Tight Budget ($15,000) Wedding in Baltimore

I think having an all inclusive venue helped. mines $60 pp, but includes allt he food, cake, recpetion site, open bar. etc. mine will be under $15000 easiy for 80 people. But i live in CT. not sure if that makes a differnece.

I know how you feel, my budget was similar. I'm actually skipping the photographer, fresh flowers, and expensive dress to make it happen. I have a gal pal who is pretty good with a camera, she'll take a few formal photos for us, then I'm asking guests to use the WedPics app for any photos that may take through out the evening. I'm just not the kind of girl whom needs 1,000 professional photos, just a few ofus & our families is all I need.

I was able to find a resort whose food & alcohal all-inclusive was enough to fit into our budget - and they don't charge a venue fee because I think they want to get guests on the resort (they assume they'll ski, spend the night, spa, etc. - all true of my guests).

It just more important to me to have a nice dinner and drinks for my guests and some live music, rather than a few of the other big ticket items. A 15K wedding is doable, just with some sacrifices (hopefully not too many at the expense of the guests).

A lot of internet searching! I searched for months to find our caterer (I live in Nashville). I found my caterer in a google search one night. The food tasting was fabulous and the price was right. As far as other cost cutting ways, DIY, coupons, find used wedding items on craigslist or garage sales. I stopped by a garage sale this past weekend because they advertised wedding items. They were selling 20 centerpieces for $100. I didn't need them but scored 12 large LED candles for $15.

Are you talking about downtown? My caterer was Classic Catering People, but I don't know that they can meet your budget. I understand what you're saying, but your venue and catering should add up to about half your budget. 3k for a venue alone, with no food, is pretty expensive. That's almost as much as I paid for the venue and my catering was 6-7x that amount.

I'm doing a May 2016 wedding in Columbia for around 80 people and $15k. My caterer is Putting on the Ritz and they have a bunch of different menus so they can accommodate a smaller budget.

I don't live in Baltimore but I would echo shopping for used items. Also buying flowers wholesale and DIY your decorations, etc. can save $$$. I DIY'ed my invitations with blank cards from Target. They were gorgeous and I only spent $30. You'd be surprised how much you can get for free or cheap if you look on craigslist and keep an open mind.

I adored them. They were soooooo responsive and easy going. We showed up one day because we had no idea what we wanted to eat and we tried a ton of stuff as our proposed menu. Then they sent us home with a ton of it to eat at home. Our account manager responded almost immediately to all questions. She had suggestions for coupled vendors (before I went with a planner). The prices were very reasonable. The food selection was superb. The staff at the wedding? They went above and beyond, making sure that we got to eat all the different h'ors d'oeuvres and that our meal was eaten. They made one mistake though: they delivered our cake to another wedding and we got the other wedding's cake. That didn't bother me since cake wasn't a big deal to me and we had a dessert bar anyway. In recompense for the mistake, they gave us a coupon for a free anniversary cake.

Cake is included in our catering, but I noticed that cupcakes are cheaper than tiered cake from our bakery. If I was paying extra for cake I'd opt for one small cake for us to cut and cupcakes for everyone else.

Does the $3500 include food and alcohol? I think that is impossible for 100 people unfortunately. If you can buy your own alcohol to stock the bar, that can save money too.

That's my budget, too, and it's so ridiculous how tight it is! I'm currently looking at an all-inclusive venue, which I think will help.

Thanks everyone for all the responses! $3,500 does not include alcohol -- one of our good friends runs a bar so we'll be going through him for that. Keep the suggestions coming! Especially catering recommendations in Baltimore

I hear you when you say $15,000 is ridiculous when considered small as I'm (so far!) successfully planning a wedding for 450-475 people on a budget of $15,000 and you can do it! (Granted, not in the Baltimore area...)

The venue at $3,000 alone seems high, but am not familiar with the area, but the venue I have in Indiana is around $800 and that's a full day (other places I looked at were around $1,000-$1,500).

Things to consider are time of day for the wedding and reception and what all the meal includes. For example: breakfast, tea time/mid-afternoon and late evening receptions cut down on food/eliminate costs associated with dinners. Also, can you live with having only two sides instead of three? You just saved yourself several dollars per person. Also, consider saving money by not sending out save the date cards, use postcard-style RSVP cards instead of the typical envelope, card, and full postage stamp requirement (some even opt for digital RSVP). See if a friend can design your invites, purchase bulk cardstock or other preferred paper online, and get in contact with a local printing company that will allow you to use your own paper and still print in a high quality. For flowers, I am nabbing the songbooks from my church when they change them out later this year and making paper flowers from the music sheets as part of the decorations (I have a music background and we love to dance so it fits in well), using the ferns that grow in my back woods, and ordering flowers in bulk or also flowers made from wood, and borrowing other decorations. When it comes to alcohol, my fiance has a favorite hometown brew and I have a locally made wine of choice. We are looking at providing those as our "favorites of the night" for our guests to enjoy and it cuts down significantly on costs. Just some ideas to get you started.

