75k budget 180 people - is it possible?

Final final wedding budget is 75k as we are paying for the majority of it ourselves. My question - is it possible?

My breakdown:

- Friday wedding in June or September

- cocktail & reception only: do venues knock down the price at all for a reception only wedding? thinking like a 5:00-11:00 pm venue time

- we are looking into venues (in the suburbs) now and seeing food (plated) + bar (open) coming in around 35-50k including taxes and rental fee.

- almost all the venues we are looking into provide china, glassware, tables/chairs, linens,napkins, etc.

- I want a day of coordinator / maybe month of as well.

- realistically not going to have real florals, fake for deco but real for bridesmaid bouquets + me.

- is a city wedding possible? I do not want at a banquet hall

-We are currently looking at venues in the city and suburbs, no more than 35 minutes of Geneva for suburbs. We are apart of two parishes one in city and one in suburbs so both are fine.

- Touring: Morton Arboretum, Venue 5126, The Revelry, & Fischermans Inn

Soo… let’s say we go the high end of food + bar + venue is 50k. Realistically, is 25k enough for the rest of it? Such a decor & florals(fake mostly),coordinator, photographer & videographer, DJ, and I’m sure the other 1 million things I’ve missed.

I’ve looked on this thread and can’t find a situation exactlyyy like mine but there are similar ones! I would love to hear if anyone has experiences similar to mine (75k budget, 185 people) and if they were able to accomplish it with cutting too many corners in either the suburbs or city. I would love to hear the venues you were able to accomplish this with, if you did!

Ty!🥂

Posted Mar 14, 2026, 12:20 AM UTC

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