Wedding under $10k (for 150 -180 people)

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Because someone told me traditionally the brides family pays for majority of the wedding. And I just wanted advice on how to ask my family cus I’m someone who does not ask for help and idk how these things go. Now that I know they’re not obligated then okay that’s fine. Ive never been to a wedding, no one in my family is married except my dad to my step mom and they’re the ones helping me with most of the stuff. My mom has no idea what to do it’s been 27 years since she was last married and doesn’t seem like she cares about what I’m sending her as in decorations, dresses, invitation styles. I’m on here to ask for advice

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Well my dad and step mom are helping me. We will be putting money into our wedding yes. I think post may have sounded really bad as like I’m not paying for anything. Wrong. I know I have to. They just offered to pay for our venue

Contrary to popular belief, it can easily be done and people do it every day. It’s all about priorities. Focus on 3-5 top areas and cut out the rest. Do not scrimp. Many couples go for the guest experience (good food, free drinks, great dj) and memories (great photos).


That will mean going with an inexpensive blank slate venue that allows outside catering. All inclusive venues will cost 5 figures for food/beverages minimum before other expenses. The least expensive venue will be owned by the local parks department. They include tables/chairs/kitchen and you bring in the rest.
Ask your favorite local restaurant to cater. Do you have a go to spot for Chinese or Mexican for date night? They will provide drop off service. Grocery stores have delicious cakes. Order flowers from fiftyflowers.com. Invites from Costco or annsbridalbargains.com. Major cities often have wholesale districts open to the public with wedding products at super low prices. Costco or BevMo/TotalWine for alcohol.
Go on Instagram for a hair dresser and makeup artist.
Azazie and Revelry have inexpensive bridesmaid dresses that you can try on at home.

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Yes last night my dad called and was able to find something at about $7k with everything we are looking for. It’s beautiful as well. We are still going to look just in case there’s anything else out there. Idk where you’re from but here in California everything is so expensive lol. I was already looking into Instagram for that stuff too. Thanks for your advice!

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I don't think it sounded bad, I just think people were confused about you asking people for money which isn't the nicest thing to do. I was just responding to your comment about someone telling you that the bride's family pays for most of the wedding, since that tends to be less common now. That's great of your dad to help pay for your venue! Good luck in your planning process. It may help you to contact a few popular vendors in your area to see what their most common prices are to help you get a better idea of what a reasonable budget is.

We are expecting 150-160 and our catering/bar alone is around $6,000, so a $10k cap would not be reasonable for us, for example.

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Yes ill do that. Thank you!!

You may want to find out if it's cheaper to have an all inclusive venue or to have a venue that lets you bring everything in. Both have their advantages. Our venue is super cheap (about $3200 for 12 hours) but only includes the tables and chairs. We are bringing in our own catering (a family member has his own company and is only charging us $10.person) and doing all the decorations ourselves. Downside is we have to use one of their 2 contracted bartending services which comes out to MORE than the venue for an open soft bar. Look at your local park services- see if they have any venue spaces- that's where we found ours.

I think the more casual you go, the more you save. And it will take A LOT of shopping around so you should start soon. The nicer the venue, the less you need to decorate. Being able to bring in your own booze and just hire a bartender will also be much cheaper because you can get bulk of everything at like a Costco or a Sam's club. Skip out on the videographer. Offer dessert instead of a full on cake. Skip the favors. Have a playlist set up on someone's phone instead of a DJ. See if a family or friend would be willing to get ordained and marry you (my Godfather is doing this for us). Have the ceremony and reception at the same place.

I'm not sure where you're located, but we are in Los Angeles and right now our budget is looking like 17k for 200 guests - I wanted it to be closer to 15k but all things considered, that's not terrible. We were at 10k with just the venue, dinner, and drinks, which I guess are the most important.

Be prepared to go over, but I would just take the 10k budget as a challenge if you're into that sort of thing

I hosted a party in the Bay Area of California for 100 people at a bar where I paid for all food and drinks and it was about $5,000. So I would imagine you could do buffet bar food and drinks for 150 people for $7500. This is no DJ, florists, photographer, photo booth, etc. if you want any of that you would need to involve your friends/family or hire students bc once you get into any of those vendors you are in the thousands. You could get a bakery to do a cake but I would not call it a wedding cake bc wedding cake or ask a friend to make it or do something cheaper like cupcakes or donuts. Another option is you could do a backyard bbq if you know someone who has a large yard, or if you do it at a park, and you do a potluck or have family cook. You can do any size party at any budget it just will depend on how much work you and your friends/family are willing to put in yourself and how fancy/casual you want it. But if you want a big casual party with food and alcohol then yes totally possible! My wedding is in Southern California and is going to be very formal and I’m paying for everything - hair and makeup for my entire bridal party, transportation for guests to and from hotel, $200 per person plated dinner and open bar, DJ, photographer, florist, and brunch for al guests the next day, etc and the budget is $50-60k. But if that whole gambit is not what you have in mind then yes it is possible, even in Southern California!

