How much is too cheap?

This is really variable depending on location. My budget in Ohio would get you nothing in NJ/NY. As long as you have a catered meal, free alcohol, and a DJ I'd say you're good. No need for favors, fancy centerpieces, etc if you can't afford it. Just take care of your guests and they'll have a good time.

For alcohol, you could do beer, wine and signature drinks instead of an open bar.

I'd say a good estimate would be between $5000 - 8000

You're going to need close to $10k to properly host a wedding for that many people, even cutting corners.

It's fine to cut things that downgrade YOUR experience, but it is NOT okay to take away from your guests' experience.

Example: super cheap dress is fine. Cheating out on food and alcohol? Not okay.

As Lindsey said location has a great deal of impact on the budget and the power of your dollar. You can skip save the dates, menus, programs, and favors. Shop sales for invitations and décor.

My budget is between 5-6k.. for 50 people.. so you just have to shop around A LOT! My budget was not easy but I got some killer deals . Like my dress was only 388 on clearance. We went with a preferred caterer from our cenue and got discounts because of their connection. Plus our DJ was only 495 because O booked a friday and at a wedding show. So it just depends on where you live and if you shop around enough you can find good deals from vendors with good reputations.

I'm doing 15 people for $5000. My food and beverage is $2000, my ceremony is $500, my dress is $200. The rest of the budget will be figured out. We can get photography for the ceremony site for 1 hour for $500. Good luck with 90 people.

Hey!

You can also consider doing a signature cocktail which can be served as a mocktail for those who don't want alcohol. That way it'll be a set price for the beverage re: bar service charge and it can be served all night.

The cocktail can be served shaken too so that it adds some activity at the bar. You can also serve a reduced wine list instead of an extensive one. So maybe consider 1 white wine,1 red and 1 blush.

Hope this helps and all the best on your big day!

You can cut down on cost by the venue alone. If you can get a venue that will allow you to bring in your own beverages and food that would help (i.e. church, city recreation center, a family member's backyard, hotels that provide food waviers, etc) that would help cost.

I went to a wedding a few years ago in NC that was on a farm with reception in the barn (beautiful). The bride and groom provided the booze, and everyone else provided the food. Yes it was a potluck style wedding, which i thought was a different idea for a wedding, but loved all the food options.! Food is another costly item and the couple didn't want to eliminate guest due to not being able to afford to feed everyone, which to me was reasonable. Is there anyone in your family that cooks well that can cater?

Wedding is a time for family and close friends to come together and help out (or used to be), so maybe family members or friends can fulfill the roles that people hire vendors for. Even if it's at a fraction of a rate.

I hope some of that was helpful and you're able to have a delightful wedding, without a stressful budget. When I was planning mine budget was a big deal and I spoke to several brides who loved their wedding, but wished they could have saved more money.

There's always a Destination Wedding option (which I chose to do), which was cheaper for my husband and I, but attendance was low.

I'm having 50 people at our reception and our budget is about 6k and to be honest with you, it's turning out that in order to do it we have to downgrade on some things. Alcohol, food NOT being one of them, but my family has kindly offered to help there. I'm finding that weddings are not cheap, and if you're finding it tight, maybe take another look at your guest list, or push it back further. ETA: I am of the opinion that "too cheap" is subjective, and up to you and what you are okay with giving or not giving your guests. I think you have to be considerate and not rude. But I also think you don't have to have all of the wedding bells and whistles and traditions to have a nice wedding.

DO NOT have a potluck. FFS.

Do not self cater or do potluck. Tacky, gross, and dangerous.

FFS, your wedding is not the equivalent of a church picnic. It's supposed to be a special and formal day.

My budget is $8000 for 56 people including FH and I. I would honestly try to cut down on your guest list if your budget couldn't be more than that because I'm not even including certain things in my budget like our marriage license, save the dates, and postage. I bought those with money from my main job and not my part time job which I have just to pay for the wedding.

