Destination Wedding: Who pays for what?

Most people on here will tell you that it's nobody's responsibility to pay for your wedding but you.

Same as a nonDW: the couple pays for the wedding, the guests pay for their own travel and accommodations.

I agree with OHP, but I hate it when brides pick an expensive, all-inclusive resort. If the guests cannot stay elsewhere, or have to pay a fee to get on the premises, in effect, the bride/groom are asking guests to pay for reception. And to those who tell me, well we have to pay extras for the dinner, my point is guests are shouldering some. And to those who say, well we are paying for an extra excursion, it is still putting the cost of the reception on the guests (on top of travel and accommodations, which is fair).

Many times I read here about brides wanting to save money by having a destination wedding. NO, you are not saving money, you are just putting more of the cost on your guests.

Guests pay for their travel, hotel, and meals (except the reception meal and rehearsal dinner if you have one). You pay for everything for the wedding.

You pay for the wedding. Guests pay to attend. Just like any other wedding. It really isn't that difficult or different.

You pay for the wedding. Guests pay travel and accommodations.

Karen, for some people a DW is a valid option. I had a DW in the Poconos, only a two hour drive for most of my guests. If I had my wedding in my hometown it would have cost DH and I around $100,000. Since we had it in the Poconos, it was significantly less. We had economical hotel rooms at the Comfort Inn as well as higher end ones at the resort. The key with DWs is to think about your guests and offer them cost options. We literally didn't expect presents, their presence was truly their gift.

@karen - then those guests can choose not to attend the wedding. It really isn't that difficult.

I'm hungry - where's the buffet?!

@Karen: That's why there is a decline option on the RSVP.

We are having a DW, in the US, so not even an all-inclusive. It is cheaper for our guests to attend it than if we would have had a local (to us) wedding, since they're all coming from out of state anyway.

With our DW, they can get a hotel similarly priced to what they could get here on site, or off site significantly cheaper. They don't have to rent a car if they're on site, unlike here, where they'd have had to drive at least 3 hours to get here from the airport. Our DW is at a hot tourist location, so flights are frequent and cheaper than to here. We have had our guests in mind 100% of the way.

While I'm personally not a big fan of the chain resort all inclusive anyway, if that's where someone wants to have their wedding and they're upfront with their VIPs about costs, I don't see the issue, since people will still have the option to decline.

Every wedding is a destination for at least some of the guests. And they pay to get there.

Or they RSVP 'no'.