Wedding on a Budget (Part 1)

Well, so far, we are sticking to our budget. And our budget is, as I have discovered in my planning...small. How small? Less than $9,000 small. When we started planning in January, we would have said it was crazy to think of $9,000 as a small number. I thought we could plan our wedding with half that. (Even now, I can hear the wedding gods laughing hysterically at that idea!)
So we debated even having a wedding. Considered eloping. Yep. Considered a destination wedding. Yep. Considered a potluck. Vegas. Yep. Considered all the other options.
Then family chimed in. (*Deep breath*)
My mother forbade eloping. (Of course, that only made it more appealing...)
My sister-in-law couldn't wait to help plan.
And Sean's dad starting telling people to mark their calendars.
And it continued...My family lives in Michigan. They never come here. I have friends who have never been here. Sean has a huge family that is scattered across the US and several different countries. Really, the only excuse for them to get together is when one of us gets married, or one of us dies. Our fathers might never meet if we didn't have a wedding.
Did we really want to miss the opportunity to bring our families together to celebrate?
Did we?
Well, no.
Family is one of the most important things to both of us.
(sigh.)
So how many family? The first guest list was over 250, including family and only close friends. With a mom as one of 8 and dad as one of 10 siblings, Sean is related to more people than I think I even know. The first cut (those out of town and out of touch enough to be sure to not come) got us down to about 200. We think between 130-150 will be there.
So we made a budget, with family contributions. About $9000.
And away we go....