Cost For Guests

[Shaylala]

Hi All. I've been so overwhelmed with trying to choose a resort. My fiancé and I really want to get married in the Dominican, we have tentatively set May 2016 as our date, I figured slightly off season would be a bit cheaper..

I'm really struggling with the cost that guests have to pay, all my quotes have come back around $2000-$2200. I just think this is far too much..I was hoping for the $1600-$1800 range. Seems that to get this I have to lower my resort expectation which isn't really something I want to do.

What price has everyone else seen and what's fair?! Or what have your

guests said about cost?? This is the only factor in holding me back from booking

 

Thanks ladies!!

[acw271011]

There are a lot of factors that can come in to play, not the least of which is what city you're travelling from. Also what type of resort you're looking at, and where in the Dominican. And yes the time of year will factor in as well. May can still be high priced. I've seen over the years prices all over the map for May. It's a very popular month for weddings and I think the resorts are catching on to that.

 

Good luck! Picking your resort is definitely the toughest part I think.

[ashhtayy]

@@Shaylala where are you traveling from? I was having the same troubles in the beginning. I wanted to be married in March or April of 2016 and the rates were astronomical, especially for our guests travelling from BC. Although I really didn't want to wait until June, it was the best rate we could find that we thought our guests would actually pay. We're looking at $1620 from TO and $1835 from BC to Riviera Maya.

[calgarybride2015]

I second @@acw271011, lots of factors at play.

 

I was a bride who was very conscious about the cost per guest because I was so worried about pricing our guests out of coming. I also have traveled before and knew what I was comfortable paying.  That said I was VERY flexible on when we were to get married.    I played around on Expedia (or whatnot) quite a bit to get an idea of the months and weeks that were showing decent priced packages.  The exact week we chose in January was solely based on price.  

 

Does your travel agent know the price point you have and also the types of resorts you are hoping for?  It was my travel agent who suggested the resort we ultimately chose. It was never on our radar, but what she would do is price the resorts I asked, then throw in some of her own that she knew were coming back in our price point.     Was such a stressful decision - the toughest you will make, but with a bit of flexibility on resorts, dates, and location you will hit your price point without compromising on quality of resort or quality of wedding. 

 

In the end we paid $1565 from Calgary and $1465 from Toronto for a 5* in the Riviera Maya.

 

Good luck

Edited April 10, 2015 by calgarybride2015

[dreamweddings]

Hi All. I've been so overwhelmed with trying to choose a resort. My fiancé and I really want to get married in the Dominican, we have tentatively set May 2016 as our date, I figured slightly off season would be a bit cheaper..

I'm really struggling with the cost that guests have to pay, all my quotes have come back around $2000-$2200. I just think this is far too much..I was hoping for the $1600-$1800 range. Seems that to get this I have to lower my resort expectation which isn't really something I want to do.

What price has everyone else seen and what's fair?! Or what have your

guests said about cost?? This is the only factor in holding me back from booking

 

Thanks ladies!!

 

Hi All. I've been so overwhelmed with trying to choose a resort. My fiancé and I really want to get married in the Dominican, we have tentatively set May 2016 as our date, I figured slightly off season would be a bit cheaper..

I'm really struggling with the cost that guests have to pay, all my quotes have come back around $2000-$2200. I just think this is far too much..I was hoping for the $1600-$1800 range. Seems that to get this I have to lower my resort expectation which isn't really something I want to do.

What price has everyone else seen and what's fair?! Or what have your

guests said about cost?? This is the only factor in holding me back from booking

 

Thanks ladies!!

Hey Shaylala,

 

have you ever considered a different destination such as Mexico, we have all kinds of price range. I have seen this often my clients would say we first consider a different destination but due to prices we they opt for Mexico.   also depending on where you are flying from.  you may want to contact on a Travel agent to assist you.  btw great advice from the other ladies 

 

Happy Planning!

[deecol]

Hi @@Shaylala!

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

From what I've learned in my resort searching, Dominican will be more expensive than Mexico, and Cuba will usually be the most inexpensive of the 3.  I've seen brides on this forum get a rate of $1100 for their guests to go to Cuba.

 

We're booking in Mexico, and want our guests to pay no more than $1400.  Because we've been flexible with dates (anywhere between April to June 2016) it's been easier to get it closer to that number.

 

Good luck in your planning!  Hope you won't have to compromise on too much because of costs

Edited April 10, 2015 by deecol

[peachykeen159]

The best advice I got was "you're going to lose people at every price point, so just pick what you want". Our guests are paying a range of $1750 to $2200 depending on the city they're flying out of and surprisingly enough, the people that wanted to be there are making it work regardless of the cost!

[beckys98]

Are you a Canadian or American bride? From what it seems pricing works MUCH differently.

 

I'm an American bride getting married in Jamaica. We are in our 30s and the great majority of our friends and family take a nice vacation every year, so while we wanted to keep it affordable we also wanted to pick a place that we thought our guests might pick for themselves. We went with a mid-priced option, certainly not the cheapest and there were PLENTY of options that were MUCH more expensive. For land only, it is $1,000 per person for 5 nights - so $200 per person, per night.

 

It didn't price anyone out of coming. Some people may, for example, stay 4 nights instead of 5 to save a bit but we haven't heard much fuss about it. Plus, assuming you're doing an all-inclusive, when you don't have to whip out you wallet every 5 seconds while you're there you realize that the cost is totally worth it!

 

Good luck! The resort choice is the hard part and then the fun begins

[JenniferH114]

@@Shaylala - We are getting married in Riviera Maya. Our guests are paying about $2400 for three nights and the other half of the group that's staying longer (about six nights) is paying around $3300. This is with nonstop airfare from Chicago. Our resort is adults only and highly rated, so that adds a premium.

Edited April 10, 2015 by JenniferH114

[Moments That Matter]

Welcome to the forum Shaylala, and Congrats on your upcoming dw!!! with all the resources on these boards, you're bound to find some great info to help with your planning decisions.

Wishing you happy research, and all the best with your plans - cheers!!! team MTM