Budget Reception - Need Advice

Have you tried any places that may be cheaper? City parks? Barns? VFW? Hotels and restaurants want you to use their supplies which gets costly! Best of luck!

It sounds like the best option would be to cut your guest list as $6,000 is only $50 a person which could be difficult especially if you want to include alcohol. Also, does that $6,000 include cake, DJ, photographer, linens, tables etc? I will say every venue we looked at had minimums for food and beverage. Our was $7,000 and we spent $80 per person after tax and gratuity.

By halls do you specifically mean halls that have catering included and pitch themselves as wedding venues? Because, as a PP suggested, renting something like a VFW or church hall will usually be a better "deal" because they usually don't have any associated catering. That opens up options for using other types of catering, even deli platters.

I would look into the non popular places because I am in Tampa Bay and the places that are not high in demand tend to have more affordable prices. I think the only way to have 120 guests and a reception is to rent a community ctr or some kind of event hall and cater our and find a place that may allow outside alcohol. Do not discount catering from your local grocery store with party trays, or doing catered BBQ, Italian or Mexican and I have seen some pizza buffet receptions that looked nice. Check Pinterest for budget friendly receptions. Price it out and see if you can afford 120. May I ask why Sunday is not an option? One cheaper option is to do a lunch or brunch reception which some places offer. A friend of mine did a church wedding at 11:30 and had a 2 p.m. reception after and it was at a country club and just burgers, salad and fries plus beer and wine. Check these options.

Look for places that have just beer and wine if you insist on booze, Have a reception away from venue-parks, forest preserve, etc. Look for places doing non wedding menu. The cheapest place I know is in Darien-Chateau Orleans. The food is good.

Also I was referred to Hawthorne’s Backyard in West Chicago -but I haven’t been there.

I think the best way is to cut your guest list. $75 a person is a good price in the area (we are getting married in woodridge). We were able to get Sunday pricing for our Saturday night wedding and saved a lot there, but it’s still $100 a person before tax and gratuity.
Seven Bridges in Woodridge was by far the best deal we found. Also consider a lot of venues will have a minimum, so if you can find a place that will let you only spend $6000 for a Friday or Saturday night, that’s a great deal too

You may want to try http://chateauorleansbanquets.com

Hi,
My fiance and I just booked a community center, looking at the inside of it though you'd never think it was. A lot of community centers are open when it comes to catering so you can stay within a stricter budget a bit easier.

What about doing a lunch instead of a dinner? We are in the same boat boat. Our total cost is landing around $13000 with 175 people but that is for everything and doing a lunch reception. I am making my own centerpieces to save, doing a lunch which was 1/2 the cost of dinner. We aee not paying for alcohol. I got a $500 dress and splurged on things like a barista bar, flowers.... but I think with a smaller guest list you can manage

I'm very very close to your area so I completely feel you. I ended up going with a community center. Rental is about $1,500. Our catering is gonna run about $5k and we have about the same guest count as you. Catering from restaurants I've found tends to run a lot cheaper. You could always try looking at caterers in your price range and ask them for facilities that they've worked with before. Or try looking into restaurants and host the reception in the restaurant. I know there's quite a few places in the area that offer to host receptions.