First Things First

Hi Tori. Welcome to WeddingWire and congratulations on your upcoming nuptials. Your budget and guest list is going to be very location specific. I know that 8k would not be enough in my area for 175 people. I suggest going to costofwedding.com and plugging some numbers in. This could give you a better "ballpark" number for your budget. If 8k is all you have to work with you may need to cut the guest list.

DIY is great, but don't overwhelm yourself with too many projects.

Once again, welcome and congrats!

$8,000 may not be enough to cover catering and alcohol for 175 people. What kind of food did you plan on serving?

DIY also doesn't necessarily mean cheaper. Sometimes the materials cost more than it would be just to buy something from a store or Etsy.

I agree that this will vary greatly based on location.

Yep, depends on where you are and your budget and your expectations. Im trying to do my entire wedding under 10k in a large expensive city. So either I can have a small wedding or cut out things to save money.

A lot of things need to be considered before you figure out if that is a reasonable budget.

Where are you located? Are you having flowers? Officiant and/or church? Open Bar or Consumption Bar? Does this price include your dress, tuxes? DJ .. Photographer? And every single one of these prices depends on your location. I would take a little bit and look up vendors and venues in your area and see what their average costs are before you just throw a number out there.

I am hosting about 180 people and the venue catering alone is $13K (including tax and gratuity). It is in the Chicago suburbs at an all inclusive golf club.

My mother use to run a craft shop so she has promised to do a lot, so that wont stress me too much, I reallllllly trust her with that kind of stuff. My FMIN and FFIN told us they would pay for alcohol so that's off my list, I have invitations and save the dates and engagement pictures for free (all gifts from loved ones), I also got a discount on the ceremony site that we think we want, so that saves us a lot. I'm not sure what kind of food we want to serve, something simple, family friendly food, generic wedding food (chicken, pasta, salad) things like that.

Welcome! It all depends on your area but with a guest list of 175 I don't think your getting away with 8k even if you diy in your backyard. You mostly Lilly will need to jack up the budget and lower your guest list.

First find a venue so you can get your date set. Start now most venues book almost 1-2 years in advance! Major costs are venue, catering, dress and photographer. Get a planning book like The Knot to give you some information to start with.

How much is the venue you might want? Even if the food is 10pp that's already $1750 not including taxes, services fees and tips.

It really depends on your area. Our catering for 100 people is $8k... and that doesn't include alcohol or anything else.

Is it possible for you to get quotes from venues and suppliers in your area? That will help you adjust either your budget or guest list as necessary. Also consider the time of year and day of week when getting quotes. Off season will be less. List everything you will need, from both your outfits, hair, makeup, jewellery, gifts, food, venue, ceremony costs, flowers, supplies for your mother to craft with, postage, photos etc. Anything you will have to pay for. When you have costed things up always add a small bit more onto it for missalanious. There are always extras that pop up.

We haven't looked at a reception site that we like yet, but the ceremony site is $950. We have found a caterer that is $25 a plate, and we tasted some of the food at a wedding before and it was amazing, I'm looking at non-traditional places to have the reception, but we know we want it inside.

It depends on your area, but 8000, in most places, that is not even close to enough for 175 guests. You're also depending greatly on money you haven't seen yet and friendors, two very dicey ways to plan a wedding.

Cut your list by one half, which is easier than you think. I'll still be tight, but it's realistic. Do not count on anyone paying for anything until you've cashed the check. And do not allow anyone to do anything for you without a contract.

I have 175 guests and have already exceeded $20,000. I suggest sitting down and creating a budget spreadsheet and list everything little thing out, you'll be surprised at the costs.

I don't know if $8,000 will be enough for a guest list of that size. It also depends on location, but even if you have it somewhere cheap I still don't think you'll get away with that amount. There are plenty of other details to account for too. We have approximately that number of guests and are at over $25,000 for everything.

Another Tori! Welcome.

The number of people who say "things won't be expensive because we plan to DIY" amazes me. The stuff you can DIY is not the expensive stuff. Get prices from your main vendors (which you seem to have done), then build a budget around that. You will save yourself stress this way rather than trying to force yourself to follow an abstract budget.

Hi! I'm in the same boat as you with no set date and am wanting to start planning now. What I did was create a tentative guest list (that I TOTALLY have to cut down) and started pricing around different venues with that number. I had an initial idea of what I wanted our budget to be but, after pricing around at venues I was considering (and heard had a great price), realized how unrealistic my budget was. I raised the budget a lot but still haven't priced for anything else besides photography/videography. Best of luck to you because I'll be trying to pull off a 35k wedding where the average is 55k!

We extended our initial budget after speaking to vendors.

I'm from Indiana and our budget for 120 guests is about $10,500. It all depends on your area.

I think you should start some research to get a better idea of what $8k gets you. If you are set on the 175 people, you may want to consider alternatives such as a brunch wedding or cocktails/apps only...Not too early too look and your location plays a big part.