All inclusive venue deposit- how much do you put down?

My all inclusive venue just has a set down payment required and it isn’t dependent on either. Ours charged $1,500 to save the date then another payment of $2,500 is due 5 months before the wedding, and the final payment is due 10 days before the wedding.


We gave an estimate on how many people we would be inviting and for the contract we had a guaranteed minimum of 80% of that.

To be honest it would really depend on what your venue charges? We have a minimum spend of $16,000 (equivalent to 100 people) and our deposit was 25% = $4,000.

Our final price (which won't be "official" until 7 days out when we give our final guest count) will be dependent on guest count & whether we get any extras. We booked for their minimum, which is 60, so our total given right now (which is what we're paying off) is roughly $5,500 so our down payment due at signing was $1,500. So that's about 25-30% of the total. I'm unsure what it's like for other venues, but I think they'd either have a set amount for a down payment or it would be around 25% of the price they give you when you initially book their services. So if it's 25% of the total then that would completely depend on what you book for, not necessarily the minimum (unless you booked for the minimum). If the down payment is a set amount regardless of what you originally book for then it doesn't matter, they have an amount set no matter what. Your final price (or what's given to you the day you book) is determined by how many guests you originally book for (you can always add later), if you chose any extras they offer you, etc. So get plenty of quotes and see what venue works for you & your fiance.

As PPs have said, this is entirely dependent on your region.

We got married in NYC, so our deposit was pretty eye-popping - I know for a fact that people on this forum got married on that amount of money, alone. ...And we had a "cheap" wedding, for NYC.

There is a handy cost estimate tool in the Planning Tools tab, up above, and some WW and Knot and Google searches should help you compare, as well.

Good luck!

Mines was a set rate that depended on the amount of space/which room was booked.

View Quoted Comment Hold the phone - your all inclusive venue (food, chairs, a roof, etc.) is charging you only $5,500 to serve a minimum count of 60?! Where in the name of all that is holy is this venue?
That is unbelievably inexpensive - dang, good on you if I'm understanding your post.

View Quoted Comment Man those are awesome terms. We had only $1.000 to hold the date, and our minimum required fee is closer to the other poster (16k). BUT, we had 6 payments - 6 months out for 1/6th of that each time and then the last one 30 days out is the even up payment if you go over. Pandemic spoiler alert: we don't have 100.
Each payment made becomes part of the nonrefundable deposit - because you can only cancel 6 months+. Ours has really set it up to lock you in tightly.

Ours was $3000 for the deposit, and it was a flat rate.

View Quoted Comment Lolol this cracked me up 🤣🤣🤣

We’re having approximately 30 guests, I think our holding is 20. Our deposit was $300 and all-in-all for a fully catered event it’s going to cost around $1500 or so.

Our deposit was $500 to hold the date.

Then 50% of the remaining total is due two weeks out (when we'll have a more final headcount and all that), and the rest is due the day of the event.

The venue we chose does not have a minimum spend.

View Quoted Comment Oh wow! I did look at some that had minimums for a Saturday which were about (10k minimum) but our venue and coordinator has really been working with us. She even offered a FULL refund if we aren’t able to go through with the wedding in March. We’ve paid $5000 on our venue so far and she told us not to pay anymore until we get closer to the date, just to keep the rest of the money aside in case we can go through as normal. She’s really been sympathetic because of Covid and I definitely appreciate it because I’ve seen a lot of people say their venue refused to refund.

View Quoted Comment This is similar to our contract!

View Quoted Comment That is super nice! I know the struggles on the small business side, so I do sympathize and get why many just aren't in the position to be flexible about refunds.
Yesterday I stumbled across an article that finally puts a name to why I don't get along with my venue coordinator - he's got "toxic positivity". He's not being a jerk and saying we can't make changes because of covid - he's just been so sickeningly and unhelpfully positive "no need to worry, this will all blow over!" (sir, people could die...kind of a need to worry) that I am just at my end with him. So he continually presented as confused whenever we ask about precautions or questioned canceling or moving. Siiiiigh.
Good luck with yours - sounds like you got a good one!

View Quoted Comment Let’s just hope that Covid is a little more under control by the time our wedding dates approach. But yes I definitely have an understanding coordinator and she has been so helpful. Actually we originally had 1 but when Covid hit they laid her off for the time being and the “venue director” (I guess) took over. So I worked with 1 for 4 Months and have been working with her boss since. But they are both amazing. When is your date?

View Quoted Comment 5 👏more 👏 days 👏.
The lists are done, the timeline's done, the final bridesmaid's Zoom wine meeting has concluded, and the house is scrubbed from top to bottom. Sooooo now I'm bumming around on wedding wire at 6:00 a.m. - you know, the usual.
Good luck!!!

View Quoted Comment 🤣 well goodluck with everything, I hope you have the most amazing day!! ❤️

It varies. Ours was a percentage of our estimated invite number — so we said we were inviting 150, and our deposit was 50% based on the cost for 150. Once our final numbers came in, we only had 125 so our final payment was reduced significantly , which was kind of fun!

Our initial deposit was $6300, which was a flat fee. We were expecting to invite around 150 people, so the venue coordinator based our contract on 125. (This was pre-covid. We sent save the dates to 160 and will probably add a few more now that it's been postponed, I have no idea how many guests we'll end up with.) 50% of the remaining balance, rounded to the nearest 1k was due 6 months before the (original) date of the event. The final payment will be due 14 days before, which is the same date our final guest count is due.
There is a minimum amount of money we're required to spend on food, but it's not tied to the number of guests. We're expecting to spend about 60% more than the minimum anyway, but if for some reason we ended up with way fewer guests, we could just add extra stations or desserts or something to reach that number without it feeling like a punishment.

View Quoted Comment

Lol I'm getting married in Long Beach & we also booked for a Sunday (which is always cheaper no matter what), but the sales coordinator allowed us to not fulfill the $6,000 minimum so we saved well over $2,000. It also helped that our venue doesn't charge a site fee, we only pay for the food, equipment, services, etc so we got a great deal on ours.