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

We wanted all of our friends and family at our wedding. Well the majority, we are still leaving some out but our guest list is at 435. We aren't paying for alcohol other than champagne toast and maybe 2 kegs. I'd much rather invite another family member or close friend than to cut them just to pay for other peoples drinks for the night. There will be water, tea, lemonade, and coffee. So it's not like they won't have anything to drink.

I was at a wedding here in Minnesota 2 years ago and they had a TASTY broasted chicken dinner and it was seriously delish for $8.00/pp. It was 100 miles out of the city, and was held lakeside, under a rented tent that cost $500. So, Celia my friend whom I usually agree with, cheap cater does not mean cheap caterering/food. Im having an appetizer bar with two proteins, veggies, breads, and a pepper tray (Im Italian), a sit down, plated, meal of filet Mignon or grilled walleye, baked potatoes, fresh grilled green beans, bread and relish, cake for desert, the private room, coffee, tea, and milk, set up and break down for $27pp in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Although we pay really high state tax here, apparently our wedding bucks CAN go farther. Now, Im not saying you cant spend 50k on a wedding here, but you dont HAVE to....even if you serve "real food" on "real plates".She's in Indiana.....outside of the city. Its going to be tight, but she can probably pull it off for close to 15k if she trys.

I had a card that said "RSVP" and then the web address for our wedding website. We are using app.ewedding.com and there is an easy to use RSVP option! A lot of times people are worried about the older people not knowing how to use the website, but we haven't had any problems so far. Even my grandparents were able to use it without any assistance!

Are you having alcohol?

That's my budget for less than 100 people. I don't know what to say other than good luck

And i think a lot of posters are having sticker shock based on areas they come from, my venue has a package that cost $19880 for 200 people, with flowers, officiant, housing for 70 guests, food, dessert, centerpieces, photography, 3 bouquets, 3 bouts, ceremony and reception sites, chairs, tables, food, DJ, etc... that being said i dont think 15k for 400+ is that practical (because my booze budget was about 10k) but if you can find a good place there are some good deals

To answer the tent question: 40x140' white cathedral tent for 400 guests in MN cost me $1900

Another tip for flowers is to try and get them at a wholesale warehouse! I saved literally thousands of dollars by doing that.

My bar bill for 150 was more than half this budget. I remain skeptical

FH had a strict budget but after looking into vendors and friendors we are still $5-6k above budget and thats with the basics! 170ppl invited. Im assuming 150-160 attend. So it will lower it back down but holy cow. Weddings are expensive. If you can pull it off, more power to you!

1. I'm with Celia: Cut down the guest list - if you have anyone on the list that you have never met before, or talked to on the phone in the last year, they go first. If your parents are each 1 of 10 kids, that means you've got 40 first-order relatives, and if all of them have 5 kids each, you're still just at 200. You should be concerned with giving people who do attend the best experience, because they are spending time and money to attend.

2. Skip mani/pedi and professional makeup. Find a hairstyle you can do yourself, or that your regular hair stylist can do, that you just add some decorations to. This should save you $300-500.

3. Shoes: Beachcombers Indian Khussa beaded bridal flats are $38 and are STUNNING white or ivory silk. For fun, there's also "something blue", a dusty blue color.

4. Jewelry: Icing or Claires or Charming Charlie will have bargain-priced jewelry that you can wear once and toss.

5. Dress: I bought a white Bridesmaid's dress for $230 from Alfred Angelo Bridal, where nearly every BM dress comes in white and ivory. I added $15 piece of chantilly lace to the top, but it wasn't necessary. The dress was too long, so instead of hemming all around the seamstress left it longer in the back, creating a mini-sweep train for free Alterations were ~$100.

6. DJ: there are a lot of DJs who play smaller clubs in towns and cities, who do that as a second job. They likely will be free on a weekend day - they also will be familiar and comfortable with setting up a playlists, and might work much cheaper than a wedding DJ. Alternately, pay a DJ to create a beat-mixed dinner and reception CD set for you, which might run a few hundred dollars, but you can pop it in and let it play through dinner, and swap for the reception. Designate a bridal party member to be the 'honorary DJ' for the night, to make the CD switch when needed, and stop it for any speeches.

