Paying for the Wedding ourselves

Where are you located?
BBQ, Mexican and Italian catering tend to be the cheapest options. However, in all honesty, your budget sounds low for 150 people.

View Quoted Comment I'm in lower Alabama. Yes I know it's low. 150 are all close family and friends so we don't have any room to remove any of them from oiur guest list. I know that not all will show up.

Tented backyard wedding. Pinterest has some GORGEOUS ideas!since your family is so big, maybe people can pitch in helping make decorations, set up, even cook? Or hire a caterer and do buffet style.

I am having 20 people, which at the end of the day are the people closest to me and my FH. I think for me, age had something to do with whittling it down—It’s hard keeping up with everyone after awhile and you come to realize who is clearly there for you. I get where you’re coming from, though! Anyway, it’s going to be hard if that’s the all in budget for everything.

Understood. But for 150 guest list. .. no venue will be under 5k.

Oops, accidentally hit reply! I looked at BBQ caterers and even that was in the 15-20-ish range for the minimum. May be cheaper in your area.

Do a buffet or hire a food truck
Our Venue is only 5300 and they are including the food and we are also getting to pony kegs. We were very flexible on our wedding dates and we chose a Sunday versus a Saturday because the prices are double the price.

I think 150 guests is too large for that budget. How much of your $5000 to $7000 budget is going towards food? I spent close to $5000 on food just for 42 guests, 5 vendors, and my H and I.

We all have had to make those hard decisions to cut our guest list. We all have family and friends that we had to cut to meet our budget. And the majority of us paid for or are paying for the wedding ourselves. You need to reevaluate your guest list and cut it down to match your budget, or push the date out so you can save more money.

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A food truck will not be able to serve that many guests efficiently. There would be huge lines.

It’s going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to adequately host 150 guests with that budget. In addition to food you really need to provide enough alcohol for your guests, which isn’t going to be cheap for 150 people. You will definitely need to find a venue that lets you provide your own alcohol and buy it in bulk since that is cheaper. But there are so many other costs, like the venue will charge a rental fee and surely you will at least want to get a photographer! Hopefully you can find a way to cut down your guest list quite a bit or save more money.

As others have said that budget for that amount of guests is going to be difficult to host properly. DH comes from a huge family (7 years later I’m still asking “who was that?” at some larger events. Our wedding was 55 so it’s possible to cut. Start with immediate family and SOs. Anyone that you haven’t seen in the past year or anyone your other half can’t readily identify can be cut. Also consider hosting adults only.

View Quoted Comment My Venue is $1700

This is the issue. My fiance has 8 aunts and uncles. In our guest list we only are sending 75 invitations. We are counting everyone in there household including children. I'm sure when we get RSVPs back it won't be that many. My Venue is only $1700. I'm getting my cakes and photographer free since it is family. Catering in my area is about $10 a person. I'm open to doing finger foods. And there will absolutely be no alcohol at my Wedding

Cake and punch at a non mealtime.

That's a very low budget for that many people I'd recommend cutting the guest list drastically. That amount is barely enough for a venue and photographer let alone everything else that goes into a wedding. You said that number is "all close family and friends"... What does that mean to you? Is that just parents and siblings and best friends? It probably includes extended family as well. Maybe cut out some groups of uncles/aunts/cousins you haven't seen in over a certain amount of time. Barbecue and Italian are often "cheaper" types of foods, but it's still going to be tough having a properly hosted wedding for 150 guests for $5,000-$7,000.

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This is NOT necessarily a guaranteed way to have an inexpensive wedding! I had a "tented backyard wedding"... 90 guests and it cost over $21,000 all said and done.

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You'll find that people often recommend NOT having family/friends ("friendors") work for your wedding. If you do decide to go against that advice and do it anyway, please have contracts with these people. There have been many stories about family/friends backing out of wedding arrangements they've agreed to, the bride and groom not receiving wedding photos, etc.

I apologize if this comes off as blunt, but I find it hard to believe that anyone has 150 people who are absolutely necessary to their wedding day and would be devastated at not being invited. If you insist on 150 people, your best bet is to have an early reception with just cake and punch. This or cutting the guest list are the only feasible ways to afford this. Unfortunately there is no hidden third option. I have the same budget as you and my guest list will be 40-50 people and my venue was a steal of a deal.

I'm not going to try to claim I'm having a budget wedding, and our wedding is in a more expensive location than Alabama, but just for reference -- our budget for 110 people is $35k. You could certainly do it for less, but not $30,000 less for 40 more people.