Is a WDW wedding really more expensive than the average home wedding?

[minniebride]

We are doing a S/D wedding, but we did alot of research on DFTW before we made our choice. In the end, the S/D seemed to serve our needs better.....though we might do a DFTW VR in the future!!

I've heard alot of people say they declined on having a Disney wedding because it was too expensive. I totally get that everyone has a different budget & different wants and needs for their wedding, but I was just wondering about the *average* at home wedding budget vs. the *average* DFTW.....is a DFTW really alot more expensive than the average home wedding?

Soon after we got engaged, my parents wanted to host our wedding at a hotel or golf club in their town-cocktail hour, plated dinner, DJ, the whole deal for about 60 guests. Their price quote ended up to be about the same, if not a little bit more than the DFTW! Granted, there is still the budget for traveling to WDW, hotels, park tickets, etc... for guests to factor in but half of the guests would have had to fly out to the wedding and stay in a hotel anyways.

Our S/D wedding budget has ended up to be a little less than what we would have paid for the DFTW, but price is not really the deciding factor on why we chose the S/D.

So, I wondered, am I missing something here? Is the average "at home" wedding much less expensive than the average DFTW?? Or is it just the travel & park tickets fees for guests that makes people turn away when they say they cannot afford it? OR, are the people who decide not to have the Disney wedding, just looking to plan a wedding that is less money than the average wedding?

ETA: I know there are plenty of other reasons as to why someone wouldn't choose a Disney wedding! I'm just referring to people who back out because of the cost.

Thanks!

 

[geek+nerd]

I think it depends on what you are aiming for. If you are planning a DFTW for as many people as you would have at a local wedding, then I would say it probably is more expensive. However, I think a lot of people chop the guest list (or it chops itself) when it comes to a destination wedding, which a DFTW is for many people.

I know that for me and my DF, we decided on a destination wedding as soon as we were engaged; we wanted to do something small, intimate, and very special. That's why the Escape package is perfect for us. We are only having 16 guests at our DFTW. If we did something at home, we would probably only have about 50-75 people and would easily spend about as much if not more than we are spending for our Disney wedding and probably have a mediocre experience. Neither of us wanted a "hall" wedding.

 

[puente0629]

To be honest, it depends the type of you wedding you are looking for. If you want a wishes wedding, dinner with over 100 guests...then yes the average at-home wedding will be less.

For example, I am spending a bit more because we are having a brunch wedding with only 29 guests for $11K (if you include our dessert party, that bumps it up to $13K)..the $11K does not include video, photos, flowers, chairs, dress, officiant, favors, invitations, linens, etc. I would of been able to have 50 or more guests with a dinner reception, flowers, video, photos, linens, chairs, etc. at the Buena Vista Palace (Downtown Disney) for $14-15K (includes a wedding planner). We knew at the end, even though were paying more, that Disney was the place for us.

An Escape wedding is much more budget friendly but it's only for 18 guests (including bride & groom). I've seen many brides end up changing to a wishes wedding because of all the add-ons.

Nothing beats being a Disney Bride!

 

[minniebride]

Does anyone know what is the cost of the average wedding in the US?

 

[geek+nerd]

Have you tried Googling it?

I imagine it varies by geographic region quite a bit.

 

[PartofDisney'sWorld]

Does anyone know what is the cost of the average wedding in the US?

I believe the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is $28,000-$30,000. Carrie (Lurkyloo) even stated this in her new Disney weddings podcast.

 

[FutureMrs.B]

Does anyone know what is the cost of the average wedding in the US?

It depends on where you live. I read somewhere the avereage nationwide is $20,000 but in the tri state area..where i'm from its higher..more like 30,000. Of course this depends on the number of guests. HTH

 

[lurkyloo]

Yes—it definitely depends on where you live. If you're in NYC or LA, then the average (not Couture) Disney wedding will be far less than a traditional hotel wedding would be locally.

If you live in the Midwest, maybe not so much. If you want to have a picnic in the backyard or a small ceremony with a potluck reception in the church basement or if you want to hire out a local restaurant in a medium-sized or small town, you could probably do it for less than a Wishes wedding. You might even be able to find a hotel package for less if you don't live in a big city.

But when we started trying to price a wedding with casual reception (sandwiches dropped off, no caterers) for 30-50 people in LA, we realized we'd be spending more on just the venue fee than it would cost for an entire Escape package (at that time), so that's what got us looking at Disney.

 

[girli565]

In Miami the average cost for a wedding in a church and reception in a banquet hall is probably 15-20k. This is with 75-100 guests. The food would most likely be rice, a meat (not a filet mignon or even a sirloin but more like a stewed beef or dry chicken breast) veggies and of course salad and rolls. So to sum it up the food kinda sucks.

I didn't want that type of wedding. I wanted something small with our family and closest friends. We wanted amazing food and an unforgettable location. We love Disney and our family andreiends love Disney so it was a perfect place for our wedding.

We spent close to 15k when you include all our expenses like hotel, dress, suit, and of course the actual wedding and dessert party. My mom did pay for the dessert party so that helped us.

