Weddingbee Blog

I’ve always found it difficult to use budgeting websites and tips that I’ve found online from other brides because our own budget is worked out in quite a different way. I don’t know whether this is an Australian thing or whether there are bees out there who have come across it in their own weddings, but nearly every venue we encountered worked in this way: our wedding reception costs were bundled up in a package deal.

Pros:

• Well, er, I’m kind of lazy. If it means that we are technically having some inclusions organised and paid for without having to lift a finger ourselves, that’s good to me!
• We have a fairly stock idea of what our total cost is going to be already, depending on the final numbers—so we can work our guest list around what (and who!) we can afford. We don’t have to tally up individual things like room hire, food, drinks, etc.—it’s all done for us.

• Food is included in the price, so we get to avoid having to order in special caterers—we still get to choose the food for our menu, and there is still a very big selection. (Though I will add, this was just our chosen venue—some of the places we visited with package deals had little to no flexibility on food choices, which automatically wiped them off our list as potentials.)
• Best of all, it even includes alcohol! Of course, it’s a very basic beverage package, but that’s a great thing—no worrying about what wines to buy, how much money to put behind the bar, or how much we would need in total. Instead, our guests will have an unlimited selection of house beers, wines, soft drinks, and juices—and if they want to buy anything special that’s not on offer, they can deal with the bar staff and pay for it themselves.
• We got a few extra inclusions as part of our package: hooray! Best of all, we get to choose what inclusions we want—though at the moment, our top priority is to pick a DJ, possibly some floral arrangements, and potentially even a cake.

Cons:

• I felt that some “inclusions” were made out to be more of a bonus than they actually were. I went over everything our venue listed with a fine-toothed comb to see if it made sense financially to consider them as an “added inclusion” or as something which really should have just come with the reception venue. For example: linens on the tables—would they have come standard if we’d just booked the room itself vs. booking the room in a package? (Yes!)
• You have to work with what’s on offer. They don’t tend to budge much on pricing when they have a set rate—however, we found out that having our wedding on an off-season date really worked to our favour in terms of a discount per head.
• It’s scary (but I suppose realistic) to see what your total price is going to be that early on in the game—and we had to fork down a pretty big deposit at the start, too.

As you can see, for us the pros far outweighed the cons—and it’s really, really nice to have nearly all of the BIG costs involved in hosting a reception (room hire/food/alcohol/music) basically paid for all in one hit, per guest. We’ll be making the final decisions about what inclusions we’re opting for when we have our meeting with the venue three months before the date. I’m hanging out for the meal tasting, let me tell you!

Did your wedding venue offer any kind of bundles or deals to entice you?