7. All white linens are cheaper than colors.

8. Buy your flowers wholesale, if you can find a distributor who sells to the public, and choose wildflowers that are the cheapest ones available in season the week of your wedding. Big flowers are expensive; skip in favor of bunches of greens for filler and small delicate flowers like chamomile which look like mini daisies, make beautiful spring bouquets. white daisies are also relatively inexpensive and perfect for spring.

9. Cut down the guest list. You will not even get to see everyone with that many people. I know - my friend is Indian, and she had 450, and she didn't see more than 50-80 people. The rest never got to even hug her. It was ridiculous, and she hated it. If you make a list that has more people than your can afford and your parents push back, they are welcome to pay for the additional people to participate - but remember to factor in not just the meal, but also alcohol, place settings/linens and table costs, which typically will nearly double the per-person cost.

You've got a bit of time and I've posted this before, but here it is again, my DIY video for pocket invites. Be sure you count how many you need and not how many guests you have! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEWd-6EIZlc

The tent (60x120) is around $1800, but since I'm also getting the chairs, tables, and dance floor from the same company, I am able to work out a discount and the entire cost includes set-up and tear down for the tent and dance floor, and delivery and pick-up for all items.

Depending on final costs, we might have alcohol, but it'd be limited to beer and wine which, since buying a large amount, is looking to be discounted as well with what my vendors have told me. Because no hard alcohol is being served, we save on having bartenders and specialty licensing. Alcohol is a "bonus" item for us if we have enough wiggle room in the budget after paying for the items we need (venue, food, etc.). Plus, most of our crowd doesn't drink a lot, so we lucked out on that end.

The other major items we have yet to confirm/decide on is the DJ, invites, and decorations (most we are planning doing ourselves), which should leave more than enough to cover taxes and gratuities (definitely shouldn't exceed the approximately $4,500+ I still have left in the budget). I have a friend who is a hairstylist who said she'd do my hair at a discounted rate, am doing my own make-up (hello make-up tutorial videos...). Shoes are yet to be determined, but the tip is appreciated and I'll check it out! The high end of invites we are looking to order (sister designing them and buying our own paper in bulk and then printing at a local company) would be around $700 total, including postage.

Rebecca - thank you for the detailed listing of items and tips. With my parents adding people, we were looking at close to 600 (which is completely out of consideration), but we were able to sit down with them and cut the list down to the approximated 450-475. Most likely around 400/425 will show up. Maybe I'll try another sit-down in a month or so and cut another 50, but that'd be really pushing it so I'm trying to work with what I've got and planning just in case everyone shows up. Kudos to you for such a great dress find!

Ladies, thanks for the laughs (cat memes rock!), tips, expressions of doubt, links, encouragement, and all that jazz

If you're at all savvy with graphic design, you can often save on invites by designing them yourself and printing them with a local print shop. Vista print and exclusively weddings have cheap invites too. I went local and spent $133 for 120 invitations, envelopes printed with return address, reply postcards and reception cards.

ETA: I just saw that you addressed that in your last comment. I should learn how to read.

Personally, I'm impressed with your planning so far and wish you lots of luck. While some would say you should never expect family to put so much work into your wedding, there are families and even communities out there that will really pull together to make a celebration happen.

I am wedding for 160-180 people. Half of the budget is from the photographer, food and alcohol. For my food and alcohol I am over budgeting. So with that it's possible. You get a hell of a deal when you have more numbers.

That is gonna be a tough one .. we booked our wedding with Wedgewood Weddings and Banquets they were the best prices we could find that had package deals . Our wedding is only going to have 75 people but I know the food is around 6,500 so for 400 + people your going to be looking at a lot ... have u considered having the wedding in someone's backyard or at a church? That might be one way to cut back on expenses, and your best bet for food if your trying to feed that many people on that low of budget would probably be bbq , I've seen a lot of cute weddings that have been done like this for resonable prices ... good luck! =)

Would love to know how this all turned out!!!