Low budget wedding

Also, the cheaper non-traditional venues and restaurants will nearly all have a maximum of around 50-100 guests.

Cut your guest list in half, then look at places like the Brooklyn Art Library that have BYO Alcohol and BYO Catering but cap the guests at about 100. or 75 people at Frankies 457 where you have to meet a more affordable food and bev. minimum

"....not trying to pinch every penny until it poops."

MNA, I just died. Thank you for making me laugh today.

There's another thread from today about venues and budgets in the NY/NJ area.. maybe you'll get some ideas scrolling through there? The good news is that your wedding is in 2018, so that might give you some time to save extra or figure who to cut from your guest list. ETA: I just saw that your date is a Friday, maybe you can look into Sunday afternoon or Thursday? I admittedly didn't read all the comments, not sure if you already discussed this. Good luck either way.

This depends on where you are willing to go into PA. NY and NJ it prob won't be doable. Philly area it's probably not going to happen either. My step-sister got married at a place called stoudts which is in the Lancaster area. She had 200 people and the food and beverage minimum was pretty low. http://stoudts.com/weddings/

I am in CT. I am getting married at lighthouse point park in new Haven. It's about 1.5-2 hours driving or by train from NYC. Venue fits 200-250 people. Rental fee is 3k.. but you bring everything in yourself, so you could find a less expensive caterer (ours is $60/person). There are a bunch of state parks in CT with beautiful venues for weddings like this. I don't have any suggestions outside of CT, but it may be worth looking into!

I agree with most that it's a tall order, but I like looking for needles in haystacks so have you considered St. John's Parish Center in Erie, PA? It's affiliated with a catholic church, but you don't need to be catholic to marry there if you use the banquet hall rather than the church itself. It costs $500 to rent for 4 hours, plus $100 for each additional hour and includes tables, chairs, table settings, set-up and take-down, etc. Buffet prices range from $16.50-$21.50 pp for two entrees, a starch, a hot veg and a salad, and they have a range of reasonably priced apps. They will let you BYOB.

You'll need to hire your own DJ and bartender, but at these prices you can afford to on your budget.

Have a look at it and see what you think!

http://www.stjohnsparishcenter.com/about_us

BYO Alcohol? Is that something new now? Geez

You need to cut at least 75 people from the guest list. You can do it!!!

Also, no BYO anything. Rude.

My wedding is on a Thursday (discounted) on Long Island and with 171 guests I'm at $15k (food, alcohol, tables/linens/chairs/cake, seating cards, uplighting). So unless you cut your guest list, find a deal like mine and are okay with only $5k leftover for everything else, you are shit out of luck.

People, in this case BYO alcohol means that the bridge and groom buy alcohol to stock the venue bar. She doesn't mean that she's asking guests to bring a flask. They are hosting the drinks and it's not bad hosting.

Our venue has a $12k minimum (Manhattan) and will end up being close to $17k once we're done. We're expecting85 guests.

Courtney this is not realistic. That budget is technically possible in my area of the Midwest (read-super cheap), although it requires a VFW hall, minimal flowers, sheet cakes, etc, but it is still very difficult. We will be over 20k for about 150 people, and we cut a lot of extras like extravagant florals, programs, favors, and videographer. If this isn't realistic in "flyover country", then there is no way that it's possible in a major coastal metropolitan area. You have two options: 1) Cut the guest list or 2) Push back the wedding so that you can save more and increase the budget.

Ohhh that's going to be hard... my budget is $20K with 65 guests in FL (Cheaper than up north).