Budget Help!!!

My advise is to not always do everything yourself. Sometimes it is cheaper but not always. Sometimes buying pretty invites on line is cheaper than trying to make it yourself.
And you already limited your guest list which is one of the best ways to reduce your budget. I would also budget in for hair and makeup since a lot of girls don't but need to.
Consider cutting the reception to 4 hours instead of 5. That might help save your per person charge. And have only a very small bridal party. Trust me I have 8 girls and the flowers, gifts and limos cost more because of it. Keep simple centerpieces.
Don't get the parents large albums. Let them upgrade if they want to after the wedding- at their own expense.
Be very careful with B-list people. The response dates on your RSVP are a dead give away to people. If I get an invite 1 week before an RSVP date I would know I was B-List.

bump for kidlibny

There are plenty of halls at less than $100 pp. Also I got my DJ under $1000 -- he was $650. Flowers I kept to about $700 b/c centerpieces were included with hall. I had about 125 at my wedding and kept it under 25K. If you want any other suggestions email me at [email protected] and I'll give you some cost saving ideas. It can be done. Don't fret!

Great suggests so far. I guess all we can do is take on thing at a time and try not to get to overwhelmed!

All I can say is I'm so looking forward to a nice, relaxing honeymoon, sitting by the pool with a HUGH pina colada with my honey!

Keeping this picture in mind is what keeps me going!!!

Our reception is in January on a friday night and we are paying about $60 pp as opposed to over $120 on a saturday night in the summer. We are going to bring the whole thing in for under $20K but we are having about 170 people. Here's a breakdown:

DJ instead of a band - Spent about $500.

Dress - Bridal Suite in Huntington - about $650.

We are also doing the ceremony at the hall and they decorate the room so we don't have to worry about flowers for a church.

Limos are $125 each way per limo for an 8 passenger - I am not sure how we are going to do this but if we get two limos both ways - $500

I spent about $500 on my invites, but that was my own stupidity. I later found out I picked from the most expensive book they had (ooops!)

Our flowers were about 2K, but I am sure you can do better here.

The only thing we didn't skimp on was the video and the photographer - it's the only thing we'll have left after all of this is over so I didn't want to skimp.
We are spending about 5K total.

Favors - picture frame place card holders - about $1.25 each but since most people are couples, we'll need about 100.

And yes, if I do my math properly, I'm sure it will be over 20K, but shhhh - I won't tell if you don't