DIY budget friendly wedding reception venues

From someone who rented Boston vendors, that seems impossible. I got married in southern NH and it was pretty expensive still

Cut your guest list, get an awesome officiant, and take 20 of your nearest and dearest out to brunch.

Can you have a cake and punch reception? I know it may not be ideal or what you envisioned, but it would be in the realm of possibilities with your budget and guest count.

That seems like a very difficult task, to properly host 100-150 on a $5000 budget. In western PA, our venue and food was $6000 alone.

Will you consider a place toward Cape Cod? I had my wedding at Salerno's in Onset, and it was a total dream come true. They're very mom-and-pop, so you won't get much from their website or social media, but the venue coordinator Nicole is AMAZING. If you picked a $20 entree (with salad, rolls and water), you could feed 150 people for $3000 and still have enough for your dress, tux and some sort of beverage package. We got married on the Cape Cod Canal, but there's an area behind Salerno's you could also use.

If you call them, tell her Kyle Greene/West sent you. She's really, really great to work with!

http://www.salernosfunctions.com

A few photos of our wedding: http://www.maweddingguide.com/Realwedding_Details.aspx?id=26

I second that you consider moving your date to the off season. We moved ours to November and are saving literal thousands by doing so.

Look outside the city. Like an hour drive or so from the farthest end of Boston and you will find prices will be less. Also nothing wrong with a dry wedding. We are not having alcohol at our wedding because my husband can't drink, and I don't drink. None of our guests ( my fiance told many of his friends about this to prepare them and none of them cared). Also once we found our venue, they don't allow alcohol to be served on site.

We live in Sonoma County which has awful rates on rentals because it's popular for destination weddings / BUT they keep a free wedding planner on staff at the tourist board. I emailed her for help and she actually provided a few suggestions that fit our budget - mainly local community centers and parks (i.e. rent an entire picnic area for a private event). It worked! We had a guest limit of 50 but only ended up with half that, so you may want to make sure all your guests are for sure coming / that will help trim costs too.

Our budget was like half yours, so we had to prioritize what we really wanted to pay big bucks for and then let go on non-essentials.

If you're down for more bohemian suggestions my thoughts would be 1) pizza or pasta as cheap food options for a big crowd, or maybe rent a food truck 2) paper table covers - I bought a 200ft by 48" roll of white kraft paper from Walmart Online for $20, it covers a lot of tables 3) dollar store DIY ideas -- you can actually get a LOT of cheap craft supplies at the dollar store you just have to shop seasonally and often because their stock can be random.

Also when looking for vendors there are those who will work with your budget - I used Thumbtack to find a photographer we could afford / I also found a local seamstress who made a dress for an amazingly affordable price and would help me pick cheaper fabrics if I needed to save money.

....Good luck