In-between an Elopement and Big Wedding?

You could definitely do something that's more of a backyard or park vibe. Depending on how you decorate you can make it look classy for sure. One thing to keep in mind though, is that food/drinks for 150 people is expensive. You can only cut costs so much with a guest list that big.

For example, our food cost is going to be around $5,000 for 150 people, and somewhere between $1,000-2,000 for an open bar. Our flowers are going to be less than $2,000 and the cake will be below $1,000 for sure. So cutting flowers and a cake for us is cutting maybe $3,000, but we still are going to have $6,000-7,000 in food/drinks because of the amount of people. Obviously if you can find cheaper things than that the cost won't be the same as ours, but the number of guests really adds up!

I had a small backyard wedding. 50 people total (including me and my husband). Most of my flowers were fake (but it still looked beautiful in pictures, purchased on Ling's Moments on Amazon). The only real ones were my husband's boutonniere and my bouquet. It cost about $130 together I think.

Drinks cost around $500 (the majority of our guests liked to drink).

Dress $600 (you can go online on Azazie or Lulu's for cheaper alternatives starting at $89 and up)

You can rent tux to save, especially if the guys don't plan on wearing them again.

We did a taco truck so that cost around $500.

For the cake, my husband's aunt and her daughter made it for us.

We rented tables, chairs, linen cloths, an arch, dance floor, speakers, heaters, and a bar. I think my husband spent around $1,000? Maybe it was closer to $2,000 but definitely no more than that.

Photographer (8 hours) - $1,300

No videographer

In total for everything (even those not listed) we spent about $8,000. We definitely wanted to save as much as we could because we wanted to put stuff towards our honeymoon, and future projects around the house.

We we’re running into the same situation but decided to plan our wedding in our honeymoon destination and invite people instead. The prices for venues alone were running 6500 and up and we didn’t want to be out of two much. We plan on getting married on the beach in Hawaii and having a dinner reception at a restaurant for those who can make it. Everything will work out. Good luck!!