Figuring out your guest list can be daunting. You should figure out your budget for your event. If you’re on a limited budget, which in today’s economy many of us are, determining the amount of guests to invite based on cost per person is very important. Many can hardly afford to pay their rent/mortgage let alone host a wedding reception. What you have to figure out is, after your monthly expenses are met, just HOW MUCH disposable income will you have to host this? Don’t break the bank!!!
For example, if you have only $500 to spend on your “reception” don’t invite 500 people as that would leave you with the cost of $1 per person. That wouldn’t even cover the cost of coffee with cream and sugar in a paper cup.
Your cost should cover everything a guest may eat, drink, and what they are using to eat and drink with. Who is serving the food and beverage, and how much is that? Are you renting a space? Are you going to serve on paper or plastic plates? Are you having a coffee and punch service, or a bar service? How much will hiring a bartender/server for this? How much is the liquor? How much is ice? How much are glasses? Don’t forget that if you are serving liquor it’s advisable to have extra insurance for this.
Let’s say that you can spend $5 per person. This would mean that on a budget of $500 for the reception, you could invite 100 people. What if you have to invite more people because of large families? You would then have to figure out a menu that will allow you to do so, OR, forgo a menu all together and stick with the bare necessities.
You could keep it very simple, and forgo a bar service as well as a sit down reception. If you have your wedding AFTER lunch time and well before the dinner hour, you could just serve a simple coffee and punch service with your wedding cake. On your invitations you could state “light refreshment and cake served afterwards”. This tells your guests that they should make it a point to eat their lunch before attending, and that the reception will not carry over into the dinner hour, and that no, there will not be a bar service. There is nothing wrong with this, to keep it very simple. Not everyone has a gazillion dollars to spend on a wedding. If your guests expect more, it says a lot about the company you keep and how you strive to impress them (while breaking your own personal budget to live and pay your normal bills).
Is it more important to have a large guest list because you are “expected” to or because you WANT to? What do you think your guests “expect” to eat and drink? If you feel that they expect a high rolling affair and for you to pay for it, what does that say about your guests?
A wedding and reception is to celebrate the event, not to impress your guests.
Figure if you stick with the “light refreshment and cake served afterwards” and only want to spend $500 for this you have to add in certain other costs.
1. How much is it to rent the location? Does this include tables and chairs? Is there a self service kitchen? (most venue’s cost $400 and up, so it would make a good point to find out if your church offers a room with kitchen facilities that you could access; some offer it for free or for a small cost that you will have to figure out the cost per person).
2. How much will your paper products cost? This should include garbage bags, paper plates and napkins, table cloths, coffee and beverage cups, paper towels, soap. (take a small notebook and price these items at dollar stores and other places like Sam’s club or Costco) On the average, figure about $1 per person or more. If you want to keep it low, have just table cloths on your coffee table and cake table and have chairs for the guests to sit if they want.
3. How much will it cost to have someone set this up for you and serve food and beverage, as well as clean up afterwards? Do you have a reliable waitress or waiter that can do this for you? You could also post on bulletin boards at college’s to have a student set up and serve/clean for this. As it would be a short service, figure paying about $50 for this.
4. How much will beverages cost? If you stick with coffee and punch, figure that it will cost about $1 per person.
5. How much will your cake cost? Most wedding cakes cost $350 or more. You could keep it very simple by having just a small cake for the bride and groom to cut, with either various cookies or a sheet cake for the guests. If you go this route, figure that it will cost about $2 per person for this.
6. Now your cost is about $4 per person for all of the above (not including hiring someone to serve). $500 - $50 (server) = $450 divided by $4 per person = 112 people you can invite. If you are going to have other foods, this guest list should be lower.
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