SUPER budget conscious

Elope. Go somewhere pretty, get a great photographer and take some photos. Not worth getting people sick and not giving a thank you for the guests that take the time to come to your day.

FW and I have an extremely small budget. But we also realize that when you start inviting people that you have to start taking them into consideration and make appropriate plans. What you have presented are not appropriate plans.

Let me tell you a story. My dad got married almost three years ago. It was a backyard wedding. He cooked all of the food (a huge Italian spread). He provided all of the alcohol. There were about 150 people there. The day was hot as hell. It had to be 95 degrees outside. The cake melted. The food was fine, but could you imagine if someone had gotten sick? Especially in that heat?

The alcohol intake was monitored. Drunk people everywhere. My cousin was the photographer. He was drunk too.

My dad was STRESSED all day long. He was worried about the cake. Then about the food being hot. They cooked for like the entire week before the wedding and then spent most of the reception keeping food hot *while drunk*.

When I think back to that day, I don't think about what a nice time I had. I think of what a shitshow it was.

Don't be that person.

What if there's allergies? Food restrictions? Cross contamination is real... not to mention keeping food at safe temperature...

Leann, dear god no. Funny story, my parents did BYOB for their wedding 32 years ago, my dad said "No way you're doing that. We were young, stupid and apparently completely classless."

I would try to get minimize ur guest if u can tho

I had a $31k wedding for 75 guests and I was on a budget (New York, though). There is no chance you can do what you are proposing.

My older brother got married for $1000, but he had it at home and our mom did everything. They also had friendors and sales, and a guess list of about 50 max.

And there's some terrible advice from Leann.

Wtf are dump meals? lol

eta: where are you having the reception?

Ew. I hope you have insurance for when your "crockpot and dump meals" make one of your 200 guests (that you clearly don't even like but you invited for gifts) sick.

@Michelle, I don't think anyone is "mocking" smaller budgets. In fact, many of us are working with those budgets. But pointing out poor hosting is generally considered a helpful tip actually

ETA: Clarity

Hannah - two hundred people is a ridiculous amount if you are hoping to host a cheap wedding...why so many? If you care more about your life and your honeymoon, then invite way less.

You cannot have it cheap and huge. Part of being adult enough to be married is making hard decisions. You need to sit down with your FI and decide if you'd rather have a huge party or not spend too much.

If you want to keep the costs down have your ceremony at 2, and then host your guest list for a cake and punch reception. Order a few big sheet cakes, some veggie trays and some cheese and crackers from Costco and serve coffee, tea and soft drinks. You can make a playlist on your Ipod and plug it into speakers for some background music. It will probably be wrapped up by 4. As long as you aren't going over a traditional meal time you don't need to serve a full meal.

Please do not make your family work for your wedding - it is inappropriate to take away from what should be an enjoyable day for them by making them stress over meatballs and pasta salad.

@Michelle please point to where someone was "mean".

Pretty sure everyone has a budget. A budget of $3K is just as much of a budget as a budget of $30K. Work with your budget and host the wedding you can afford.

Who is acting high and mighty?!

Self catering is risky, very risky. Are you going to sue Aunt Peggy to pay your bills if you get food poisoning from her meatballs?

Hannah, you need to rethink either your budget or guest list. There is no way you are feeding 200 people for $3000. Sorry honey. Have a nice dinner for 50 people.

@033118 a lot of peoples' tones have seem derogatory. Please understand that there is no way to gauge sarcasm or tone over the internet. People are genuinely asking for help/ideas, and everyone just wants to post memes and act like trolls.

There's nothing wrong with spending $3K on a wedding because you'd rather spend the bulk of your money on your honeymoon or your lives together (i.e.: yourselves). Where you've gone astray is failing to accept the consequences of the CHOICE you're making -- which is assuming that the huge guest list of 200 people are going to enjoy park picnic tables, home-made crock pot dump meals, no wedding cake, and probably, no alcohol. You have a whopping $15 PP, and from that amount you can deduct the cost of wedding attire, DIY materials (which will cost more than you think), park rental fee, chairs (just that cost will be prohibitive), A DJ, an officiant, and a photographer (unless you're not hiring any professionals at all, which will be very obvious to the 200 guests have already realized that they're not being hosted in a way in which people at such a large wedding should be hosted.) If you are hiring professionals out of that $3K budget, you can probably deduct $10 off of your PP budget.

Why? Why would you do something like this on a shoe-string budget?

Long story short -- this wedding will be short. Why not skip the wedding you cannot afford and host one you can afford? Take that $3K and host immediate family and close friends only at a restaurant reception. When it comes to wedding receptions, quality beats quantity every time.

Hey it's not that bad..if ur wedding is in a park u could verbally tell some guests u know who like to drink liquor to bring their own..I'm Irish so alotta my family will probably bring their own anyways haha..make sure u buy in bulk..I loved Vistaprint for invites they are pretty cheap and Etsy is cheap for cake topper,veil,rings etc

LOL although I'm sure now I'll get attacked. YIKES.

Nobody is mocking anyone for having a small budget. We are all, aside from growing weary of posts defending self catering and BYOB, merely trying to offer advice on how to properly host GUESTS at an event meant to thank them for coming. Budget size isn't the issue here. Being a poor hostess is.