Average Cost for Catholic wedding with 60-100 guests?

Your biggest costs by far will be food and drink (and associated items and staffing). You can't feed 60-100 people a hot meal on that budget, but you could do a lovely cake and punch reception (very traditional!) And FYI, don't suggest potluck or self-catering. We're grumpy about them because we're soooooo tired of explaining why they're an awful idea.

What does it being a Catholic wedding have to do with cost?

And yeah, $4,000 is a bit low for that many people. Of course, it depends on where you are. I talked to a girl on here today who said venues charged $11-$15 per person in her area. WHAT. So really, anything's possible.

With that budget for that many guests, I think the only way you could pull it off is if you did a cake and punch reception

Usually Catholic weddings don't cost as much as if you were going to have it in a popular venue. A lot of Caholic churches that I've heard of charge $100 or less for parishioners. I want the wedding to be around 11 am, and the reception around 1pm. Do you think it would cut cost since it'll be around lunch time instead of dinner? What do you think an average cost would be for 60 people? We're think maybe some Horderves. A friend of mine had a country wedding in a nice barn type place and it was pretty laid back and very nice. They had sweet tea and punch and some light appetizers. Do you think maybe BBQ would be cheaper since its usually made in large quantities anyway?

The problem isn't the cost of the food itself. It's the cost of the linens, place settings, staff time and equipment you need to heat, cool and serve food, set up and clean up. Ditto for bar staff. Also, unfortunately hors d'oeuvres cost as much or more than an inexpensive buffet, because they're more labor-intensive. You could maybe do boxed lunches, or if the reception hall already has banquet equipment, furniture, tablecloths, played etc get a restaurant to bring in trays of food and hire a couple of servers through a staffing company. Mostly what you need is hard info from the church about what you'll need (they should know from past weddings) and local vendors. Do keep other expenses in mind, like rings, photographer, basic organizational stuff like table numbers, etc.

My church's reception hall has a big kitchen like area off to the side because they have a lot of church receptions and usually cook in their. There are already tables and chairs available so I would just have to get linens and place settings for them. I really liked the idea of a dessert bar but my fiance is lactose intolerant and hates chocolate so thats a no go... I did find a place that charged 15-20$ per person so I emailed them. Do you think it would be less expensive to have the place just deliver rather than full service catering? Do you think a breakfast/ lunch idea would be lame?

Moving your wedding to an off-season month would help as well. June is a big month for weddings so vendors charge more.

Yes this is true. The only thing is that I'm still in school so summer - September is the best time for me. My fiance is in the military and also deploys close to winter that year. Do you think it's rude to ask friends for services?Im thinking about asking A family friend whos a professional photography to take some pictures. I've read arguments to both sides. Some people so no you shouldn't work friends on your wedding but other people say it helps because most of the time you get a discount

15-20 pp plus service charge (an extra 20%) and tax. Everything has hidden fees. "Just" plates and stuff (and delivery fees) will be a LOT of money by the time you're done, often another $5-10pp. That puts you at about $40 pp before drinks or bartenders.

Skip hors d'oeuvres because it's not an evening event. Get a restaurant to cater a buffet (Italian or BBQ are affordable options) and by not using a regular catering company you'll avoid the exorbitant service charges.

Hire a few servers to man the buffet station, bartend, and serve wedding cake later.

Do wine and beer (and optional signature cocktail or punch) instead of full bar to reduce costs.

Do an ipod playlist instead of a DJ.

DIY your decor

I'd agree with the others here that food is going to be your real difficultly. But if you do everything else yourself (and go without a crazy wedding cake) it could be done if you got a reasonable catering pack and rented out a nice local hall or similar.

I'd try push for an extra $1k to bring your budget up to $5k though given your wedding date I'm sure you can do it!

A breakfast, lunch or brunch reception is not lame. I'm having a lunch reception and many others on here are having brunch or lunch weddings. If your wedding is at a meal time, then you must serve a meal. Cheaper catering options include BBQ, food from a favorite restaurant or catering from a grocery store. Just make sure to hire servers if the cater doesn't provide them.

Honestly no one can tell you how much your wedding will cost or what the average is. Price varies a lot by location and what you want.

$4000 for 60-100 people is not a lot. Chances are you will need to cut the guest list in order to properly host your guests. Some ways to cuts costs are skip STDs, skip favors, skip programs, skip limos and other fancy transportation. Also have a small BP or no wedding party at all. That cuts down on buying gifts and your floral budget.

That's an impossible question; "how much does a car cost"?

You can cut your list. Everyone can cut their list, and if you really wanted 30 people, that's the number you have. If that's what you can afford, that is what you have.

@Jennifer; the 'exorbitant' service fees are usually the salaries for the staff. Off premise catering staff gets paid 15-25.00 per person per hour depending on the area and their expertise. And you still need them, no matter where the food comes from.

Don't make your friends work.

Check with your church to see if the "church ladies" would do set up, serving, and clean up in exchange for a donation to the church.

Check with your church to see if the "church ladies" would do set up, serving, and clean up in exchange for a donation to the church.

Also, just because your fiance can't do lactose or chocolate, that's no reason to deny it to your guests! You could totally do a desert bar and include options for him. There are plenty of flavors besides chocolate, and baskets who b make lactose-free desserts.

A fundamental truth: When you have a set budget, the more people you invite the cheaper your wedding becomes. Your food is cheaper, your invitations are cheaper, your attire is cheaper; everything is cheaper. Now, don’t get me wrong. You can find and buy inexpensive items that can be made just as beautiful as an expensive item. But the more people you invite the more stretched your budget becomes and the more you have to settle. You can DIY a lot of things. I did because I love to DIY, but if you want your DIY to look nice it doesn’t always mean cheaper.

My advice is: don’t try to “stretch” your budget to accommodate as many people as you can….60-100 guests. With everything that you choose, make it nice and memorable for your guests as well as yourself.

For a budget of $4000 I would stay with a guest list of 30-35 people.

Have really nice catering that will have your guests walking away saying the food was phenomenal.

Have a dessert table with a small 2-tier cake and several other dessert options like cookies.

Send out pretty invitations.

Make sure you have that pretty dress, shoes, veil, bouquet; whatever you want.

Like I said, it doesn’t have to be expensive but don’t settle.

I hate when the occasional bride says they really don’t care about invitations or the veil so they bought cheap. Care about everything.

We were originally going to have 25 guests but I have some family that I use to be close with but they have been very unsupportive during this whole process so I don't want to invite them but that just feels kind of wrong to me. I was originally born in another country and came here when I was young. The only family I have here except my immediate is my aunts family including here 3 daughters who all have families themselves. Just my family and there's combined is 20 people..

Also except for flowers/ centerpiece a and invites is there anything thing else I can DIY?