Wedding reception for 300 people

Mr and mrs jones

From what I have gathered you want to spend only $5,000 for 300 people. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how realistic this is going to be because that's less than $17 per person. If your limit is $5,000 I think you are going to have to drastically cut your guest list.

Unfortunately that's just not a realistic budget for 300 people. Your only option will be to invite a few select people to attend in person (elopement or micro wedding) and have the rest of the guests join via Zoom.

I think you'd have to charge people admission and per plate in order to have that amount of guests and that small of a budget. or potluck style and have everyone bring food.

Agree with the others. Unless $5000 would barely cover cost for food for 300 people, and this would probably have to be food truck/burgers and a bag of chips type of food.


Does this budget include decor, your dress, transportation, photography, wedding cake, etc?

Thank you so much

Most people are saying it's not realistic, but if you really wanted to I'm sure you can make it work.

It would just be a very low key style backyard BBQ type wedding and DYI everything yourself. You'd have to really budget and see what is important and what is not.

During these times I've actually been seeing some Wedding Giveaways in my local area which include photography, officiant, dj, catering, cake.

I would suggest joining a local and facebook group for low budget weddings and for different services you need just post your budget and see if certain vendors will respond to it.

I am not sure if you mean 5000 Dollar for the reception. Do you have 5000 for everything including food, decorations, venue, ... ?? As everyone else said, that will be very difficult. Unless you go a more non-traditional route.

I've been to a wedding once where they did a potluck and asked everyone to bring a special dish instead of a gift. It was beautiful and fun and one of my favorite weddings I've been to. Though I am not sure if I would do that for 300 guests, they had maybe 100 or so. And she had an amazing amazing venue that she got almost for free and where they could have the potluck buffet beautifully. But this is definitely not for everyone and you also need to consider your guests.

Potlucks are inappropriate for hosted events like weddings.

Where are you?
As many people are saying, this is not a very realistic budget for most areas. (We got married in NYC, for what is considered a "small" budget, and we spent 6x that, and had 80 guests.)

You might be able to have a cake-and-punch reception for that price, but my guess is with 300 guests, that you want a large party.

I mean you can definitely plan a $5000 wedding, that itself is possible, however, for 300 guests is completely unrealistic. It would completely have to be DIY no matter how you look at it, even the food itself would have to be made by yourself. You'll have to depend on a lot of friends and acquaintances for help, but that's all I can imagine.

You can do it! But with the $5K budget, I’d highly suggest you have a non-mealtime wedding (2 pm) and have a cake & punch reception at the church/temple hall or a community center.

Rent a venue at the local parks dept. Have cake and coffee or hire a local restaurant for corporate catering with no alcohol .