Are you interested in an all inclusive wedding plan? When you hear "all inclusive weddings" you just might think of the many options in the Caribbean, but there is a wedding company in California who offers many all inclusive plans. Michelle O'Connor of Lake Arrowhead Weddings offers her tips on planning the wedding of your dreams with a minimum amount of fuss.

The Difference

What makes an all inclusive wedding package different than a wedding package at a traditional hotel?

Truly all inclusive wedding packages include all vendors required for the wedding, coordinating, and handling the details of the event from the day the bride books, until the last guest has left the reception, and the reception location is cleaned up. Many all inclusive wedding companies work with their brides for up to one-and-a-half years prior to their wedding. An all inclusive wedding package should include coordination of the entire event and all the vendors for a successful wedding (caterer, baker, photographer, videographer, minister, locations, florist, staff, setup crew, cleanup crew, coordination crew, bartenders, servers, live music, DJ, linen rentals, chair cover rentals, table and chair rentals, wedding invitations, etc).

Depending on the time of year, many all inclusive wedding companies will run promotions offering free services with the packages. Such promotions may include free invitations, a free wedding cake, a free bartender, and even off-season discounts. The beauty of all inclusive wedding packages is that the bride gets all the best vendors at steep discounts. It would cost more for the bride to go out and do the wedding herself than it would to buy a complete wedding package, plus she gets full coordination and a professional staff and crew.

The bride should beware of "extra hidden fees." Make sure your wedding company does not tack on an additional $2.50 per slice to cut the cake or an additional $3.50 per bottle to serve the champagne. Having to deal with surprise fees as the wedding day approaches can be a nightmare. Many complete wedding package prices even have the tax included.

Popular Packages

What is an example of a popular all inclusive wedding package?

An example of a complete wedding package is featured at a lake front resort hotel in Lake Arrowhead, California. This package offers outdoor or indoor ceremonies and receptions with lake views. With this all inclusive wedding package the couple gets everything for their wedding--all they need to bring is the dress and rings. There is even a hotel on site to accommodate all the wedding guests and almost every room has a lake view.

Couples may visit the Lake Arrowhead Weddings web site to view details of the package and photographs. With an all inclusive wedding package, "all inclusive" should mean all the hard work is taken care of and the bride makes all the fun decisions.

Personalization

What special touches can brides add to an all inclusive wedding package to personalize the ceremony?

The beauty of all inclusive wedding packages is that the bride customizes the package. The bride does not have specific selections they are required to choose from; they bring their ideas and the perfect wedding is created. The wedding company should be there to offer suggestions and help guide them through all that is involved in planning and running the full-scale event that is a wedding.

Simplification

How do all inclusive wedding packages simplify a bride's work in setting up the event?

All inclusive wedding packages save brides over 100 hours of work! Planning and putting together the specifics of a full-scale event, which a wedding is, takes numerous hours and event expertise. The bride should meet with her all inclusive wedding company, tell them her wishes, and the company should make it happen.

With many complete wedding packages the bride gets the best professional vendors in the area at steep discounts. all inclusive wedding companies represent volume business for vendors. The bride and groom are one-time clients and do not have the bargaining power that a volume client does. Many all inclusive wedding companies use their bargaining power to save brides money and time.
With an all inclusive wedding you don't have to worry about:

Performing endless vendor interviews.
Mailing out several different deposits and contracts.
Orchestrating who arrives when.
Will the tables and linens be delivered and setup before the cake arrives?
Who will setup the tables?
Who will pick up the linens, set them up, and then return them?
Who will pick up and setup all the chairs, linens, favors, flowers, decorations, bar, beverage table, gift table, sign in table, buffet tables?
Who will run the buffet and keep it stocked?
Who will cleanup from the ceremony, reception and the kitchen at the end of the night?
Who will clean and package up the bridal keepsakes at the end of the night?
Who will cut and serve the cake and champagne?
What happens when the florist gets sick the morning of the wedding and can't deliver the flowers?
Who will run out to find someone, somewhere?
Triple confirming arrival times and services with vendors.

When the bride gets 15 more RSVP's trickling in 18 days before the wedding, the wedding company calls and arranges for 15 more plates, 15 more glasses, 15 more slices of cake, 2 more tables, 2 more table cloths, 15 more napkins, 15 more sets of silverware, more beverages, more food; the bride and her family can actually enjoy the days leading up to the big event.

Trends

Are you seeing any trends in all inclusive weddings?

More brides and grooms are choosing all inclusive wedding packages. With today's busy lifestyles, buying a complete wedding package you can customize to your own tastes and desires--while getting a better price than if you did it yourself can't be beat. Couples should shop around to see what it would cost them to piece together their own wedding (not to mention their time, usually over 100 hours), then compare it to the all inclusive wedding packages that are available through us or in their own area. Even if you are not getting married in Southern California, we welcome you to examine our complete wedding packages as a reference of what you might expect from a comparable company located in your area. Your complete wedding package company should offer you discounted pricing and a stress free event that is run based on your own wishes!

Article by: Michelle O'Connor - Complete Wedding Packages

Comments from Glen.....
The all inclusive package plan is an obvious time saver for most of the things involved in planning a wedding, but it's not always perfect.

I have personally encountered one drawback to this system. Some of the hotels and planners that put together packages such as this will be receiving a kick-back from each of the vendors that they use for your wedding. This is not necessarily a bad thing and most vendors will gladly pay it simply because of the large volume of work they can recieve from being included in these packages, and the fact that they get the work with no advertising efforts of their own. (I wish I could get more work like this)

Here's the catch.... Let's say you purchase an all inclusive wedding package and it comes complete with the photographer who will shoot for several hours and present you with a selection of perhaps 100 small prints. (this is an example only) So you look online and either the work is substandard, or awful, or not shown at all. If you're serious about your wedding photos (which I'll assume you are if you're looking at my site) then you may not want to settle for anything less than the best photographer you can possibly afford.

Ok, so now you ask if you can cut out the all inclusive package photographer and bring your own photographer.

The response you get will obviously varry but I have experienced many times when the hotel putting the package together flatly refused to allow the bride to substitute outside vendors - at all. I've seen brides get so frustrated with this that they cancelled their all inclusive package and moved their wedding elsewhere.

I've also seen hotels that told the bride it would cost her an additional $500 to cut out their package photographer and bring in someone else.

These problems are the result of the fact that (sometimes - but not always) the all inclusive package saves you money by transferring some of your costs onto each of the vendors that are required to pay the hotel a percentage of their profits in order to be included in the package. The hotel makes out great, while the vendors get a cut in pay. If the hotel were not so greedy, and simply gathered everyone together to make things easier on you, then the system would indeed be perfect. But the hotel may be relying on that extra income in order to turn a profit on your wedding. This allows them to lower the price they offer to you (which makes them more competitive with the other hotels) and make up the difference by charging the other vendors. When you cut out one of the bigger vendors, then the hotel stands to lose enough money that the whole thing may no longer be profitable for them.

My advice....

Make sure to check with the hotel or coordinator who is putting your all inclusive plan together to see if you can make substitutions to the plan if you want to. If they are truly working in your best interest, they should have no problem with this request and it should not cost you anything extra, in fact, if you are trading out one of their services for something you've found on your own, they should privide a price reduction if anything.

If your hotel is providing a wedding package that seems too cheap to be true, then you can expect to lose some flexibility in return.