Which is a better idea for a wedding no food or potluck reception?

Thats great your excited but this is all sorts of no. If you are hosting a wedding, you need to host one and not put the responsibility on others, no matter their relation to you or how enthusiastic they are about it. Instead of a GoFundMe (which is used for charity—and a wedding is certainly not) It’d be better to do a honeymoon fund or registry. At the least you should provide refreshments/small bites. I would say cut the guest list considerably instead of the shortcuts above.

I'm gonna be honest with you, not many people on here will like these ideas. I'm assuming you know your crowd well so if you think they are okay with cash bars, GoFund me, tiered reception, and potlucks, then go for it. But I definitely wouldn't ask guests to contribute to the wedding financially and ALSO ask them to bring food AND pay for their drinks on top of that. That's a bit much for my liking.

Again, maybe your crowd is different than most, but many people on this forum will not like this.

ETA: Also, definitely steer away from a tiered reception. If your guests are providing essentially everything then what is the point of ranking them from most to least important?

"no one eats at weddings anyway"?? That is certainly not my experience.

I'm sorry, is this a joke post? It seems like a joke because you mention GoFundMe (which is for charities and emergencies), tiered reception, cash bar, making family provide free labor, skipping food entirely, AND a potluck. I have literally never seen so many inadvisable ideas together in one post. This feels like you have gone through the WW archives to pull out all of the ways to mistreat your "guests."

Hosting people requires actually providing them with some type of refreshment (it doesn't need to be fancy or expensive). It doesn't sound like you are planning to host anything at all (no food or beverages). If you truly cannot afford to host an event then plan a wedding with very limited guests or even no guests at all. I had a very small wedding so that I could afford to feed the guests I did invite (immediate family only) lunch after the courthouse ceremony.

Oh, and to answer your title question: neither of those choices is better.

This has to be a troll post. It’s like you took every single “no no” and shoved it all into one post.

Ya'll, PLEASE don't fall for this post.

View Quoted Comment Right?! TROLL!!

Seriously I call troll

Well thank you ladies for the feedback. I have to respectfully disagree. All my cost-savings ideas are great and beautiful and I was just looking for some helpful tips on food. But I still appreciate the feedback. It's much appreciated. The only thing that bothered me is being called a troll. What does that even mean? Is it some sort of racial reference? I'm a little saddened

This isn’t even a good troll post. It’s way too obvious.

You need to feed people. If you can afford to feed 10, you invite only 10 people. You don't expect people to show up and not be fed with a budget for 10 and a guest list of 100.

Thanks, haven't laughed that hard in a while.

The best idea is to elope. If you can't afford to feed your guests, you can't afford a wedding.

View Quoted Comment Agree. To be honest, it sounds like all the “must have or your day will be a disaster” Reddit wedding “advice” rolled into one

I echo what everyone said. If you afford to host the party cut the guest list. Some low cost food options are cake & punch, sandwiches, or tacos. I’d recommend cake and punch. You can get affordable cakes at your local grocery store.


Best of luck and I hope this isn’t a troll, but you asking what a troll is and if it’s racist definitely made me lol.

All of your plans are rude as heck. Go back to the drawing board.

Based on the title alone. Have a cake and punch reception and save all your money.


Based on everything else in the post. Just no, it’s super rude from start to finish

Hi from the FB shaming group 👋

If you’re not a troll…. You want people to get drunk on empty stomachs and pray for those drinks. Then you want them to give you money for your dress and flowers, the things they don’t care about. And on top of that you want them to set everything up? Why would anyone want to go to such a lame “party”?



You sound like a rude and entitled person who wants everything for free and who can’t be bothered with actually being a good host. Don’t worry, by expecting everyone to open their wallets and do the work they won’t come and save you tons but not having guests.

View Quoted Comment Have you ever been to a wedding or even a simple party before?

To be honest, all of your ideas are horrible lol. A tiered reception is a terrible idea. You should never ask your loved ones yo pay for your wedding and then bring your own food. This is so bad I don’t even wanna spend more time replying to it. It’d be better to invite no one, honestly, and just elope, if you can’t manage to host properly by feeding your guests at least.