5K Wedding for 50 people?

Totally doable~ Check out all inclusive venues & restaurants to save on venue fees. You'll also save by having an AM wedding or Fri/Sun PM.

Yeah I've emailed a few vendors I'm really interested in to get pricing based on different days. *fingers crossed*

It's very possible my budget was 10 for 200 guests. It's gone up a bit but when it's said and done I'm not going over 13. Here are the ways I saved money. First off my venues both the church and hall were pretty cheap and the hall allowed me to self cater. Do you belong to a church? If so do they have a large party room? My family is doing the cooking my aunts both have experience cooking for such events and they both have cooked for weddings. They will buy food in bulk.

Other ways: For your photographer if you can't afford a whole day fancy package just find some one who will just come for the ceremony and a posed pictures (about 2-3 hrs) and will give you the edited pics on a CD. Then you can make your own album at like kodak online or something. Less bridal party less flowers if you are creative check out bunchesdirect.com and do you flowers yourself. They also have made bouquets. For centerpieces use candles and get vases from dollartree.com

Check out these websites www.smartyhadaparty.com

Www.orientaltrading.com www.save-on-crafts.com also use eBay and craigslist.

It's definitely doable. Our budget is $7,500 for 250 people, but things cost less in my teeny tiny town than they do in the big city, so your location could affect how easy it is.

You can do it. we are having about 80ppl and are spending about $6500. But thats EVERYTHING..rings,hall,ceremony,flowers,dj,pics..everything. Talk to your family. See who knows people. We found our photographer from a girl I worked with. He gave us a $1500 package for only $550. My DJ I found on craigslist. He was orig. $600..so I was leary since it was fairly cheap for my area. But he invited us to one of his events and he was actually very good. we referred a few friends, and he knocked off $150. Another thing is centerpieces. Make your own! Vendors wanted upwards of $50 for centerpieces..I made mine (vase,large white candle, 3 small votives, and some vase filler) for about $10. If you have a Michaels near you, sign up for their email club. I get all sorts of great coupons that way! Lots of %50 off..which don't come in the paper ofter.

Thanks ladies!

Jessica how did you get your photographer to drop the price by so much?

Hmmmm.... i would say it is possible - of course that also depends on where you are geographically and what kind of wedding / reception you want to have...

you have started with some good ideas - - but with well over a year until your wedding, why not come up with the wedding you want and then see how to make it happen budgetwise with the time you have? does that make sense? i already wish i had done that to some degree.... my fiance picked our date (the day we met), and at the time it was about 14 months away.... "plenty of time" i thought... hhahahahaa.....

start getting quotes and making contacts with vendors... and don't forget to negotiate. just about everything is negotiable - f&b minimums, set up fees, package pricing.... it never hurts to ask and the worst thing they can say is no! )

Good luck and congratulations!!!

I had orig. told the photographer that I was sorry, but we just couldn't afford him. I told him that we had just bought a house, and that we were paying for the wedding ourselves. He then told me that he was shocked that at 21 years old, I was buying a house, and getting married. He wanted to help me. He asked what I could afford, and he said he would do it for that price. We did tweek the package a bit. Instead of a photo album (which costs $500) we are doing an engagement session. That really help the price. So we have him ALL day..literally..plus we get 100 prints of our choice between the e-pics and wedding day, and all our photos on a CD..with full copy rights. Since he is putting in many hours more than what he would normally do, we will be providing him with food.

Yeah I hear you Ashlee, we'd just rather spend money on our life together rather than on the wedding, which only lasts a day. We plan to move to the other side of the world pretty soon after our wedding as well.

The only thing that's really putting me over budget right now is the photographer. The one I want happens to be a friend so maybe he'll cut us a deal or we can create the package we want for a price we want.

Also waiting to see cost of venues.

Tell him what u want, let him give you a price. If it's out of reach..then tell him what you can afford and customize it to fit your needs.

You could also try doing the wedding on a Sunday or Friday night generally a lot of venues offer a discount.

HI I am new to WW but I am planning something similar and I stumbles across http://www.cheap-wedding-success.co.uk/wedding-under-5000.html

It has many helpful ideas.

goodluck!

Thanks Kiersten, though 5000 british pounds is much, much different than $5000 Canadian. I'll check it for ideas though.

We're aiming for 5k but with 100 people. Haven't officially booked anything yet, still researching. We're park/camping type of people, so that's our back up plan if we can't find a budget location (but then we'll factor in supplying utensils/plates/etc). My brother is EXTREMELY gifted musically, so his gift is probably ceremony music and we're going with an ipod for the reception. Sunday afternoon wedding - VERY CASUAL. If you want fancy fancy, it will obviously be more difficult.

Also - cake: we are just going to order a plain cake from our grocery store and that's that. We'll do a very small "wedding cake" to cut but everyone will eat the (delicious) affordable cake. Food and photos we are willing to spend money on. I am not a flower person anyway, so that was an easy cut.

I mean - VERY CASUAL, not everyone would want what we want... but that's why it's your money, your wedding

It can definitely be done! We are doing a wedding for 160people for under $3,000. It will take alot of DIY projects!

Like stacy suggested, the day and even time of day can make a huge difference... one of the locations i was considering was a $10,000 minimum for my date (a saturday)... but the same space on the next day (sunday) was a $5,000 minimum... so i mean it can make a huuuuge difference!

where do you live / where is the wedding??

That's totally doable. What you already have in mind will definitely cut cost. You can do a lunch time wedding, lunch foods are a lot cheaper then dinner foods; you could do a cup cake tower with a small cake added to it. Depending on where you live, and if weather permits, you could have the ceremony and reception outside at a park.

It's do able.. A lot of DIY will help

So far, my budget is going to come out just over 3,000 and that's for 100 guests.

I'm a bargain shopper and look for deals on things.

I got my venue for $600, my dress for $500, my invites for about $28.

Made my bridesmaids bouquets for $25.

The thing that is costing me the most is the catering.