Help please! My parents will be footing a majority of the bill for the wedding, but they refuse to tell me a budget. My dad threw a number out initially, but he's since realized that's not feasible, as it's quite a bit under. I think he just gave me a number so I could do some research and see how much things cost. Now that I've done the research, they know the wedding will be much more, but by how much, I have no idea.
My dad's expecting to pay $80-$120 a head for a good meal, and I've found a venue that we all love in that range, but my dad is concerned about the cost and rightfully so. My parents keep bringing up all these grand venues that are very pricey, and then they throw out places like the community center with a local BBQ company as the caterer (I'm very much against this idea, but they still bring it up every time we talk about the wedding).
My fiance and I live in a different state from where both our parents live, and from where the wedding will be, with a 3 hour time difference. My fiance and I, and my parents all agree that having the wedding somewhere (at a hotel for instance) where the staff there will essentially handle most of the details will be much much easier, but I know these will be more expensive.
I've suggested numerous venues with varying prices for my parents to visit (I probably won't be able to visit any venues until I'm out there for the wedding), but the only venues that are actually being considered are something at $100 a head, or the local BBQ company catering at the community center. At this point, I've stopped contacting venues because I have absolutely no idea what the budget is. I don't have my heart set on the $100 a head, and there were plenty of other places that would be great for my parents to visit (that are cheaper per person), but I don't know if it's out of the running or not due to cost.
Besides just the budget, we can't agree on a date or general area. Whenever I think we're finally moving along, my fiance and I get another reason why a certain date isn't going to work, or why we shouldn't have the wedding in this area. At this point, this has been going on for about a month, and my fiance and I were hoping for early January.
Edited for additional clarity.