Site Rental vs. All Inclusive

[mayachel]

Is there a cost+creativity benefit to renting a site and doing off premise catering? How do I go about comparing the apples and oranges of costs, when a site charges $3500 for the day, but an inclusive venue charges $150 a head.

I am looking at (among other places) in the catskills, Ashokan Dreams.http://www.ashokandreams.com/

Nothing is included but the view.

 

[havernell]

I''ve read (and have seen from my own wedding planning) that generally you end up spending about the same amount of money for both an all-inclusive and a site rental where you have to bring in everything yourself.

To try to get a sense of the total cost of the site rental place, I''d contact some rental companies in the area (who have rented to couples who have had weddings at the site before) and ask them what rentals are generally needed (i.e. tent, chairs, tables, lighting, bathroom trailer, dance floor, dishes, linens, glassware, electric generator, etc...) and see how much that would cost. Then, try to get rough estimates for food/bar from a few area caterers as well. Add those two things to the site rental cost and see how that compares to the all inclusive. It''s not an exact science, but it will give your a rough estimate.

Again, I would doubt there''d be a HUGE difference either way (since all of those rentals add up quickly) so I''d just pick whichever venue you like best. As for creativity, the site rental definitely allows you to design any type of look you want since you''re starting with a blank slate, but that could also be a curse (as it can take a lot of effort and money to make a tall white tent look fully decorated).

Good luck deciding on a venue!

 

[Morgie44]

We are doing a site rental. All the tables and chairs were included in the rental though so it was a bit easier to price out. All of the caterers we looked at included china and linens in their plated service packages as well, so it was pretty easy for us, just xx/person for food plus xx/ per person for the bar times our estimated guests plus the site rental fee. Then we compared that to our all -inclusive venue choices pricing. It came out to be about 1000 more for the site rental place which we ended up choosing, however, the all-inclusive had a minimum head count of 200, which was our ballpark estimated guests, so if we fall below that 200 mark, our venue will become less expensive, while the all-inclusive, we would have been paying the xx per person times 200 people no matter if we had 200 or 175!

Another factor to consider is if you are able to purchase booze on your own and bring it in to stock the bar, it may tip the scale to being cheaper to rent the site. I have heard that this is a money saver.

 

[Nocturnius]

Well, personally I went with site rental and offsite everything else, but not for budget''s sake.

I did this because I wanted freedom. I wanted a caterer I picked, not one the venue said I had to use whether I liked his food or not. I wanted any linens I wanted, and most all-inclusives make you pay for upgraded linens. I didn''t want a list of vendors I was restricted to.

A lot of all-inclusives are also hotels that can tack on a ridiculous price for things simply because they are a hotel.

So if you''re doing it for price, justkind of look around, add it up. See if it makes a difference. If not, go with what makes you happiest.

 

[Octavia]

Date: 1/19/2009 5:30:58 PM
Author: Nocturnius
Well, personally I went with site rental and offsite everything else, but not for budget's sake.


I did this because I wanted freedom. I wanted a caterer I picked, not one the venue said I had to use whether I liked his food or not. I wanted any linens I wanted, and most all-inclusives make you pay for upgraded linens. I didn't want a list of vendors I was restricted to.


A lot of all-inclusives are also hotels that can tack on a ridiculous price for things simply because they are a hotel.


So if you're doing it for price, justkind of look around, add it up. See if it makes a difference. If not, go with what makes you happiest.

Ditto Nocturnius. We're doing a site rental and can use any vendors we want as long as they haven't been blacklisted for previous misdeeds. We did end up with a caterer on their "recommended" list, but purely by chance -- it was just a nice bonus that we know the venue likes them. Also, I personally think that a caterer who relies on word-of-mouth recommendations for business is going to be more diligent than one who has an exclusive lock on the venue. It does come out to be slightly more expensive than some of the all-inclusives in our area, but it's worth it for us.

ETA: I should probably add that we have a huge menu compared to the all-inclusives we looked at, so that accounts for some of the cost difference.

 

[violet02]

We did a site rental vs an all inclusive.

I was really happy with our site rental! Our original choice though was to try and go through an all inclusive hotel. They wanted to charge us per drink at bar costs (ie FULL price for all drinks including paying for each soda). Just for food and an estimate of alcohol we''d have paid 10k more. Hiring caterers allowed us to buy all of our own alcohol from places like BevMo and Costco where a lot of the unused wine and liquor was returnable. We also had a MUCH nicer menu with more food then what we''d have paid at the hotel. I was in love with our tent and decor too. We would have had an amazing view and site with the hotel but the banquet room was not great.