Venues with everything included or just venue

It depends on what is included and what your overall budget is. Typically 50-60% of your entire wedding budget should go to venue/food/alcohol. So if this venue fits into those percentages for your budget then that’s great. If not I would keep looking.

It really just depends on your area, and the venues themselves. When researching venues in my area, I found several all-inclusive. But they were all different prices. It also depends on your guest count. A wedding and reception for 100 is going to cost less than one for 200. What I like about the all-inclusive is that it takes a lot of the planning stress off of the bride a groom. For example, our venue (not 100% inclusive, but we get a lot) includes the ceremony and reception space, chairs, tables, linens, dishes, glassware, flatware, etc., basically all the logistical stuff you need to throw that big of a party. Additionally, they are connected to a local restaurant, so they offer the food and beverage as well. That works for us, because now we don't have to find a caterer, or buy our own liquor, etc. It makes it a lot more convenient when you can get a bunch of things rolled into one place.

I think this option isn't for everyone. You and FH have to decide what kind of wedding you want, and what are the most important things for you, and then it will be easier for you to find a venue that suits your needs.

Depends on budget and your interest or ability to coordinate if you do it outside the venue. A happy medium may be hiring a wedding coordinator and having a venue you can bring your own vendors.
I have a gorgeous venue that has all the tables, chairs, dishes and lodging. But we can bring our own vendors. As a result our venue is almost 50% of our budget, food and alcohol will end up being about 25%.
We made choices on vendors to cut back and food choices that are less expensive because having our venue for the weekend with lodging was important to us.
I also like the freedom that I can have stuffed burgers with a baked potato bar and Costco cheesecake instead of the standard chicken with rice pilaf and dry cake.

I'd advise making a spreadsheet and for each venue you're considering, list what's included and the cost, and what it will cost for all the things that you want that are not included at each specific venue. When you're done, you'll be able to make a true "apples-to-apples" comparison. Daughter and I visited 10 venues that on the surface seemed to vary widely in cost. When she did the apples-to-apples comparison, 9 of the 10 were within a $1000 range from the most expensive to the least, when considering the total cost of having the wedding at each. The only one that was outside that range was the least inclusive option.... It would have cost significantly MORE to go with the least inclusive. We came to the conclusion that "wedding venue price fixing" in So Cal is real. Also, once we knew that they all cost basically the same, it made it easy for her to choose the venue she truly loved the most, knowing it really wouldn't cost more than what seemed like "cheaper" options.

EDT: also, as mentioned, be sure you factor in the value of your time and potential frustration in dealing with less inclusive options. Daughter's VERY much inclusive venue was a dream to work with and they basically coordinated everything for us (all the feedback about them was AWESOME, so we trusted them 100%). The wedding was perfect and really very much stress free. In comparison, I can't imagine what the last month and the day of would have been like if we were having to coordinate caterers, bartenders, linens, furniture, dishes, etc. The peace of mind that it's all being taken care of by someone who knows what they are doing is priceless -- and, honestly, didn't cost us more (actually, in our case, less than if we'd gone with the less inclusive venue...).

We went with a place that was just the venue, and then the caterer took care of almost everything else minus like florals and the DJ! There were 6 options of caterers at various price points so it was nice to have multiple options within the same venue!

I would get quotes from caterers, DJs, officiants, and photographers. Usually that is what all inclusive venues include. Then you can compare to see what is more affordable.

Depends on budget and how much stress you can handle/how organized you are. I'm doing all inclusive so I have one place to handle as my stress is through the roof. They tend to be seen as more expensive (says wedding planners). The ones I've looked into are about $10k to $20k all inclusive. They can go much higher (of course) as well. If you do none all inclusive, I think you'll have more options but less flexability with what the venue offers and more people to handle or put deposits on or even tips (some all inclusive places include tips in packages)

My venue includes nothing but then I can also decide what I want to spend on different things. It’s been a lot of extra work though.