View Quoted Comment I concur with this response.

View Quoted Comment We are in California too and for what we wanted, it’s been cheaper to get separate vendors on a budget than an all inclusive.


Sounds like you got a great deal!

We shot for a wedding under 10k and landed at about 13,000 for 100 guests. We live in NY so everything tends to be a little more expensive here. We’re having our ceremony and reception at a state-owned garden so the venue was dirt cheap but we have to buy literally EVERYTHING and bring it with us to set up the day of. We opted for a buffet style dinner catered from a local restaurant which came out to about $20 a head. Our biggest expense was tables, chairs, and a tent at about $3,000. We got all our florals from a local grocery store (3 bouquets and boutonnières, arch flowers, table flowers, petals) for $350. I think I could have kept it under 10k but I splurged on my dress and an Airbnb for me and my bridesmaids to stay at the night before. It’s doable but you have to look hard, be flexible with your own expectations, and be sturdy on the budget.

Do you mean 10K for the entire wedding or just venue? Because there are other costs to consider, like your dress, a photographer, DJ, cake, invites etc. that are also part of the wedding. Maybe if you rented out a restaurant for the reception? That way you don't have to pay extra for linens, tables, silverware, etc. Food is usually the biggest expense so that's going to take the bulk of your budget. You can also just do small bites/appetizers or maybe a buffet. Other suggestions are having a cash bar (so your guests pay for their drinks, not you), having it on a weekday or Sunday, and maybe doing a daytime/brunch thing instead of a dinner/nighttime reception.

Yes! Our Guestlist is currently almost at 200 but we managed to find venues that were only $3000 for the ceremony and reception (in Jacksonville) and we booked in the off-season. Facebook marketplace is currently our best friend with finding second-hand decor and you can always DIY your florals or buy off of amazon and return what you don't use and re-sell the rest later. We are also just doing homemade chili as it will only cost $800 and prep is so minimal! you can also do a "stock the bar" party where guests bring alcohol to serve at the reception and a local baker will be doing our cake for less than $300 and we will just have sheet cake to be served instead of having to get a cake big enough to cut for everyone. I hope this helped!

For 150 it’s doable if you have help and lots of DIYS. Do a buffet style, DIY as much as you can, and see if family will help pay for anything they can down to invitations. Venue, DJ and food are the most expensive. Consider bbq since they have sides like rice and beans that are filling but are cheap. You can always call you menu a “Texas style buffet” or something to make it sound more exciting. If you have a little help from family and do DIYS you will be just fine!

View Quoted Comment Your family should offer to help. That would be the nice thing to do. Have you brought it up to anyone? Maybe bring it up and feel out the situation.

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Just the venue, food, tables, cloths and linens. We found everything we were looking for, we just need to ask them a few more questions and we are waiting for their response.

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No but my mom said she can help out with my dress. I’m assuming with her $$ it’s something that’s easy for her to help with so it’s fine. I don’t want to sound like I want them to pay for expensive things only and I’m kept with the easy stuff. We are good with paying for everything we need to without help. The help we really would need to most is probably just with time and running errands for us if we need to. I’ve had a very bad experience with that in the past with my family so I just fear that’s something they won’t help with other than my dads side of his family.

My fiancé and I were adamant about not going over 10k for our wedding with about 85 guests…sweetheart that budget is blown 🤦🏽‍♀️…I’m in the ri area and we went all inclusive with our venue but once you start adding everything in it adds up and we are also paying for our wedding ourselves. I do agree with previous commenters the money from your dad is a gift anything over that or something you guys really want that’s out of that range you should be covering

View Quoted Comment Wait, I’m confused and maybe you addressed this somewhere else.


You said 10k for the wedding. So in my head, I’m assuming that means not only the reception but your attire (dress, shoes, undergarments, jewelry, veil), your fiancé’s attire, invitations, thank you cards, save the dates, stamps for postage, flowers, officiant fee (or ceremony fee if it’s in a church) musician or DJ, taxes and fees, tips, photography, decorations, transportation, hair and makeup (if not doing yourself), wedding rings, little random accessories like the guestbook, ring bearer pillow, flower girl basket, place cards/seating chart, wedding night hotel.
Finding an all-inclusive venue under 10k for our wedding of 100 people was easy for us. We just chose to do it on a Friday evening so that they waived any minimums.
Trying to do everything else I mentioned is what blew us up to $25,000. There are definitely some things we could have done more cheaply. If I had chosen to do my own hair and makeup and bought a used dress, and if we had chosen to have a friend dj with an iPod and asked out guests to take photos for us instead of hiring someone, then we could have knocked off about $5,000. But all of that under 10k? No way.
Also, most all-inclusive places have an automatic gratuity, and it seems like it’s usually on the higher end, like 22 percent.

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Venue only. I realized I didn’t make myself clear on the post lol and I’ve actually narrowed down my list to 125 people