Decide what you want to prioritize - for my fiance and myself it was photography, food, and DJ. That will help you know where a majority of your spending should be focused and call to mind if, for example, spending $3,000 on the venue alone is worth it. We are also looking at doing handmade seed packets with a personalized stamp as favors - coming in at around $0.10 per or less, that is under $50 dollars for 475 gifts. So figure out what fits with you and your soon-to-be and think of different ways you can represent that. Does that mean having a photo line as a main decoration focal point? (Starting at one end, you have photos of you as a little one and your fiance at the other end with his baby pictures, gradually using photos as you age with the 1-3 in the middle of you together). Maybe that and the printing costs and purchasing the line and attachments will be a lot cheaper than splurging on several large flower arrangements - unless flowers is what you want to highlight.

Anyways, I've rambled enough and but wish you the best luck!

I am so following this! I feel like I wrote it lol. But yeah, decorations and invites can be diy pretty cheap. If you're open to bbq, a friend of mine has a place, they do $15 pp it's called the smoking swine. And I was looking into absolutely perfect catering if I could find a venue that allowed me to use my own catering.

I know! 15k is a lot of money. We wanted a beach wedding so we got lucky it fit into ours with almost everything included.

I can totally relate!! I'm a MD bride too, I'm spending $15,000 just on my ceremony/reception venue and food/alcohol. I'm having my wedding in Towson and I think we're close to $22,000 (our budget was $20,000). I don't have any catering suggestions, just- good luck!!

I'm making it work with only 6745 total spent. I live in charlotte, NC. The biggest thing is to DIY where it can save you money and make compromises of what is really important verses what tradition says. Good luck!

I'm not in your area but during my searching I quickly realized I would be able to do the reception more cheaply at a reception hall. A venue and caterer (though what I preferred) was just too much. I am getting a venue, cocktail hour, open bar, dinner, cake, dessert, valet parking, etc. for a set price per person.

Im in NJ but try Italian restaurants. They almost always do catering at good prices. I researched, dug, googled and dig some more and finally found mine. $29pp off-site catering with service! We're getting passed hors d'oers, 3 dinner options and dessert for that price (no cake). Shop sales, sales, sales especially in the winter. I got a lot of favors and my shoes last winter during the off wedding season.

Edit: and PS my budget is the same as yours. We're close but still over. I'm doing my own flowers or getting grocery store flowers and likely grocery store cake. I would consider trying to cut your guest list a bit too.

I'm not in Baltimore but I'm doing a wedding in a resort town for $4,500, including my dress, my bridesmaids' dresses, rings etc.: literally everything except honeymoon, with a guest list of just over 150. My venue costs $1,300. My dress was $450, my bridesmaids' dresses were $56 each (3 girls), my fh is buying shirt, tie, and slacks for somewhere around $60 (instead of $95 to rent), and his gm were told any shade grey pant, blue shirt, navy tie. Our rings cost $40 each: we went with tungsten because he works with his hands and found them on etsy. I paid $115 for jewelry: necklace and matching bracelet, and two sets of earrings, one sapphire and one pearl for my two piercings. So far, I've spent $275 on supplies for diy decor with another $100 or so before I'm done. Vases and votive holders cost about $150 for 12- 10.5 x 3.65 in cylinder vases, 30- 7.25 x 3.25 in cylinder vases, 2- 6 x 8 in cylinder vases, and 60 glass votive holders. I bought some on save-on-crafts.com, others from a local Facebook wedding selling page and the two large vases from joann's with coupons. I designed my invitations and rsvp cards on my computer and printed them at OfficeMax for $50 ($1.56/invitation including the cost of envelopes and postage). I have a friend who has restaurant experience, her mother has worked with a caterer and her sister has restaurant experience as well. They are doing my food, I'm buying and they're preparing. I'm doing real flowers, I'm going thru a florist for my bouquet, two alter arrangements and the loose greens for my centerpieces. The flowers for the centerpieces I'm getting from the farmer's market for $3/dozen and I picked a centerpiece design that required no skill to set up. I made a great playlist on Spotify and spent $0.99 for the 3 month premium trial. We opted for a brunch reception, basically eliminating any alcohol cost. Fh's aunt is baking cupcakes and we're getting a small cutting cake from a grocery store. We found two photographers just getting started in the wedding industry, in exchange for reviews, recommendations and giving them full use of any and all photos of our wedding in promotional material and/or portfolios, we're paying only $600. It's very doable. Just shop around before committing to anything.

What venue did you book? The price is high and depending on the look, casual food might not work. $3500 for food isn't a lot for 100 people.

ETA: Mission BBQ is also amazing and a good price.

Hi date twin! My budget is similar for 70ish people and I completely understand how hard it can be.

Prioritizing where the money goes is important. I don't need a crazy designer dress, so I'm not even looking at expensive gowns. One of my BMs got married last fall and skipped the DJ in favor of Spotify and it worked amazingly (everyone still danced and had a great time) so we're going that route, too. My mom and I are making our the bouquets ourselves with wholesale flowers.