Weddings and money!?

Question

for all of you married or soon to be married.. is it cheaper to rent a place that doesn all the food all the decorating and accomodations in one big payment.. or is it cheaper to do everythiing seperate yourself?

Answer 1

I think doing everything separate is cheaper but I'm having my wedding at a place where it's all in one price for two reasons: I'm planning from across the country, and I would rather not have the excess stress of the all the details for each aspect.

Answer 2

It really depends. We found that it is much more convenient to have everything at one place, but it is much more expensive compared to some other options we had. Look into both and compare prices, what you get and how much more you might have to pay for certain things in each situation. For my fiance and I, we are going to the courthouse and we found a nice restaurant where we can have a room, invite up to 50 people and have a very nice buffet for under $1500 which is a lot less than the $10,000 we were offered at another place for almost the same thing. In our situation, we can have the room for 4 hours and that gives us time to have a small ceremony at the room in the restaurant and then have dinner with our friends and family and this is the same thing we'd have at that other place. It all depends on how fancy you want to go and exactly what you want to do.

Answer 3

You pay more when you bundle it all up but depending on what type of person you are it may be best since there's less to think about. It's convenient to bundle and they know it and are going to charge you accordingly.

When bundling they choose the vendors and it's not always going to be the best value ones. Packages are pre-set so you may end up paying for things you don't want or don't care about. You will also have a very limited selection compared to if you did the shopping yourself so if you are aiming for "unique" or "personalized" this isn't the way to go.

But like I said. When you bundle it's all a one-stop-shop. Pretty much all you have to do is provide the clothing, guests, and show up. And for some brides they LIKE the limited choices. They just don't know what to do when faced with a sea of possibilities and are happy that there is someone to narrow it down to A or B.

Answer 4

My FI and I are getting married Next October in Ohio and our guest List is 200. And we are including alcohol.
I had priced what it would be to rent the rec center, which only supplies, tables and chairs, how much a caterer would cost, along with how much alcohol we would have to buy, what kind of decorations i would need. along with table coverage etc..... It ended up, for us only being 1500 dollars cheaper then to go with the party center we both ended up agreeing on. We decided that it would be worth the extra 1500 - 2000 dollars to not have to worry about everything. I mean, we would have had to worry about getting the alcohol there, decorating the night before, hiring people to make drinks.... the list goes on... So we decided that for 38.00 a head for adults, and for people under 21 it is 34.00 and for children under 5 its i think maybe 10 dollars, this price includes alcohol, food, hall, decorations, and the of day planner for the hall will be there to keep things organized. They setup everything, and when i say everything i mean they are even going to set up my candy buffet for me!! The hall alone depending on how many people, we estimated 175, we are paying anywhere from 5500 to 6500 bucks.. Which we didnt think was all that bad. Plus the hall is very beautiful with nice size dance floor, and good looking bar...

Hope this info helps...
Best of luck to you and congrats..
sorry so long.

Answer 5

It depends. Get price quotes for each and then compare them. Many venues require that you use their catering, etc. And other venues you can bring in everything of your choosing.

How much control do you want? If you're picky on certain things, then it's probably best to go with somewhere you can pick your own vendors.

Answer 6

it depends on several factors. is your wedding casual, sem-formal or formal? IF it's semi-formal or formal it might be better to go with a place that furnishes everything.That way you don't have to clean up at the end. That's what my cousin did. he and his wife paid for their wedding themselves, but they forked out an extra ( I think $2500) to have a place that did it all. And it was a wonderful time. i think they said they spent less $6000 for their whole wedding (including a 10 day stay in jamaica). But don't quote me on that.. This was a few years back. Good Luck.

Answer 7

Well first it depends on where you live. I plan to do my own everything because it seems to be cheaper to do it that way and I know how much I am going to spend, where it's actually going to and I save money in the process.

Answer 8

Unfortunately it depends.
I've found venues where everything separate will cost me more than a particular venue that does everything for you.
You really need to search around and do some comparison shopping.
Figure out what your big ticket items will be and then see if you can cut those costs at all.

Answer 9

you would have to determin that based on your location.
and by what you want, cost to purchase in store, who will prepare, how to serve etc...

for us we are getting the hall at the fire house that my fiance belongs too, very pretty inside. it's $275 to rent, open bar with our 10% members discount is $9.90 a head. food would be $12.60 a head, with the discount. however, my fiances family has offered to make all the food.

i'm crafty so i will do my own decorations, i would never dream of paying someone to do it for me. but that's just my diy self.

a friend of mine had hers done at a one stop place and it cost her 12k!!

mine will come in under 3k and it's exactly how i want it to be.

Answer 10

A package is usually the most economical because you are only paying one overhead cost. Also, in a wedding centre they purchase things in quantity so there are savings. If you are renting a hall or wedding centre, you usually don't pay extra for renting the dishes, glassware, etc. and many of their staff perform double duties. As for not having choice, that's incorrect, because any professional wedding centre or banquet hall gives you many options dependant on the price category of your package.