different price points that our guests could choose from.  We informed our guests (and we did block some rooms) and some will stay where we are staying and others will not.  It is there choice.  You can not please everyone so stop trying or you will drive yourself crazy.  Just choose what you want and others will work from there.
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  • Jells2dot0Jells2dot0 mod
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    I would talk to your VIPs and see what a comfortable number is for them. If you're willing to foot the bill for them, then I'd just go with what you are comfortable with and any additional guests are a bonus. IMHO, keeping things around the $1500-$2000 per person mark is reasonable for a few nights. What is not reasonable was had I asked people to attend my wedding, they would have had to spent at least $1500 per person just in flights and the resort was over $1k/night! I think everyone would have balked at that.

     







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  • mchase35mchase35 member
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    edited October 2014

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  • mchase35mchase35 member
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    kimberly0315 said:
    We chose where we are staying in Hawaii.  It is an amazing resort that has everything we want.  It is not the cheapest, but it is also not the most expensive.  We chose an area that had a variety of different hotels and resorts with different price points that our guests could choose from.  We informed our guests (and we did block some rooms) and some will stay where we are staying and others will not.  It is there choice.  You can not please everyone so stop trying or you will drive yourself crazy.  Just choose what you want and others will work from there.
    I am really stressing on planning my HI wedding. Almost everyone is on an extreme budget. Not being there in HI how did you find your resort. I just started looking at just wedding packages and I am about to just say never mind and elope LOL .
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  • weddingcactusweddingcactus member
    First Anniversary Name Dropper 5 Love Its First Answer
    We are getting married on Kauai in June 2015. We knew we wanted to get married in Hawaii and chose the island first. We've been to Kauai and know the parts that we love the most and the parts we wanted to share with our closest friends and family. From there I started looking online for beach wedding options and sent out numerous inquiries to venues for pricing information. Then we narrowed it down to the one resort that was in the area we loved that had the most reasonable pricing for our anticipated guest list size. We decided to get married at a hotel so that our guests would not have to worry about driving after drinking at our reception. Obviously guests can stay anywhere they would like, but we wanted to make certain that was an option. We picked a resort that was sort of middle of the road for hotel pricing. Although we checked with most of our "must have" guests before picking Hawaii, we realize that there still may be some people that cannot make it simply because Hawaii is really expensive. That's the major downside of a destination wedding, especially to an expensive location like Hawaii.
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  • WinstonsGirlWinstonsGirl member
    First Anniversary First Answer First Comment 5 Love Its
    We got married in Hawaii too, so not an AI. Guests could choose which hotel they wanted to stay at and for how long. They also had the option to get a room with a kitchenette if they didn't want to eat out as much. We also postponed the wedding a year to give those who wanted to com time to save up if needed. We had a lot of declines - friends on my side, as many of them are just getting established job wise and have young kids, family on DH's side cos most of them live in Chile, so they weren't coming anyway.

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  • lhcg2015lhcg2015 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    Hi! I, too, stressed over traveler's budgets. I ended up choosing the Iberostar Grand Bavaro in Punta Cana. It is beautiful and we have stayed at other iberostars in the past and have been extremely happy with our stay, so we decided it is the one time we should get what WE want. Most of my guests are traveling from Philly and New York and it comes to approximately 3000/couple for 4 nights and airfare. 3k was what we were shooting for, so this worked out well for us. We also discussed the idea of max travel costs with some of our very close friends and family to kind of get an idea what they thought was appropriate...and most agreed on 3k/couple. I think if they had all said much less I would have switched resorts as we want the people we love to be able to spend this special day with us. 
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  • LawyerGal1908LawyerGal1908 member
    First Comment
    I was aiming for $1200 (hotel and air). We are going to Jamaica and I think for an all inclusive resort with 2 locations you can visit, top shelf liquor, 5 star restaurants, entertainment, golf, water sports and no kids! That's a steal lol my friends are already booking rooms but his... not so much. We are trying to get the 20 room minimum so I didn't really plan to give alternatives but I just looked some up so they have other locations that are almost half the price so it will just be a matter of if they really want to come.
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  • msuprincess04msuprincess04 member
    5 Love Its First Answer Name Dropper First Comment
    When you choose a destination wedding, you accept that alot of people won't make it based on their budgets so you are choosing location over guests. It is, what it is. Just remember that if you get married at an all inclusive, there is a fee for each non-resort guest that comes into the wedding, and that fee needs to be paid for by the bride and groom.
    "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." -Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Reading and Writing"
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