We did an all inclusive and I couldn’t be happier. Ours comes with the space for ceremony and reception, tables, chairs, linens (with tons of colors to choose from), dj, fresh floral centerpieces (we design it), cake, food (2 apps and buffet dinner of 2 meats and 2 sides) and an open bar of beer and wine. It was like $80 per person

My venue can be all inclusive minus the DJ or it can be done as venue only and you provide everything else. My Venue is $3000 that's the sat/holiday rate. And then another $300 to go til 2am, my wedding is on NYE. And setup for the ceremony as well. so $3300 but they gave 10% off for paying in full. Next we're going to use their catering because we get china, tablecloths, glassware,silverware,set-up and cleanup,servers bartender etc.We plan on paying that in full because we'll get 10% off for that as well. Our menu consist of two meats,starch,veggies,salad bar,pasta bar, rolls, lemonade.tea and water. Two passed apps and fruit/cheese display at the cocktail hour. Chocolate fountain. The bar will be beer,wine champagne and a signature drink 6k

We are doing all inclusive just because it worked out for price and the fact that my parents & I would be able to fully enjoy my wedding day instead of stressing about doing everything ourselves.

View Quoted Comment Wow that's a good price. Where is this?

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It's in Greensboro, NC. it's$9300 total. ##00 venue and 6 k for the food/drinks

I am getting married at a Wedgewood venue which is all inclusive with flexibility except for catering. I get to add or take out things from the package to adjust pricing ( wine with dinner vs not, beer and wine hosted bar vs premium liquor etc) but all the other vendors like florist dj photographer they have a list of preferred but you can book who you want.

i found that most inclusive venues are cheaper just because they have deals with these other vendors whereas if you try to book everything separately yourself you might end up with a lot of hidden fees here and there.

do you have a lot of time to plan and are you organized? I prefer all inclusive for the convenience too! I considered getting married at a community center which would require me to find vendors for everything including glassware and it just seemed like too much work!

We chose a venue that is all inclusive. The only outside vendors we had to get were the DJ, photographer, and photobooth. They gave us suggestions of vendors for our centerpieces and cake. If we choose not to go with their contracted vendors, we'll get a credit back the week before the wedding.
It has been extremely easy for us to plan, not a lot of stress or headaches at all and I love it. No, it is not cheap, but I think it'll be worth it at the end of the day.
Also, my parents were married at the same venue (moved to a new location since then) 12 years ago. My FS and I have pictures of us at their wedding so the venue has a special memory for us. Due to this, they're throwing in a bunch of freebies for using them again.

We went with a venue that only provided tables and chairs (those were a must for me I wasn't renting tables and chairs!). The cost for that was just under $2,000. And we were allowed to bring in all our own vendors and alcohol which is where we saved BIG! Saving was important to me as we didn't have a huge budget.

My second favorite venue which included food, beverage (including alcohol), plates, silverware etc and a coordinator would have been about $2,000 more than I spent and would have been less stressful for me, but our day wouldn't have been the same. And we would have gone over budget slightly.

So I think if you have wiggle room in your budget and you like the venues the same, go for the one that includes more. If you are looking to save where you can and have the time, I'd go for one that includes less and you can bring in your own vendors.

It all depends on what you are looking for. My fiance and I chose a hotel for our venue and it was going to cost us 5000 that was tables, chairs, decorations, catering... so we decided to change it again and do it at the park we live near which will only cost us 100 plus decorations. So far the decorations are only going to cost me 300. I am spending quite a bit on a cake though. almost 1200. so it all depends on what you want. we are using someone who caters for my family get-togethers for our wedding and it is only going to cost 500. so I feel we are doing much better now with the park than the hotel.

My venue is all inclusive (Addison, IL, just outside of Chicago near O'Hare airport). We are inviting 200 guests so we got the larger room which has an $18k min. If we had gone with the smaller room it was 12-15K I believe. It includes the ceremony and receptions space, backdrop for the ceremony space, chairs, tables, linens, dishes, glassware, flatware, food from the upscale Italian restaurant at the venue, 6 hour premium open bar *that is open during dinner - make sure to ask about that, a lot of places close the bar during dinner and only table wine is available*, toasting champagne & strawberries, centerpieces (we are making our own but they were offered), a DOC who will set up and take down all of the decor as well, the cake and desert bar, a second small room to use as we want (we are going to set up our nephews (7, 7, and 2) with a "kids space" and a babysitter so they don't have to hang out with the grown ups and the parents can enjoy themselves)...I think I'm still missing a few things but when I priced out other non-inclusive options this was cheaper and the food was better, plus its that much less I have to try to coordinate.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much everyone

It depends on your budget. We were looking at both all-inclusive venues and just venues, and I realized it made more sense for us to get the all-inclusive venue. I would rather pay a little more for the convenience of having everything already there rather than just try to coordinate all the venue stuff. The ease of it and the peace of mind made it totally worth it!