Planning tool
Build a realistic number before you fall in love with a resort. This worksheet walks through every line item that appears on a 120 to 250 guest Hindu, Sikh, Gujarati or fusion wedding in Mexico and the Caribbean, in the order you will actually be asked to pay for them.
There are two budgets in every destination wedding, and confusing them is the single most common reason a plan falls apart six weeks out. The first is what you pay: venue and ceremony fees, décor, vendors, upgraded catering, entertainment, photography. The second is what your guests pay: their own rooms and, usually, their own flights.
A resort quote almost always leads with the guest number because it looks small. Work your own number first, then decide how much of the guest side you want to subsidise. Couples commonly cover welcome bags, transfers and one hosted event, and leave rooms and airfare to guests.
Fill the middle column below for a 150 guest, four night wedding, then adjust up or down. Everything is quoted in US dollars.
| Line item | Lean | Typical | Elevated | Who pays |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guest rooms, per room, four nights all inclusive | $1,400 | $1,900 | $2,600+ | Guest |
| Round trip air, per person, from a US or Canadian hub | $450 | $700 | $1,100 | Guest |
| Wedding package or private venue fee | $3,500 | $7,500 | $18,000 | You |
| Outside vendor fees, per outside vendor brought in | $500 | $1,200 | $2,500 | You |
| Décor, mandap or palki, florals, draping | $8,000 | $22,000 | $45,000+ | You |
| Pandit ji, granthi or officiant, travel and honorarium | $2,000 | $3,200 | $5,500 | You |
| Mehndi and sangeet, over and above the base package | $6,000 | $14,000 | $25,000 | You |
| Upgraded Indian, Jain or pure vegetarian catering, per person per event | $25 | $45 | $85 | You |
| DJ, dhol, sound and staging | $3,500 | $7,000 | $12,000 | You |
| Photography and cinematography, multi day | $6,000 | $11,000 | $18,000+ | You |
| Welcome bags, signage, printing, per guest | $15 | $25 | $40 | You |
| Airport transfers, per guest round trip | $20 | $35 | $70 | You or guest |
| Wedding and travel insurance | Roughly 5–8% of the insurable spend | You | ||
These are planning ranges, not quotes
Every figure above is a planning range drawn from typical South Asian wedding programmes in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Resorts price by date, room block size, food and beverage minimum and how much of the property you take over. Nothing here is a quote and nothing here is contractual. A real number requires a real date and a real headcount.
On most South Asian weddings, décor is the single largest host line item and the one with the widest range. A locally fabricated mandap with regional florals sits at the bottom of the range. Flying in a designer and shipping structures from India or Toronto sits at the top, and adds customs handling on both ends.
Resorts charge a fee for every non in house vendor you bring on property. Bring an outside planner, décor company, photographer, DJ and makeup artist and you are paying five separate fees. This is negotiable at contract stage and almost never afterwards.
Per person catering upgrades look modest until you multiply by guests and then by events. At $45 per person across three catered events for 150 guests, that is roughly $20,000 on its own. Ask for pricing per event, never per wedding.
Room blocks carry attrition: if you contract 60 rooms and fill 45, you may owe on the difference. Contracting conservatively and adding rooms later is almost always cheaper than contracting optimistically.
Most resorts release complimentary room nights against contracted volume, often on a ratio in the region of one free night per fifteen to twenty paid. Those comps can cover the couple, both sets of parents and the officiant.
Mexican IVA, Dominican ITBIS, service charges and card conversion fees sit on top of most quoted vendor pricing. Build a contingency of 10% and you will use most of it.
Each of these is small. Together they routinely add eight to twelve thousand dollars to a 150 guest wedding.
Send us your date range, rough headcount, the events you want and the two or three destinations you are considering. We will come back with resort options costed the same way this worksheet is laid out, so you can compare them line for line instead of comparing brochures.