 

[Brit_Jude]

I don't think I could have come close to the wedding we had at Disney in Washington DC or Northern Viginia for the money. As well as have the services of a planner and then the team on the wedding day. Add to that the ease of not having to deal with multiple vendors (floral, food, cermony venue, reception venue). All the lovely comments from the family about how special it was....I would not change a thing

Added - can't think of anywhere around this area I could I have a dessert party with fireworks - not without a much bigger budget

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

As others have stated, it totally depends on where you live, and the number of guests. For us, if we had a wedding in our area for the amount of guests we are inviting to Disney, it would deff. be WAY cheaper, but we don't live in a "big city." But, if we had the wedding in our hometown, there is no way we could only invite the 60-70 people we invited to our Disney wedding, since our families both all live in the area, and DF has a huge family, we would have ended up having around 300 guests, so taking that into consideration, I don't think our wedding will end up being much, if any more, than it would have been up here. It just depends on the situation, obviously there are ways to do a wedding super cheap, and people can spend a fortune on a wedding. As far as the average cost of a wedding in the U.S. google says $19,581, but I think it deff. depends on where you live.

 

[weedee]

It's all about what you what to spend and how you spend it, right? We spent under 10K but our per guest price was like over $200, which sounds ridiculously expensive. But we were able to provide our 18 guests with much more than we could have if we spent that much on 100-150 guests. If we had a wedding at home we would not have wanted to spend anymore than we did on our Disney wedding...and that's just not the kind of wedding I wanted.

 

[PrincessShea]

If you live in the Midwest, maybe not so much.

Hey now, hey now!!! My "midwestern" city is just as big as the coastal cities you people think the world revolves around

If my wedding were in Chicago, there probably would have been like 50-75 people, and it would easily have been $20k...and it would have been in a banquet hall at a hotel near the airport (ie. not fancy downtown stuff).

If I had a Disney wedding with 50 people, I know I could have kept it under $20k...and the atmosphere would be a heck of a lot nicer.

 

[pigletgirl]

For me, because my wedding party is so big (I have 10 bridesmaids) it would be a heck of a large budget at WDW. Plus, I have even more coming for the reception. Its about 300 at the ceremony and 500 at the reception.

My planner told me now the average around here was $32,000.

 

[sunset30]

For us, we are spending WAY less than what we would have ended up spending at home.

yes we have fewer guests, but we are doing a lot more for those very special people who are going to be there than we would have for a bunch of people at home.

It's a GREAT way of not having to faff about worrying whether someone who is only invited becasue they are vaguely related to someone's cousin and will be upset if they are not, AND for just over HALF the cost of an average UK wedding, we get the FAB wedding, AND an awesome family holiday too!

 

[lilonstitch12008]

i had only 34 guests and probably wouldn't have had much more than that if I had it at home. But I also had my wedding on a sunday on a long weekend in an off season time. It came to $16,000 total, which was what the minimum was. I didn't have any of the extras- uplighting, characters or special decorating, but no one complained. Our ceremony was at the Yacht Club gazebo and our reception was at the California Grill. Considering that that particular restaurant has windows all around, allowed for a maximum of 50 guests, and had a spectacular view of the fireworks over Cindrella's castle, I didn't feel that it was necessary for me to spend money on decorations. I had great food, good dj, and everyone had a great time. My SIL had her wedding at the house that she grew up in and her parents spent the same amount even having the wedding at home. I definitely do not regret my decision to have a destination wedding and wouldn't change a thing.

 

[PirateBride08]

I live in NJ and around here, $30,000 is about average although most people I know spend more than that.

Our DFTW didn't really save us money like we originally thought it would. We paid the same amount of money there as we would have in NJ only with a quarter of the people. We had 70 people come to our DFTW, which is exactly what we wanted. We didn't want to have 200+ people and if we were married in NJ we wouldn't have been able to cut the guest list that low.

 

[Princess_Jo]

We were looking at inviting roughly 250 people if we had the wedding at home (we both have large families). Having the wedding at Disney allowed us to significantly cut down on our guest list and now we are inviting 150 people with 100 expected to actually come. Since neither of us wanted a big wedding this worked out perfectly for us.

Would an 100 person wedding back home be less expensive? Absolutely! But for us having an opportunity to spend time with our family and friends while on vacation is really special to us. We also love the idea of Disney's one-stop-shopping and having everything conveniently located. The service is top notch and the food was delicious when we went for our tasting! We've been to 6 weddings so far this summer at some of the nicer venues in the area and not one served good food.

So for us, the "extras" that we'll have at our wedding make up for the additional expense.

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I would have had a much larger wedding in NJ and I would have fought for ways to make it unique, which would have raised the price as well. Honestly, if we didn't do Disney, it would have been on the beach in NJ or in Manhattan, so it definitely would have cost more. In WDW, it was already in a unique location, so I didn't need an overload of those touches and prices are lower than most nicer places in the city, and we had probably half the amount of people we would have had in NJ. So, it was definitely cheaper for us to have our Disney wedding, if you don't count the money our guests spent for their vacations in order to be able to share the day with us. The amount for individual items: cake, floral, catering, etc. are similar to what it would have cost per person or per item in NJ and some items like photography were actually cheaper in Disney. I definitely think it depends on your choices, but most especially on the region in which you live.