150 guest with a tight budget

@kentuckywinebride were you able to get discounts on most of your vendors because you did a Sunday wedding? We didn't mean to do Sunday, it was just when we were able to venue.

@Marissa oh yes big time! Our DJ was normally $1200 and we got him for $600. Our venue was normally $3000 and was only $1200 for a Sunday in November. The time of year helped too. We were more toward end of season so vendors were willing to give us deals. We hit a lot of bridal shows too.

Seriously, cut the guest list. We're paying over $10,000 for 50 guests. Granted, we're having a lot of unnecessary things like videography, photo booth, hot chocolate bar and limo, but the cost of all those things combined don't come close to the cost of the buffet and open bar.

When I first started planning my wedding I set my budget for 15,000 my venue alone is 15,303 for 110 guest (which I'm almost done paying for) now I can focus on paying off the vendors!!!

This is going to be hard. I'm 60 guests and we're estimating 12k. And our venue is where fh works so we're getting huge discounts.

Last wedding I went to was in south Florida, Sunday brunch at a hotel with a courtyard for the ceremony (quite pretty), a cocktail hour, open bar, 60 guests, and I know it was about 6000. It's doable, 150 makes it incredibly hard and bare bones, 100 is better, 50-70 is way better. It just depends on what OP's priorities are. It's not an inexpensive area, but it's not Chicago/New York/Jersey/San Francisco either.

@bee no we are having it professionally catered it's only 11.95 a person

I found an all inclusive venue which includes catering, DOC, decor, officiant, and silk flowers for 100 people is 5000. Try to find an all inclusive venue if you can. ETA I live in South Texas so the prices here are probably cheaper than where you live.

It really depends on where you are located. I'm finding that weddings in my town are really not all that expensive. I'm looking at $80/hr for photography, $1000 for the venue, $150 for the cake, $10.70 pp for catering... An hour away it would be three times that.

@Thefuturemrstaylor where are you at that a venue costs that much? I'm in shock!

Shorten your guest list

Hialeah has a lot of reception venue that includes reasonable packages.

My budget was so tight, we eloped.

One thing we did to save costs was to rent the community center on a Sunday. It's a beautiful venue, and the rental fee dropped my half (its less than $1000). But I agree with PP, the way we've saved the most money is by cutting guests.

@Samantha most people don't want to get married in Hialeah unless they are Cuban lol

Just to compare, I'm getting married in Destin, FL in July. We will have 25-40 guests and are spending around $8000. My dress was $80, our photographer was a steal at $350, officiant is around $300. The biggest expenses are food ($40-50 a head, and that was one of the cheapest prices I found, plus around $800 for an open bar) and location (ceremony and reception location is $2000 total).

I cant imagine properly hosting 150 on a 10k budget? We have a guest list of only 75 (intentionally for this reason) and I'm over 10k for just our venue, food and alcohol....then there's our attire, decor, rings and many other added expenses to consider. As previous posters said it's best to start w cutting the guest to only very nearest and dearest or else you risk not offering the best experience to your guests which is the main goal (along with marrying our sweethearts of course!) Good luck and let us know how it goes. :+)

Sheesh. It's crazy how different the location can change your budget. I'm getting married in Rensselaer Indiana and for our budget is 5k which we probably will go over a little but not that much. I'm making our centerpieces, and using the place i work at for food so I get a 10% discount. I think the food will cost about 700. My best advice would be to talk to everyone you know to see if they know people. Like my friend hooked me up with her minister and are only paying 100, and a friend of a friend is going to be our dj for 500.

My catering alone is probably going to be close to your whole budget for that many people. Cut the guest list like others have said

@Lesley where are you getting married at?! I'm an Austin bride too!

Cutting the guest list will help you save the most.