We were originally planning on doing a restaurant reception with 30-50 people, but after pricing it out with a few places I was shocked that even a totally bare bones event would completely eat up our $15k budget (actually going a little over). Honestly it's beyond bare bones, as that number includes skipping a DJ, barely having any privacy, buying cheap clothes off the rack, and having ZERO decor/signage/florals. lol I know that nobody's ever going to complain about a night of free food and drinks, but I really wanted something a little more...memorable? We already eloped and just want to get people together to dress up, do something fun to celebrate us, and thank them for being our closest friends and family. We can pretty much do whatever tf we want.
If our group was a bit smaller, I'd LOVE to do a nice dinner party in my MILs backyard with crazy good food/a private chef, but unfortunately 30 is the minimum. I say that to express that having the event be mostly food and mingling focused isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's more that since we're already married and don't necessarily need to have ANY sort of party, spending 15k to feed our loved ones burgers and well drinks at a restaurant that has customers in the next room feels a little...not worth it.
