Wedding on a tight budget in Baltimore, MD

Are you going to try to feed people on a tight budget? The most expensive part is feeding people.

We found that for us it was a better deal to have our wedding and reception at a nice restaurant because there is no venue fee (other than $100 for the ceremony) and it includes linens, dishes and all that stuff.

If you can do a backyard wedding and reception I think you could save a ton of money.

Decide what is the most important to you (dress or cake or flowers, etc) and spend your money there. Save on all the less important things.

Wedding cake is expensive. Sheet cake or pies are cheaper. Especially if family is willing to bake some for you.

Wedding dresses can run anywhere from $100 to thousands.

Planting flowers in the yard could help decorate the area for less than buying cut flowers. Fruit is in season and also can be used to decorate tables and such.

Sometimes buying linens on sale is actually cheaper than renting.

ROSEDALE GARDENS in ROSEDALE MD. They are the BEST. Everything is included in your package. Wedding Cake, catering, fresh flower centerpieces, and a cocktail hour with crab dip and a cheese spread. They do it all!! around 34 per person

Rachel. I love your honesty. Thank you No I don't want to feed thema tight budget. I want it to be enjoyable for everyone without spending 30k or 40k. I think a lot of people can relate to that.
Also, I honestly hadn't thought about the restaurant idea. Thanks again.

If you're having enough people so you need a tent, backyard weddings don't typically save you money. The problem is that you need to rent the tent, tables, chairs, etc. And the cost of having someone transport and set up all that stuff is typically more than the cost of having your reception in a location that already has that stuff available.

You might think about having something other than a sit-down dinner and dancing on a Saturday night. For example, a brunch with nice music, or a lunch, or a cocktail reception, or an afternoon reception with finger foods will all save you a lot. You might also consider using a restaurant rather than a formal wedding venue. Because a restaurant is in use every day, not just on weekends, the cost can be spread among more guests, which often results in a lower total.

I've heard that Martin's Caterers is one of the more reasonable in this area, if you go for an all-inclusive.

Do a small, sweet wedding for your immediate family.

Oh heck, no way will you need to spend $30-40K. I have found that the average cost totals all include rings, too.

We'll be feeding roughly 75 people at Maggiano's (using 3 banquet rooms) for under $5K. That includes food, drinks, champagne toast, desserts, tableware, linens, chairs, servers and use of the rooms. We'll pay for a separate wedding cake and host bar (not many drinkers in the group).

Just a suggestion, you might want to edit your title so it shows "tight" budget. I thought you had a huge budget from your title and was curious!

Thank you Kahlcara.

Rachel- you are awesome. Thank you for giving me hope.

2d bride - very good point about the tents etc. I will see if I can price it out. I should probably look into decreasing the number of guests too. I brought it down from 249 to 129 at this point. I am east african so not inviting parent's friends etc is looked down upon. Trying to balance between my budget and what's culturally acceptable. My wonderful husband to be is American so he had a whole different attitude towards who should be invited and not. To top it off, we will need both types of food...(he is polish). Just so much to consider...

If it is a backyard wedding maybe you consider a potluck. Have family members bring their famous family recipes.

It all just depends on how formal or casual you want to be.

Wu we are planning to do our vow renewal with ceremony and reception and everything else for under 10K. That is it and all we have. Its a nice anniv gift to us, along with graduation gift for me in becoming Dr. and we have 5 children so saving that amount is a huge accomplishment. Okay on that note I personally do not know about MD and prices, but I suspect that since I live in the wedding capital of the world I think it is less to do this where you live. I would find banquet halls. I like the hall idea because everything can be done there ceremony and reception. Like you my first inclination was to use our house, outside. I have the perfect area that can accommodate guests of about 100 but then realized how much work that would be on renting every little aspect needed, flooring, tents, tables, chairs, stage, etc....professional cleaners for the house, lawn, etc...then to have misters put up under the tent okay so you get it its a long list.

Continuation....

I say shop around and set priority on what you want. You already said you do not want to feed them a meal, so your looking at maybe cocktails, appetizers, and cake. Check the hotels, even the smaller ones for pricing too they love to get events as well.

I'm in Baltimore, having a full wedding and so far my estimated budget is $5000. It can be done. I'm having a church Jordyn needs that headband for her dedication. If you still have it I'll come get it and reception at a banquet hall for $500 that people rent out for just about everything parties, receptions, baby showers etc. my caterer is a family friend who is a restaurant chef and is charging me $1000. My photographer was $1000 my cake is beig done by a cake lady instead of a big name bakery for $400. My dress was $500. my decorations, rentals and linens will run me around $1000. But if you want to get everything at one spot Martins West cheapest package for 150 ppl quoted us $6500. Feel free to pm me if need be

Martins Crosswinds Greenbelt: open bar, hourderves, drinks food wedding cake linens venue al rentals, MC and bridal attendant for 80 people: 7,000. This is because we wanted open bar, passed hours douerves and stuff

We have a budget of 13k and so far, it seems we're just going to get by on that. Like the other ladies said, feeding people is the most $$. We're having our wedding at the Liriodendron and it will be catered by Dean and Brown. After site fee, table/chair rental, food, alcohol, bartenders/servers it will be about 7k.

I will be honest, Rosedale Gardens (in my opinion) has terrible food. My cousin is having her weddding there in September and I went to a taste testing with her ( after she booked them) and some stuff i just couldnt eat. I didnt have the heart to tell her because she already booked with them.

You can do it all on a tight budget, but it is going to be hard.

I just noticed an email I was sending pasted into my response...sorry...darn IPhones

@ Latrice can I ask you what banquet hall you're using? I'm also a Baltimore bride on a tight budget.

Hi I'm getting married in nov and like you was on a budget I wanted the cheapest but still nice venue. I called and called I settled on martins east in middle river very beautiful banquet hall they take care of everything. They were the best price I found. I also found Geneva farms to be about the same price but martins is nicer. You have to have a min of 100 peopl but sounds like you have that. If you are flexible with the day we chose a Friday it was $10 cheaper per person then Saturday. Sundays are also cheaper to. We are under 7k for 100 people for the reception. This includes cake, food and alcohol, linens etc. iI am paying seperate for Dj and photographer.

Snyders and Olive Grove have reasonable prices (about $20-30 pp depending on what time) and are just south of Baltimore. We did our rehearsal dinner at OG but Snyder's was a little nicer IMO.

Found my reception site through my cousin, who is also catering the wedding. We decided to hold both ceremonylreception to save money at The Summit Manor in Hereford, MD and 4-6 hrs us running us less than 800.