Large wedding with $15,000 maximum budget - any tips or advice to share?

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Sounds like prison style service; plop plop sit down.

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You guys are too much! Got me laughing while trying to schedule my patients this morning. Loving those cat memes.

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Cheap catering is not as shocking as everyone is making it out to be. Especially if you found your own outside caterer, it is really easy to keep it cost-efficient. It sounds like you already figured out invites, but if you want another option I printed mine from Vistaprint. My cost was around $400 for 200 invites (including envelopes, postage, rsvp, directions card, etc.). Skip the programs. Are you planning on any signage?

My budget is $15,000 and my guest list is only 140. Good luck.

Change your avatar!!

Also, for any wedding related thing I buy, I always compare the price with Amazon! Amazon 99% of the time will have a better price.

Cheap catering is cheap catering.

Haha - the cat memes totally take the cake on food discussion for sure. As far as baking all the goodies, it's a family tradition making desserts for the wedding reception and one my family offered to help with from the start.

The tent sizing is for 600 people which will be more than enough for everyone plus a dance floor space.

Some of the details, such as the buffet set-up and how many of those, is being ironed out - the numbers and jokes certainly make this process a little easier, so thanks for the laughs. I appreciate the feedback on having the 10 lines and am looking at a set-up that is conducive to the size. An open bar is out of the question, but we are looking at offering a special selection of beer and wine that are favorites...of course not added to the catering costs, but we are still under budget.

I posted knowing that I can't be the only bride out there with a similar budget and a higher guest list than usual even if it's not the same number that I have. So far, some have offered good suggestions (such as buying flowers from a local grower and not having flowers as the main part of the centerpieces) that I'm looking to implement. I don't have everything figured out and know that there are valuable tips this community can share.

Not necessarily! I can't tell you how many weddings that I have been to where the cost was over $30 a person and I was served dry chicken and potatoes. I am paying about half that price and having a "taco man" - someone who comes and makes the food fresh in front of you. Cheap catering doesn't mean that it is bad food. Maybe it means that you aren't paying a hotel to jack up the prices for crappy food that has been sitting in a room for the past hour.

True - and the caterer we have is a local established business who makes their food fresh and from scratch. The "taco man" idea sounds like a fun addition to your wedding, G! We are able to save on food costs because the venue allows us to bring in our own caterer and no minimum purchase required, discount with the large number of people, and going with a simple spread of food, but still delicious. When it comes to good food, you don't have to serve prime rib and steak for people to enjoy it.

Thanks for the website links and vistprint ideas. I'll definitely check them out. G - did you use the traditional RSVP of a card and envelope or postcard or did you go with a digital one (email or website-based)?

You have to admit, she's the first not to get butthurt when a meme war erupts.

^^^^

True dat.

I still find this unbelievable. $5k for ~500 you are looking between $10-12.50 pp. this does not include gratuity. I would imagine 10 stations would raise the cost to $15 pp. Tents for 600 people are around $****. Ok for food with gratuity you are looking at $6400, tent with tax and setup/tear down you are pushing $4k. That puts you over $10k. What about dishware, lighting, invitations, photography, decor? In all seriousness this does not sound remotely feasible.