There are two ways to plan a wedding: hire a venue that handles most of it, or hire a venue and assemble the rest of the team yourself. The first is “all-inclusive.” The second is sometimes called “a la carte” or, somewhat misleadingly, DIY. Industry articles tend to argue one is obviously better. The honest answer is they suit different couples, and the deciding factor is rarely cost. Here’s the real comparison.
What “all-inclusive” actually includes.
The term is used loosely. At its strongest, all-inclusive means one contract that bundles the venue, catering, bar, planning, on-site coordination, in-season florals, basic decor, and often lodging. At its weakest, “all-inclusive” means the venue plus their preferred-vendor list, with each vendor still contracted separately.
Before you compare an all-inclusive package to a la carte planning, get the line-item list. Ask explicitly:
- Is catering and bar in the contract, or separately quoted?
- Is on-site coordination day-of included, or just “venue support”?
- Are florals included, and if so, what’s the actual scope (ceremony arch only? centerpieces? bouquets?)
- Is lodging for the wedding party included or extra?
- What’s explicitly not included? (Most lists are honest about this if you ask.)
The cost comparison — honestly.
For a similar quality of wedding, all-inclusive and a la carte tend to land in the same total cost range. The total spend doesn’t change much; what changes is who’s assembling the team. The myth that all-inclusive is automatically more expensive comes from comparing an all-inclusive package to an a la carte plan that’s missing line items.
For a hundred-guest wedding in Virginia, both approaches typically land in the $35,000–$80,000 range depending on what you choose. The cost level is set by your decisions about food, photography, florals, and guest count — not by which planning model you use.
Where all-inclusive does sometimes save money: bundle pricing on catering plus venue, in-season florals because the venue’s designer is sourcing locally, and reduced day-of overruns because one team is handling logistics. Where it sometimes costs more: if you’d otherwise have negotiated harder with individual vendors than the venue does.
The time comparison.
This is where the difference is real.
Planning a wedding a la carte involves managing eight to twelve separate vendor relationships from booking through wedding week. Each vendor requires: a tour or consultation, a contract negotiation, a deposit, a tasting or sample session, a final headcount, day-of coordination, and a payment cycle. The cumulative hours for a couple planning at this level typically run 200–400 over the year leading up to the wedding.
Planning a wedding all-inclusive typically involves: the initial Vision Session, the booking contract, a design meeting, a tasting, a planning check-in or two, and a final-detail walkthrough. Couples we work with at Zion Springs tend to spend 40–80 hours total on planning over the same year.
The honest question isn’t which approach costs less — it’s how much of your time over the next twelve months you want spent on this.
Temperament — the actual deciding factor.
Most couples self-select correctly when they think about how they like to make decisions. A short diagnostic:
All-inclusive tends to fit if:
- You have a clear sense of the feeling you want, but not strong opinions about every vendor
- You’d rather make eight big decisions than eighty small ones
- You’re planning from out of state, or your weekday hours are already accounted for
- You’d describe yourself as “decisive” more than “detail-oriented”
- You want one number for the budget rather than a dozen line-items to track
A la carte tends to fit if:
- You have strong, specific opinions about photographer, florist, or caterer that you’d miss the chance to control
- You actively enjoy the planning — the research, the comparing, the negotiating
- You have time, and a clear personal vision you want to drive the team toward
- You have a friend or family member who’s genuinely planning-experienced who’ll be part of the process
- You’re planning under a constrained budget that requires creative trade-offs vendor by vendor
What we won’t say.
We’re an all-inclusive venue. There’s a version of this article we could write that argues a la carte is exhausting and stressful. We’ve seen plenty of a la carte weddings come together beautifully, with couples who genuinely enjoyed the process and ended up with something more personal than any package could have produced. They’re different paths. Choose based on the temperament fit, not the marketing language.
The one trade you can’t reverse.
The decision between all-inclusive and a la carte usually has to be made early — ideally at the venue-shortlisting stage. Once you’ve booked an a la carte venue, you’ll be assembling the team yourself by default; once you’ve booked all-inclusive, the bundled team is the team. Either is fine. Just don’t book without having had this conversation.