Wedding packages vs. D.I.Y.

Planning from afar? I'd do a package for venue, alcohol, food and then pick your own florist, dj, photographer, officiant. That's pretty typical here.

We found DIY to be the less expensive option in our area. We are planning locally, but I think even if I was planning long-distance, the cost savings of a la carte vendors would still make it worth it!

So a wedding package with everything included for 100 people being 12k is way to much right? Sorry, it's my first time getting married and i don't really know much when it comes to that!

We weren't thrilled with the options we had with all inclusive venues so we decided to DIY plan. We booked a venue and we have the freedom to choose any vendors we want. Honestly this route is cheaper and obviously more customization as far as what we want but if you're planning from afar all inclusive may be the way to go. I enjoy planning and choosing vendors so it wasn't a problem for me but if you're someone who doesn't want to be bothered with all of the decision making, researching, and emails/phone calls, all inclusive may be the way to go. All depends on you.

I did a DW, I can say I didnt have to worry about so much when I was with an all inclusive venue.

We found it was a lot more cost effective for us to do a wedding package/semi inclusive venue. Our venue provides a half hour ceremony - five hour reception with full open bar. 3 course meal and full cocktail hour as well as a planner/coordinator included and the venue handles all set up and breakdown of everything. We can just drop it off the day before.

We got to pick our vendors like flowers, DJ and photographer but we already had so much taken care of and it really took a lot of stress off our plates

We found an all inclusive venue ( 3 course meal, hand passed horderves, champagne and toast, open bar, dj, all set up and clean up, tip and gratuity, a lounge room, huge variety of different china, linens, charger plates, and centerpieces) for $7,800. We have a friend who will be baking our cake and designing it as well, and photography will be around $1,000. Also, we are not doing flowers. We are doing candles in wine bottles, which is way less expensive!

We decided to do the all inclusive option because it just made more sense to us. We are both very busy people and don't have the time to be going around looking everywhere for good deals and seeing which colors would match what without it all being there at once. It might be less expensive to go a different route but we are paying for the convenience.

Blue Mountain Mist Diamond Package 45-100 guest

Wedding pkg. to include:

Certified wedding planner to help you plan your ceremony and reception (up to 5 hrs. of consultation)

Wedding rehearsal the day before (based on reservations) up to 45 minutes

Ceremony and reception set up and clean up by Blue Mountain Mist

Includes private portrait session for bride, groom, bridal party and family either before or after ceremony

Complete coverage of ceremony and reception highlights

5 hour professional wedding photographer

Bridal Suite

Ceremony

Minister

Prelude music up to 30 minutes, ceremony music, and postlude music up to 30 minutes

Flowers (Bridal bouquet, Grooms boutonniere, two bridal attendant bouquets, 2 groomsmen boutonnieres, 2 father boutonnieres, 2 mother corsages, toss bouquet)

Reception

4 hour reception

DJ/master of Ceremonies with your choice of Music

Decorate bride and grooms head table, guest tables with candles and vases (white or ivory linens)

Colored napkins

Includes white wedding tent with pole drapes, 15×15 dance floor, tables and chairs

And catering is included along with alcohol

Our venue is semi inclusive. Includes catering (4 course meal and 3 passed appetizers), open bar, cocktail and reception space, basic linens, centerpieces, cake (from a bakery they work with), champagne toast for all guests, and hotel room for FH and I (it's at a resort). We have a $12,000 minimum we have to meet, but I have a feeling we'll be a little over.

I didn't price out all these things anywhere else. I knew I wanted this venue, and I prefer having aspects of the planning that I don't have to worry about, like linens and catering and bar. So it works well for us.

Yes they do catering and alcohol as well.

That is really cheap for all that stuff included. So much so that I'd be questioning the quality of the provided vendors.

We planned a wedding from several states away and brought everything but the tables into our venue. It was a lot of work to coordinate, and an all-inclusive venue would have made that much easier.

Well good! I'm thinking I will go with the package. Another thing to add is if you don't book the b&b completely out the reception has to end at 8. If you do book it out the reception cam last till 11. But booking out adds 3k to your total but you get 12 rooms. And they also have a horse and buggy to pull you along in!

It was about $300 extra to go all-inclusive, but I don't have to work and coordinate multiple schedules, and I know that all the people I am working with are very experienced pros versus the other pros that were in our budget that had less experience.

I'd double check alcohol is included because on their website it just says buffet and iced tea/water for that package.

Blue Mountain Mist Country Inn offers many different services including a minister, musicians, DJ’s, horse and carriage rides, floral arrangements, bar service, tent and other amenity rentals, delectable in-house food services and much more! This is what it says at the very top of the page when you go to packages.

It doesn't say it in the package but it says it here

But I haven't seen anything on separate pricing if alcohol isn't included

Depends on what you want. If you want more control over everything and want to be able to customize more, do DIY, but it is a lot more work, and sometimes more expensive. If you don't want to have to make a lot of decisions or do a lot of legwork and are ok with your wedding being almost the same as every other wedding at that venue, do all inclusive.

Check out willow creek falls, it's in Georgia but it's beautiful! They are all inclusive and awesome people. I'd recommend it for traveling

The main reason we are wanting to have it in the smoky mountains is so his family won't have such a long commute. It being beautiful is a plus. And it's not discouraging at all, it's really helpful because I am not knowledgeable in weddings in the least! I did email them to inquire about the alcohol services. One problem is they don't have a portfolio, but have great reviews and even had the news do segments about them. They seem to me like a mom and pop family kind of business. I'm still looking around but I personally like the southern, homey feel to it.