Number of guests and price of wedding?

[girlkin]

Hey ladies,

 

Im pretty new to the site. But I have introduced myself in an earlier thread.

 

Has or is anyone in a dilemma about how many guests to invite to your destination wedding. We are definite that we want to a destination wedding. Also we talked about having a HUGE reception affair when we return. However, when we started thinking about our guest list the list was freakin huge—and im almost positive that at least 40-60 people could be traveling with us, but that’s only 50% of our list. I put my desired wedding options in the one of those wedding calculators and I nearly fell out at the baseline total—it was nearly 8,000 without all the frilly little extras. With all those people, I will feel compelled to have dinner, dancing and all the extras to show that we appreciate them joining us. At best we would like to spend no more than 10-12,000 for all wedding costs, including the reception.

 

I am playing around with just keeping the wedding to a limited few and going with our first plan to have the huge reception. Or we can just invite every one of our guests and let them decide whether they want to accompany us and nix the at-home reception. If you can’t tell—I’m really confused on which way to go. I feel like I need to make a decision instead of holding my breath to see who confirms. Can anyone offer any advice? Anyone been in the same situation?

 

TIA

Kim

[girlkin]

Hey ladies,

 

Im pretty new to the site. But I have introduced myself in an earlier thread.

 

Has or is anyone in a dilemma about how many guests to invite to your destination wedding. We are definite that we want to a destination wedding. Also we talked about having a HUGE reception affair when we return. However, when we started thinking about our guest list the list was freakin huge—and im almost positive that at least 40-60 people could be traveling with us, but that’s only 50% of our list. I put my desired wedding options in both a Dreams and a Paradisus wedding calculator and I nearly fell out at the baseline total—it was nearly 8,000 without all the extras. With all those people, I will feel compelled to have dinner, dancing and all the extras to show that we appreciate them joining us. At best we would like to spend no more than 10-12,000 for all wedding costs, including the reception.

 

I am playing around with just keeping the wedding to a limited few and going with our first plan to have the huge reception. Or we can just invite every one of our guests and let them decide whether they want to accompany us and nix the at-home reception. If you can’t tell—I’m really confused on which way to go. I feel like I need to make a decision instead of holding my breath to see who confirms. Can anyone offer any advice? Anyone been in the same situation?

 

TIA

Kim

[ACDCDCAC]

i have merged your two identical threads. please only post one thread in one forum when you start a new subject.

thanks!

[ACDCDCAC]

i have merged your two identical threads. please only post one thread in one forum when you start a new subject.

thanks!

[JCrosby]

That's a tough one. It's really up to you. We decided to invite everyone to Mexico with us - 250 people, knowing that we'd have only about 60 that would actually come. Personally, I didn't want to invite people to a party at home that I didn't invite to Mexico. In Mexico, we're having a dinner & dance (so no, it won't be cheap) and at home we're just having a big party at our house. We'll play our ipod, show the wedding video and have a BBQ so the cost should be pretty minimal. You can really go either way though. A lot of people only invite a small group to their DW and then have a big reception at home. I guess it just depends on how you look at it. The AHR isn't that important to me so a party at our house will be fine. So I'm ok with spending the bulk of the budget in Mexico. Hope this helps. Again, it's all about what you want to do.

[Karensobsessions]

Hey Kim,

Where did find the Wedding Caculator? Is this online?

Thanks,

Karen

[sunstarsmoon]

If you are planning on having a huge at home reception, then I would make the destination wedding more intimate and only invite immediate family and close friends, but in the end the decision is up to you and you have to be happy with your choice

[girlkin]

Karen it was sent to me via email by the wedding coordinator.

 

I would post it but it exceeds the size limit.

 

I will PM you with my email address to send it to you if you like.

 

Kim

[jerzygirl85]

This is a very personal decision. My FI and I decided to have a DW since I wanted to get married on a beach and we didn't want to spend $50k for a wedding in Jersey. We have invited about 80 people to our Mexico DW but I only expect about 40 to actually make it. We never planned on having an AHR since it just isnt' important to us and it really doesn't fit in our budget.

 

I also agree with sunstarsmoon, if you plan on having a huge AHR then I would keep your DW small.

[Jacilynda]

We didn't really discuss the number of people to invite. We just invited our family and our best friends. keep in mind just because you invite them doesn't mean they will RSVP, or even book. So many of us girls have had people say they would definitely be there, but when it came time to RSVP they didn't and couldn't come, or they even RSVP but then don't actually book. Most of our friends just can't afford it period and aren't offended cause they know its our very best friends and family going and we're having an AHR.

 

We are having close to 300 for our AHR. We invited 70 to our DW and only 35 will be coming. Trust me, you can DEFINITELY do a DW for under 10K-12K. Really determine what the most important things are for you and FI for DW. Is it the location, photography, music, food, etc. Spend on whats most important and then do only what is really needed for the rest. We are not having a resort wedding so we don't have packages to choose from or anything. We have to do everything from scratch and we're spending under $6000 on DW. We haven't built a real budget for AHR but we're just doing a HUGE BBQ on a college football day, we live right next to the stadium. It's more like an open house type of thing although we will have a live band, but they are our friends so we have a GREAT deal on them. if you're going w/ a resort you can do their free wedding, alot of girls do that and then the only money they really spend are on extras they really want that aren't provided by the resort.

 

It is possible, don't always go for the first vendor or thing that comes your way. There are lots of great deals out there and every BDW girl is looking for them and sharing them.

 

The forum has sooooo many things that you can do that are really nice but don't break the bank. if there is something you want but you want a better price, negotiate you'd be surprised what you can get. Also search the forum many of the girls probably have been in the same situation, if there isn't anything ask!

 

FI and I don't have the money to spend on a huge extravaganza. We just had a baby this last year and are both students. You'd be surprised where $6000 got us. That includes our attire, photography, food, drinks, cocktail hour, music, wc, etc. I've taken on a LOT of DIY projects and I've been SHOCKED at the results and everything looks soooo great, much better than I ever expected. I don't know when your wedding is or how much time you have, but look for sales!!!! They will save you a TON! Also the girls are always posting coupons and promos going on.

 

I don't use the calculators, I did in the beginning but when it came down to it, they weren't even close to what I was actually spending! Hope that helps!