We're having a total budget and intimate wedding of under 3K in Georgia. It will be on the beach and then have our reception/lunch at the beach front restaurant that will be right next to where the ceremony is held. The number of guests will be pretty small, anywhere between 10 to 30 guests. I've heard of some wedding receptions at fancy restaurants where the menu was extremely limited because the bride/groom had to pay for it. The restaurant is a very very laid back place, it's more like a bar and grille that you'd go to when you go on a beach vacation. We are not going to have any decoration at the wedding and reception. It's not necessary when we've got the beautiful beach, water, and nature. We will definitely call the restaurant ahead of time to let them know how many people will be arriving for lunch.
The thing is, do we pay for their meals- when it's all going to be a la carte, the most expensive meal may be like 30 bucks and such. We wouldn't want our guests to take advantage of this. We're also not going to be asking for any gifts when their presence is our present, too. Two of my bridesmaids think it is only fair that the guests pay for their meals and drinks if we request for no wedding gifts. Although, we may pay for toasting wine for each of the guest to toast the celebration of our wedding.
What do you think?
*edit*
Ok thank you everyone for your responses!
Actually, both of our families live in Georgia. My fiance and I currently live in South Florida because he was able to find a better job out here. But that's why we're having the wedding in Georgia to make it very convenient for both of our families in Georgia. Most of them live near the coast of where we're having our wedding.
The budget we set is 3K because we don't know exactly how much both of our attires will cost and we're paying for our wedding suite on the beach so it'd be our honeymoon, too. We're also going to rent a few hotel rooms on the beach for the wedding party for the 2 days before the wedding, so we could have our girl time with my bridesmaids and the guys have their own time as well. Also, my fiance's grandmother lives in NY and he really wants to fly her down for the wedding, so we're going to be paying for her flight ticket.
The guests we're inviting are the closest friends and a few relatives. We just thought that our wedding day is a great excuse for our friends and family to use for their vacation days. I asked 5 different people that aren't in our wedding party about this to get more of an unbiased opinion and they all said the same thing that my bridesmaids said. I guess each bride has different groups of guests.
Again, we don't want any gifts at all, thats why we thought their presence at our wedding is enough and that if they wanted to pay, they could use the "gift money" for paying for their meals. That's what my girls said. I don't know....