Our venue is really great we're going to have the reception and ceremony at the same place, ceremony outside reception inside. For favors we were planning on doing a soundtrack of the wedding. I already have a dress! My aunt gave me hers and that's my something borrowed. We plan on tons of food and beverage, we have permission to do a bonfire so we're going to do that, we were hoping we could get away without live music (we went to his cousin's wedding without live music and it was great) we also arn't that big on pictures and decided any picturs taken are fine. Another aunt said the cake was her gift to us but we do plan on doing a desert bar, with bbq style dinner. No fancy table clothes the tables at the venue are a really pretty petrified wood-look. Would disposable plates and utensils be tacky or should we just rent real ones?

I came right to posting. Because cutting the guest list and pushing the wedding back are not options, I recommend the following :

- eliminate STS's, programs, and favors.

- do not have a BP.

- keep linens and rented caterer pieces to a minimum.

- DIY centerpieces does not guarantee they will be less expensive. Keep centerpieces simple and compare pricing.

- no décor other than a centerpiece for each table. Let your venue speak for itself.

- carefully choose and price out (including postage) your formal invites and TY's.

- go with a pro DJ, adult drinks, and good catered food. Yes, rent real the real stuff when it comes to silverware. Good food, drink, and music are what people want and remember.

- 2nd PT jobs are easy to come by. I highly recommend saving and/or getting an additional temp job to pay for your wedding instead of having any friend or family contribute to your wedding the day of.

I'm having 130 ppl for about 5000 the I'm doing BBQ from my favorite restaurant 2 meat 3 veggies full service catering for 9.50 pp. Im doing a cupcake display instead of a cake. Me and my FH will have a 8in cake at the top of the cupcakes. My venue is a golf course for 575. My MOH mom's bf is a awesome dj and he's doing my whole wedding for 300. My best friend and bridesmaid sis is a photographer who does great work and is going to do my wedding for 200. My other MOH mom is planner and gave me 50% off and is planning my wedding and coordinating plus decorating for $500. 40 of my 130 guest will be drinking so we are going to do a full bar service for 2 hours after dinner. We will probably do wine, beer, and 2 signature drinks. My decor and flowers will be about 500 with rentals. It is possible to bargain shop without looking cheap or low budget. Try heavy finger foods instead of dinner. Serve beer and wine only. Look within your friend and family circle for recommendations or services and BBQ is a good alternative. A rustic theme like I'm doing is really budget friendly and elegant. My bridesmaids that know how to do make up are doing their own and my other bridesmaid that is a professional make up artist is doing mine. So it's ways to save. Rent a dress or find a sample sale. Good luck!

I had a friend a few years ago that bought all her plates at Goodwill. Granted she had 100 plates to run through the dishwasher when she was done but she got them cheap, I think the grand total for her plates came out to like $30, and she went to the Goodwill outlet center for cups/silverware and came out ahead on that as well, but she was willing to do the work afterwards to wash them.

I personally feel that photography is SUPER important, I want professional pictures of my day so I hired a professional. The price ranges depending on where you are, but my vote is hire one.

Ditch things like favors, STD, excessive decor, menus stuff like that.

Like others have said, if you can get a second job, go for it. I have been making a little money on the side using MTurk with amazon. Its not much but its a little something. Glad to hear you'll be feeding your guests and providing them booze.

Depends on where you live but more likely than not you will need a 10k+ budget to properly host 90 people

@TravelingPowes, asking your friends or family to fill vendor rolls, become friendors, is not a good idea. I catered dessert for my sister's wedding with 200 guests and it sucked ass. I had to fly in for her wedding 6 days in advance to have enough time to bake and freeze the cheesecakes she requested. I had to set up the dessert station while in my bridesmaid dress while my sister and her husband were doing their first look. I had to leave them half set up and sprint to where photos were being taken as they had moved onto bridal party photos and were waiting on me. I also had to keep getting up from the head table and replenish the desserts throughout the night. I did NOT enjoy her wedding, even though I should have as I was preoccupied with my friendor duties. Even now, 2 years later, I harbor some resentment towards her about how shitty that was for me. I have not said it to her face, because why the fuck would I, but I've said it to friends plenty of times.

DO NOT DO THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY! They may think it sounds like a fun thing to do for you before the wedding, but come the wedding day? They're going to be cursing your name under their breath.