All Inclusive Resort Wedding vs Cruise Wedding vs At Home Wedding

Hi Shayna! Congrats on your engagement!

Not from WV, but FH is, and we both currently live outside of Morgantown.

I really think this decision should depend on your financial capabilities... can you and FH afford a cruise or destination (resort) wedding? If so, great! Just be prepared for some guests to decline based on travel fees, limited time off abilities, etc.

If not, a WV wedding would be beautiful - especially in August! We are getting married in Deep Creek, MD but considered several venues around the state including Bridgeport and Fayetteville.

Good luck!

We are having our wedding at an all inclusive wedding venue in our hometown. It was much more cost effective then any other place that we looked at. The venue covers, food, open bar, cocktail hour, cake, DOC, dessert bar, fire pit, brunch the next morning, room for me and FH and there are rooms in walking distances of everything!

To me it was a no brainer. This way the only other major vendors we needed was Photographer, DJ and Florist. Also of course the decor of course! But it has a beautiful view of the mountains so we do not need much!

View Quoted Comment Thank you. I love some of places in WV. I grew up not far from Fayetteville.

View Quoted Comment Exactly. That's what's making me want to go that way because its so much rolled up into one. My FH will be a little thrown when he sees the prices but when all of this is taken into account it seems like the better option. Plus we aren't getting married until 2020. I just like the cruise idea because everyone who came can do whatever they want to do not just be limited to what we are doing.

If you want a lot of family and friends at your wedding, have it local. Any sort of destination or cruise wedding will have far fewer guests. My H and I have decided to not attend any more destination weddings. They are just too expensive, really aren't that fun and we have other things we would rather spend our money on.

View Quoted Comment So far all of the people we definitely want to be there have said they would be okay with it since its so far out. I also think it helps the people who don't really want to come anyways have a way out of it. But I totally understand how it can be really expensive thats why I want to have this decided now.

1-what do you want to do

2-the most important people that you want there day of, what can they do

If you can get answers to those questions that how I would make my decision

I would ask your VIP guests what their thoughts are on this. If they are excited about a cruise/destination then I say go for it! If not, then you need to pick what is more important.

I think it’s generally accepted that if you attend a destination wedding, that the guest doesn’t have to give a gift (although I’m sure many do). And as others have said, you’ll have way less people—even if some are saying yes now, unofficially.

My husband and I don’t get a lot of vacation time so the few destination weddings that I’ve had to attend for family members, I hate that my vacation is chosen for me. It’s almost always not where I would choose to go on vacation even if it’s a nice place, and I hate that I have to burn my vacation on a date chosen by someone else. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

From an economic standpoint, if your parents are paying for it, you will make a lot more money if you stay at home. My parents paid for our reception and numerous other things so we only paid like less than $1000 out of our own pockets. We made enough at our reception to put a down payment on a house (my parents don’t expect to be paid back) so as bad as it sounds this was a consideration for us.

We are going to Vegas which as it turns out has a higher acceptance for guests than other locations. Be ready for people we were expecting not anyone to come really (at most MAYBE 10 people) but now we are at 70 but we left it a million percent up to people and when we told people we always said we were going to Vegas and a celebration when we came home so absolutely not to feel obligated to go to Vegas. If it's a fun location though and you have a close group of friends and family they will have an exciting time planning too because they can all go on vacation together. Our wedding it turning into a giant party for friends and family and we wouldn't want it anyway else!

I think on some cruises, you can have the ceremony and reception there before the ship sets sail, so that might be an option.

Personally, I'm not a fan of DW or wedding that require the guest to spend money and vacation time to attend. I think if you do have those things, you should set your expectations low for attendance and try your best to think of a destination that everyone would definitely go to. For my family, cruising would be perfect, as we all love cruises! Even still, it's hard to ask someone to use their vacation time and money for a trip they didn't get to pick in order to attend your wedding. For VIPs, there might be unspoken obligation and resentment, which might make the trip stressful. If you decide not to go the at home route, make sure you 100% know your VIPs are on board (pun intended) and are totally psyched about a cruise or resort wedding.

ETA: While people may think 2020 is far out and be okay with it now, when it comes to vacation planning, 2020 isn't really far at all. I have my honeymoon vacation this year and our family vacation for 2019 already scheduled. 2020 we have a tentative plan to cruise with friends, so if I got an invite to a DW and definitely needed to attend, all my vacation savings would go to that and, and then by 2021 I could have kids and that changes the whole landscape of vacations...Most people go on maybe one week long trip a year, so 2020 is only 2-3 big trips away.