Destination wedding Cost: Per Guest-more expensive than Hometown wedding?

For those same line items, we're looking at $17k for 70 guests. So that does seem pretty steep for 20 people. Did they give you a breakdown of what's included and how much each is? That might help figure out where the expense is coming from and if you can bring it down.

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Are you having yours at an all inclusive?

This is for a off resort location in DR:

-Rental of venue/decoration Fee: $3,068

-Reception Chairs, chargers, linens, bistro lights, draping-$1,233

-Food/open bar-$3,334

-Dessert-$212

-DJ/Dance Floor/Fireworks/Sparklers-$1,952

-Saxophonist-$236

-Flowers for people in the ceremony-$400

-The costs above dont reflect the quote they are going to give me for decorations for the table which i expect to be a few thousand

View Quoted Comment Sorry, to clarify my wedding is in the US but wanted to provide a price comparison! Looking at your breakdown it actually seems reasonable for what you're getting. It looks like you're going to have some serious decor between the drapery, lighting, chargers, flowers, etc. And fireworks! So of course that will add up. The rest seems appropriate, for example $160pp for food & beverage is in line with a nice meal in a HCOL area.

Hi Lynn! Thanks for sharing that quote breakdown - that's really helpful in understanding your pricing!!

Like Nicole said - $160 per person for food and booze is right in line with average pricing, and the quoted prices for dessert, the saxophonist, and ceremony flowers all look very reasonable!!

The average spend on a DJ is between $800-$1400, so your quote seems for great for a DJ plus a dance floor, sparklers, and fireworks. 🎇

The rental fee is a tough one but may be unavoidable! Larger venues will sometimes waive their rental fee if you can guarantee a minimum number of guests or a minimum spend on food & drinks. But for a smaller wedding this fee is a big hit to the budget! You could try reaching out to restaurants with private dining rooms to see if they have a lower rental rate or if they will do a minimum spend instead.

You can also decrease the amount you're spending on rentals if you want to skip the bistro lights & drapery. You should be able to get chairs, chargers, and linens for $300-500!

Hey there! We are doing a destination wedding and ended up realizing that it does end up being a bit more expensive than you anticipate for a couple of reasons:


1. You are hosting people for the weekend as opposed to just the wedding day and night before, so the events leading up to the wedding financially add up. The events you plan have to be out somewhere like a hotel, restaurant, or bar since you can’t just invite people over to a friends backyard for welcome drinks for example.
2. You will most likely invite everyone on your guest list to the rehearsal dinner as opposed to just family and wedding party which adds up financially. We got quotes that were similar to our wedding quotes for our rehearsal dinner, so we decided to just host a welcome party for everyone with appetizers and drinks instead of a seated dinner to save money.
3. DIY options are limited since you can’t really bring many things on the plane or ship them. This means you can’t personalize things to the extent you can if you planned something locally and all of your decor has to be done by a professional vendor.
4. A wedding planner is a must which is an added expense.
We are still super happy we chose to have one but thought these would be helpful to share so that you can financially plan ahead if you chose to host one.