Groom trying to help get started...HELP!

leylatravis

I'm the Groom-to-be and am trying to help get a jump on planning, but have no idea where to start. We've made a guest list and tried to figure out who will actually attend (pipe dream, I know). Now what? Should we choose a venue before making a budget or make a budget before picking a date and venue?

We're paying for everything ourselves, so we don't want to get too elaborate but we have almost 100 on our guest list. Ouch.

Any ideas in/around Atlanta?

n82ureluvr915

Budget first! Once you decide how much you can spend then you choose a venue. Once you have that decided then you choose the rest of your vendors. Some venues have a preferred vendor list that you HAVE to choose from. If you book a caterer and they aren't on the list then you will have lost your deposit.

lauraps

Congrats ! And what a wonderful groom you are helping out. I would make the budget first and go from there. You have a somewhat smaller guest list (mine is 300) so I am thinking you should be able to find a place that is not too much. I love the Payne Corely house but it would not hold our amount of people. Check them out though. The people are great and willing to work with you on price. Good luck !

pokepoke27

Always start with a budget. Then decide on a guest list. And just in case you don't know, you ALWAYS plan for 100% attendance. So that means you really shouldn't book a venue with a 75 person capacity with your 100 person guest list. 

We could be alot more help with the venue if we had a little more information such as your budget and what area of Atlanta you're in and how far  you are willing to travel to your venue. 

leylatravis

Thanks for the posts so far. We are starting from ground zero as far as savings, so that's part of the difficulty in making a budget. I guess it just depends on how far out we want to push the wedding (I just put in Jan 1 so it would let me continue to the next page).

If we could get it done for $1000, we'd be thrilled. I'm expecting to spend closer to $5000, though.

We live in Buckhead now, but will be living closer to Grant Park in a few months. We're definitely looking to stay OTP for the festivities, as most of our guests are "townies" as well.

michellepethel

There are several places in west atlanta if you dont mind OTP that are cheap. Try the curtural atrs center in douglasville. They allow outside catering. Also I work for Gabe's Downtown and can give you the same (cough-better) Atlanta style food for half the price.

leylatravis

We finally decided on a tentative date and a budget! We should have $2000 for the ceremony and reception (all in one location). We are going to try and leverage outside caterers that we know and have several friends to provide photography and music. Our budget will mostly go toward the venue itself and decorations, although we are still looking at friends and family deals on these, too.