Winter Illinois Wedding 200 guests under $20k?

Are you wanting to spend $20,000 for the entire wedding? If so that's an extremely tight budget for 200+ people. We had less than 100 people back in 2019 and spent over $20,000 and that was on a Saturday evening, open bar, photographer, etc. My mom and mil also covered some of the costs including my dress, alterations, and our rehearsal dinner. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you might have to be frugal with the things you pick.

View Quoted Comment We are thinking $30k all in on everything at the most but venue, food, and alcohol with taxes/gratuity/service. Can I ask where you had your wedding?

View Quoted Comment We got married in Scranton, PA. Our budget for everything was $20,000 but we went over by about $5,000 and that doesn't include the things I mentioned that my parents and mil covered. The number of people you invite is going to drive up your cost so I would either try to cut the guest list or diy as much as possible.

My oldest daughter had a very downscaled wedding due to Covid in 2020. It was a Saturday morning brunch reception with 85 guests and that alone was $20,000. You would be hard pressed to find anything even modest under $45,000 with a guest count of 200.

I don't know Chicago wedding prices but in my state it would be just about impossible to have a Saturday night wedding for 200 people under 20k even 30 k would be very very tight. The easiest way to trim costs is to cut the guest list and do another day off the week or earlier in the day. Winter weddings are often cheaper but honestly after COVID the demand has been so high even a winter wedding costs allot more than it used to. Good luck!

If you look at price per person, catering for 200 ppl+ included open bar + IL taxes+ gratuity to venue staff = less than $80 pp. This is incredibly low in the Chicago area. You can go more casual with drop-off catering and a community venue with a dancing space rather than an assembled dance floor. But, if you're looking for a semi formal or formal venue like a catering hall or hotel, you pay more for level of service and amenities like on-site parking. I would use WW for all other vendor ideas as $10k for the rest is tight, too. Best to cut the guestlist and invite ppl you actually know. The old way of inviting everyone incl. parents' friends is long gone by way of IL taxes and current wedding costs.