Save on Wedding Food and Favors – How to Have the Wedding of Your Dreams for $1,500 or Less!
Food is another area where many people lose on their budget. The best way to save money is to work out a menu, but doing that really depends on your style of wedding.
The next biggest wedding expense can be your food! Here are the types of food you can consider for tips in how to do them cheaply and how to save money.
Brunch – If your reception is to start between the hours of 9:30 a.m.- 11:30 a.m.
Lunch – For afternoon weddings, lunch food is always cheaper than dinner!
Appetizers and Cocktails – Skip the dinner and have a mid afternoon reception and serve appetizers and cocktails
Dinner – The most popular choice for reception food. For a great dinner menu that doesn't cost a fortune, start with salad and soups, then move on to something heavier. Involve potatoes in anything you cook because they are cheap and filling. You can cook a whole turkey and ham, or cook chicken breasts and pasta.
Favors
Yes, you do have to get your guests favors to thank them for attending the wedding. Make them yourself! Baked goods are always a huge hit!
Remember when you shop online for wedding items (and even in store!) use Ebates for cashback. They even have special wedding cashback offers!
Any suggestions for venues under $400?
Many parks, state parks you can rent for well under $400, many have a seating areas and beautiful back drops to use as well.
I don’t think you don’t need to get your guests favors. Your guests are there because they want to be there for you. More often than not, guests just throw them out, and prefer not to have to take something home with them. I think it is wasteful to spend $ on something like that when you have such a tight budget. However, all the rest of your tips, I like. I just wish you had more of them.
I made chocolate candies for my party favors. It didn’t cost a lot and everyone ate them. They didn’t though them out.
I love this and think it makes sense, but you are probably working with 25 people give or take. For what amount of guests did this work? Thanks!
I did my wedding for under $3000—and $2000 of that was food.
It was my fault really, we had around 200 people and I wanted there to be a sit down meal with chicken.
It was the biggest expense, and my mom and sisters and my aunt and people from my church helped with the cooking. We bought tons of chicken breasts and cooked them in a bunch of borrowed crockpots, etc.
Everything else was under $1000
(we bought the flowers wholesale from a wholesale veggie market place, and my mom’s cousin helped make the boquets, a relative took pictures, my sister made the cake, I sewed the bridesmaid dresses, I got my dress on sale from the clearance rack at David’s Bridal for $99, my tiara from walmart for $16. Thankfully we were able to use my grandparents church’s fellowship hall, which I decorated with glass bowls and silver colored platters from thrift stores with tea lights floating in them.)
This was my wedding in 1984, except it was cheaper; because my mother in law did the floral arrangements using silk flowers and my mother did the food. I had people talking for a long time about how nice it was.
Where would be a cheap venue for a mid september wedding
Take advantage of the weather and do something outside, check states parks, city parks ect for being able to hold a wedding. When we lived in Maryland there was park across the street that had a gazebo and water fountain and it made a beautiful wedding background!