Budget determines how many people???

Everyone is suggesting things I never really thought about.. I only been to one wedding and I was 10 lol. So I'm so confused about planning and budgeting weddingwire has really helped me a LOT.....

Don't forget to include any taxes and tips in your budget! That's a common thing people forget to account for in their budgets and are surprised when they have to pay an extra $500-$1000 for tips and taxes at the end.

For 80 guests and 20 kids my venue and catering came to 14.000 ... but when you add everything else in the mix my budget is 25k ...

@AwkwardToBe I definitely forgot about taxes and tips and didn't think it would come up to be that much.. duly noted.

Yeah. My catering didn't include the taxes and gratuity in the estimate, but they add the 5% sales tax and 18% gratuity at the end. For the amount of food I'm having, that's almost an extra $1500 that wasn't accounted for in the original budget.

Budget comes first, but the guest list is by far the biggest factor and chunk of your wedding budget!

You can use your desired guest list count to help you estimate total costs. Per person catering charges are going to vary a lot, but it's easy to make some ballpark estimates. To give you a super quick budget glance, I'd go with 80 guest x $100pp food and booze guess = estimated 8k catering costs. Keeping in mind your specific venue and catering situation and any other additional costs, catering plus venues normally accounts for around 40% of your total wedding budget.

So if you can find $100pp food and booze for 80 guests, a total budget "guess-timate" would be 20k.

You can also look at the higher and lower ends of the spectrum, by making "guess-timates" based on $150pp catering quotes (14k total budget) and the lowest catering quotes you've been able to find (to be safe I'll go with $70pp which means a 30k total budget).

Take a look through the WeddingWire Budget Guide for more help with figuring out your budget and reasonable costs!

6 Reasons Why A Bigger Guest List Means Spending More Money

This is so regional. In NY we spent $25k for the wedding and had 44 guests. Obviously it will be cheaper in other parts of the country.

We agreed on an approximate number of guests and then estimated how much it would cost to properly host all of them while also getting the "vibe" we were going for.

Figure out your maximum budget.

Then figure out the cost per guest and you will find out how many guests you can invite.

If you are finding it tight, you can then change some plans: change date, time of day of event, invite less guests, shop for sales when it comes to other non-guest items (dress, rentals, invitations etc).

And cost per guest is totally regional and depending on the type of event you want.

We started with a rough budget of what we could afford, and then made a guest list to determine how big of a venue we needed. we estimated about $100 per guest. after we subtracted the amount for the reception from our budget, we knew how much we could spend on other things like wedding gown, flowers, DJ, rings, hair/makeup etc. i found the wedding wire budget tool helpful, because it includes items i might have otherwise forgot about like gifts for wedding party or accommodations for the wedding night.

I'd plan on spending 1/2 your total budget on venue/food/drinks.

I first determined the feel and experience I wanted to offer my guest. I then visited venues which provided the experience I had in mind, then I calculated how many people I could afford to invite within my budget. Your budget will vary by location and they type of experience. For example, you can afford to invite 300 people to an elks club and only 100 to the four seasons.

Budget does more than just guest list. You have to take into account what you want for food and drinks, but also vendors.

I think budget and and guest list have to be determined and adjusted together. The same budget can cover 200 people or 50 people, in different ways and quality. Are you serving your guest BBQ style or seafood fest? Are you going with seasonal, inexpensive flowers or exotic flowers? Full service open bar or beer and wine pour service only?

You need to determine the type of wedding you want to have and the people you want to have there. Sometimes the two are not compatible and you have to either adjust the type your wedding vision or cut the guest list.

Some people rather have larger guests lists with more modest decoration, food, etc. and some (myself included) prefer a small guest list and being able to splurge in other areas.

I started by writing a guest list for a small wedding and a guest list for a larger wedding. At some point in guest list making, you'll notice a clear divide between those you couldn't imagine getting married without, and those that you would very much like to invite, but not $_,000 invite, And yes, yes, that's with a least 3 zeros because once you get out of immediate family, every individual guest comes with the following: [1] an extra plate for their SO/date and [2] everyone in that guests' circle PLUS their SO/date. To give an example, say you have 10 aunts and uncles who are biologically related to you in someway, and only 2 that you regularly see. To invite those 2, you have to invite their spouses (+2) and then often have to invite the other 8 (the circle) and THEN their spouses, your non-biologically related aunts and uncles for a total of 20 in order to invite 2. We then looked at 30 different venues and calculated the budget for both of these groups. Some venues we contacted we could cross out right away -$10,000 just to rent the venue, already booked, etc. etc.

After finding our range for both a big wedding and a small wedding, we decided whether it was worth having a bigger wedding. Keep in mind that a wedding of 10 and a wedding of 100 isn't just the extra food, its tables, chairs, entertainment, having a planner/coordinator, transportation, invites etc

We did ours the other way around. We knew how much we could spend (and put it in to a special savings account). I used to use the budgeter on another wedding site (think of what sailors like to do with rope!), but it wouldn't let me re-allocate funds to different areas if we didn't need them, as well as going over on some items. That's actually what got me here to WW - the ability to reallocate funds. Example - the budget said to spend $100 on rings - WRONG! Ours cost $900 for both of us. Also, budgeted funds for WP gifts - not needed, since we aren't having a WP - so the budget for that was reallocated to our rings, etc. For now, we're pretty much on-track. We will probably go over budget, since we're also paying for our honeymoon, and we may have more attendees than we realistically thought. Still, it's all good. I got my dress within budget, and flowers were WAY under budget, so I'm very happy!