So confused!

I've never read anywhere that you host a wedding and make guests pay for their meals. Please don't do this. Like Kelly said, elope or save up money to cover everyone's meal and drinks.

It's rude to ask someone to travel to your wedding then invite them to dinner after to pay for themselves. Have you sent save the dates or invitations? If not, just go with your FS and get married, or with as many guests as you can afford to feed after. If you have sent invites, I would seriously start saving so that you can properly host a meal for your guests.

Ok, so heres 4 inexpensive ideas that could work because you definitely want to host some type of food if youre having guests come from out of town. But without giving us your budget, its hard to give too many options.

1. See if your venue will let you hire a food truck. I had a friend do this and they saved LOADS of $$. I think it came to $300-400 to feed 100 ppl. So if you found an affordable food truck it could be half that. If you wont have seating, see if you can get a food truck that has like, food that can be eaten by hand or provides plates & utensils. Or you can buy nice looking plates and plastic flatware from the dollar store

2. See if you can reserve a ramada or outdoor space at a local really nice park. You could even research vendors on here that will let you rent out tables, chairs and linens for the low if you dont want to use park ramada benches. Then get a place to cater for cheap. Mexican food is always really inexpensive along with some BBQ. You could even call around to local pizza parlors that serve flat dish pizza or other food places to see if they'll cater and deliver for cheap. Many eateries will cater 50 ppl for around $150.

3. Serve brunch instead of dinner food. Park idea or inexpensive venue that you can reserve...then buy Brunch type food from costco or sams club. Many venues offer pretty discounted rental fees for around $20-50/hr to host a "rehearsal dinner".Just tell them its for a rehearsal dinner and it would probably be a lot cheaper.

4. Reserve 2 tables under separate reservations using the open table app. Call ahead of time and see how much the restaurant charges for appetizers. then, just pay for appetizers for your guests. Olive garden, Buca Di Bepo etc are pretty reasonable.

What did your invitation say? If people are travelling to Reno for a ceremony only, it should be clearly stated on the invite. I would hope there would be no hard feelings if they are fully aware that they are making the 7 hour trip just for a 30 minute event. But that would mean they aren't invited to any type of cocktail party, dinner, or any small celebration afterwards. If you did invite them for a reception to follow, you have to provide the food. I agree with other posters, this could be appetizers and cake only if its in between meal times. Most likely for 50 people this would run you $1,500 with tax and tip. If I were you, I would find a casino buffet. I know that sounds crazy, but we had my brother's reception at a local casino here in California and it was wonderful. We paid, in advanced, for the entire group, so there is no bill and no surprises at the end. This can definitely help with keeping in the budget.

Shannon, please tell me where you can find a food truck/restaurant that will cater for less than $4 per meal! I've been researching for months for inexpensive catering and the least expensive I've come across is $30 (tacos). It might just be where I live, California, but a soft drink at any restaurant will run you $3.75 + tax and tip around here. I need to know where these places exist! Thanks in advanced for sharing.

Agree with others that if you can't afford to host people, you should not invite them. I doubt there are many people that when receiving a wedding invitation would expect that they would need to pay for their own post-ceremony meal/reception refreshments. They will already be paying $$ to travel, for accommodations, potentially for a gift, etc.; typically an invitation to a wedding includes the ceremony and some sort of reception/meal afterward. If you can't afford to do that, then, as others have suggested, you might want to elope or have a "micro wedding" with the number of people you can afford to host.

Hey Cassie, I'm also from Reno and congrats on your wedding! Have you thought about possibly ordering catered food from like Qdoba or possibly even a local restaurant? Sometimes businesses are willing to give you a discount if you mention you're a local or it's for your wedding. This might be a lot of effort on your part too but maybe more economical if you reserved a space outdoors or at a park and brought your own food buffet potluck style?

Don't worry what other's think. you do what works for you and have a great day.

Lol I live in AZ so its much cheaper for mexican food etc. here than elsewhere...but to put it in perspective, even chain restaurants arent as expensive as you'd think. Subway costs about $5 pp and doesnt charge a ridiculous delivery fee. Chick fil a & jimmy johns is about $5-$6 pp. Olive garden is $12.50 pp but will do $10pp...These arent the fanciest options but if you choose a local restaurant you'd be surprised how cheap it is. I just did an event for about 50 ppl and subway charged me about $250 and we picked the food up. Plus, the OP never said her budget. So, with even chain restaurants, youre talking $250-700. If this is too expensive then as the other commenters have said, maybe she should invite less ppl or inlist help from family

It is rude but if this is what you need to do just make sure to let your guests know ahead of time that they will be responsible for the cost of their meals. I would recommend just doing the cake and punch reception at a lodge or park where there isn't a rental fee. If you are going that route of course make sure it is not at a meal time!

I would find it very rude. Consider just doing appetizers and desserts.