Is it enough?

hockeymom, thank you so much for the response! to hear such a positive feedback about the place puts my mind at ease!

We're doing a beach bbq the night before and a brunch the day after.

if your resort is all inclusive you can try and see maybe they can just section off a place in one of their restaurants so it wont cost you much extra

while i do agree its a vacation for people..they are also coming to respect you and wouldnt take this vacation if it werent for you..so i think any extra thing you can do would be nice on your part to honor them for coming.

We didn't have a welcome dinner or even a reception. But, we did plan a group excursion the day before the wedding. We chartered 2 vans to take everyone to the mayan ruins at coba & to a cenote. But, we didn't pay for enterance fees or lunch. We did buy water & snacks for everyone. Our guests appreciated that we planned something & provided transportation.

Another group went deep sea fishing. We organized everything and payed for a cooler of beer for them.

We didn't have the wedding budget to cover too much. We spent about $15 a person for the chartered fan & a little more on bottles of water, ice & snacks. Each guest spent about $20 each on enterance fees & lunch.

The same excursion would have been around $70 if we used a tour company. Chartering transportation can be a much cheaper way to plan a group trip.

Another, smaller group trip we did was a cab ride to a nearby lagoon to snorkel. Most guests had left by this day. We considered this for the full group trip. It would have been really cheap to rent snorkel gear. Several people brought their own & they had some to borrow at the hotel. Then we could have rented a couple of vans to drive us to the lagoon. It was about 5 minutes away. One there, you practically have the beach to yourself.

Anyway, my point is you don't have to plan a group trip, but if you want to there are some inexpensive ways to do it. I felt nervous that we were not doing enough for our guests since we were keeping to a small budget. Our guests had a blast and so many people thanks us for including them. After we were actually there, I stopped worrying so much about what I thought our guests expectations would be. They were just there to have fun and celebrate with us. I don't think anyone cared if we had things planned for them.

Some of the most fun times, were just impromptu lunches at the buffet or trips to the hotel's ice cream place.

I think you are doing enough, don't stress out. OOT bags vs bonfire bbq, are you kidding? BBQ!

I think what you guys are doing is find... let your guest have so free time

You don't want to over plan things. Enjoy yourself- it is your wedding not a class trip. Your guests will appreciate the effort you have gone to as well as their own free time.

I'm doing about the same (Welcome dinner & wedding reception dinner) and I'm glad to be reassured that it's enough. I'm concerned with overspending, but I don't want to appear ungrateful that people came. Thanks!