BYO Food in Fredericksburg, VA

Damn, when I was 21 I acted more mature than you OP. I ACTUALLY HAD REALISTIC GOALS.

It is fine to not invite all of your family. Even if you are close to 200 people. If you can not afford it, you can not afford it. There is nothing wrong with saying that. It is better to do a small nice wedding than a cheap large one. 200 people is too many for the food to be prepared by your friends. That is a large event to put on and it needs to be done by people who are used to catering large events.

Based on your new comment, I'm going to wish you good luck.

Here's your problem now: You want a place that has storage and heat-up capabilities? That's going to be difficult. Most places (even halls) won't have the capability to store food for $200 - they probably have normal size-fridges, if that. And heating? For 200 people? Again, harder to find. I used a city-owned hall, and while they had a fridge and oven, there's no way I could have used either for feeding 200 people.

Why don't you just ask your friends where they had their BEAUTIFUL weddings?

Also, who's going to work your wedding? Your 15 friends? Who's serving? Who's heating food up? Who's cleaning?

She's 21 everyone she knows EVERYTHING and all of us are wrong and don't know what we are talking about it.

She's going to have a wedding that people talk about for years to come...but not the way that she thinks.

If you really love your guests, you'd host them with awesome food (provided by a REAL caterer) and alcohol of some sort. Not sore bellies and mediocrity.

I mean, you want your wedding to be memorable for the right reasons, yes?

The "I want my PPD with 200 of our #closestfriendsandfamily regardless of how poor of a host I am" attitude tells us you're not ready to get married. You're 21. You have PLENTY of time to marry your guy. The wedding is in December, so it's obviously not a shotgun wedding due to pregnancy. What is the rush?? Why not wait and have a BETTER day than your friends who have been potluck hosts? Why not get a second/third job for the next 8-9 months to pay for cheap BBQ catering? Come on, girl. This is ridiculous.

ETA: Btw I'm a "young" bride by many standards. I was 25 when I got married and fresh out of grad school. We scrimped, saved, and BOTH picked up second jobs to afford a gorgeous properly hosted wedding.

Good luck, kid.

Every time OP comes back, it gets better.

Good luck looking for validation because the 'helpful advice' you're looking for (as in people who think this is a good idea) is wildly absent. Because no one wants to help you produce this nightmare.

But hey, you go ahead and treat your 200 closest friends and family (and by the way, no one has that many and the last half of the list will open the invite, read they have to bring food to a dry wedding and go, "shit. We have to go to a wedding; it's your cheap cousin Kristin".

Great way to treat your family and friends well. You can't feed people on 2.50 PP.

But I knew that "None of my family drinks" was coming up. Not surprising in the least.

There's nothing to say at this point except good luck. You'll really need it.

@Kristen.... after 9 pages and over 100 replies you should know that you are not going to get the help you want here....

This is something that you have to find and figure out on your own.... $1500 for 200 people in northern VA is going to be hard to do.... $500 for food... have you looked into Farm Fresh catering they are pretty reasonable.... check them out... sorry I cant help with Venue as I live in Hampton Roads area of VA....

Since you're in college and want a party with 200 people with mediocre food, I'll suggest having it at a frat house. Usually the lobbies are ornate and historic and what's more, you can serve Natty Light and spiked Kool-Aid to your guests.

Also, frat houses usually have at least one toilet in operation, which is an improvement on some of the Port-a-Potty weddings we see on here. Get a bouncy house and a Slip-n-Slide for some quality backyard entertainment.

No Danielle; it's a dry wedding....NO ONE in her family drinks.

Do your friends have training in how to safely prep, cook, and store food for 200 guests?

Oh right, @Celia...I've heard of a few politicians like that.

Hi OP. Have you looked into your local COA or Elks Lodge type of deal for your venue? You may also want to look into a local state park, which could be beautiful, but you'd also have to have the food already prepared and brought over.

Another option would just be a simple backyard wedding - if you know someone who could host that for you, you could use that $1.5k on a more proper catering. That's still a really stretch budget for 200 people though (I'm feeding 100 people for $1.2k via professional catering, buffet style)!

I understand you need to keep costs low, but I do agree with others that your budget and guest list size are going to make your options very limited.

This is still going?! Good god!

I will never understand why people want 200 people to come to their wedding and not feed them or want to spend as little as possible to feed them. I'd never even hold a house party for 20 people without feeding them or spending several hundreds or more to do so.

OP, why do you have such a low budget for that many people? Where is the rest of the money going??

This is the post that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...

When OP seems to have it figured out...

THEN WHY DID YOU ASK?