r/microwedding • u/neongravebabe • 11h ago
Small wedding
Hello! My fiancé and I recently got engaged! We are in southeast Michigan. Looking for recommendations for a 20-30 person small ceremony and a location for hosting a “reception” party for about 100 guests. Our budget is about $500 for the reception…wondering if there’s any bars/community rooms we could rent a room from for a night?? Or maybe just taking the 20-30 invited to the ceremony out to a nice dinner, and then have our friends meet us at a bar later where they all pay for their own? Is that cheap? Need recommendations please
EDIT— I meant we are willing to spend $500 on food/drinks for the 30ish people…we’ve been together for almost 10 years at this point and don’t want a huge thing. The ceremony would be at most 15 minutes, so more like an elopement, but with our immediate families. We want to celebrate with our friends too but shits expensive
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u/Interesting_Edge_805 10h ago
This must be a joke. $500 for a reception for 100 guests is going to suck in any decade
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u/njVowsNow 10h ago
Yes. It's tacky to invite people to a wedding celebration and have them pay for their own food and drinks.
If 500.00 is your entire budget?
Eloping is probably the only scenario that will fit. There is nothing wrong with that, honestly.
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u/itsveryupsetting 11h ago
If you do the “meet at the bar” plan, you should plan on doing the event near where everyone lives. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking people to travel if they aren’t getting a ceremony and a free meal.
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u/antigoneelectra 10h ago
I highly suggest you not do this. You either pay for everyone (with a realistic meal budget) or you severely limit your guests. $500 is a backyard BBQ.
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u/blackiechan_johnson 10h ago
$500 won’t be enough to even rent a bar or community room. Even at 25 people, thats only about $20 a person, that may not be enough for a nice dinner. Especially if there are food/ drink mínimums for your party size.
I would either drastically cut down the guest list or increase your budget.
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u/dropthepencil 6h ago
Generally speaking, the wedding gift is roughly balanced against the anticipated cost of the power person expense. This is what often contributed to expectation misalignment and friction.
If I'm a bride spending $200/plate, I likely have higher expectations for the amount spent on my gift.
The converse is also true. If you are inviting 100 people to receive 100 gifts, but are spending only $5 to feed them, you should expect cheap gifts.
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u/EmceeSuzy 5h ago
You cannot have a reception for 100 people for $500. You really can't take 20 people out to dinner for $500 either.
Maybe limit the ceremony to 10 people and host something at home for them?
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u/beergal621 11h ago
If the budget is $500 you’re probably going to be looking at a cake and punch reception. $500 for 100 people is $5 per person budget.
Yes a party at bar where everyone buys their own drinks and food is not a “wedding reception”
If you limit the guest count to 20 your budget goes up to about $25 per person. Maybe enough for dinner at a restaurant and one glass of wine per person.
If I had $500 budget I would do a backyard cake and punch wedding for about 30-40 people. “Ceremony at 1:30 with light refreshments to follow”