How much did you spend on your AHR?

WOW! I'm shocked at some of the numbers here.

We are getting the location (my Dad's art gallery) for free, plus buying beer/wine only through the gallery at a discounted rate. Then we will just do appetizers, and FMIL is making the cookies. And we'll get some flowers to spruce up the place.

My Grandparents are paying for this as our wedding present, but I don't estimate it being over $2k... maybe I'm just living in the clouds

I'm shocked at my number too!!! lol I am sooooo not a fancy formal reception type girl but if it's important to my FI and his family then so be it. I know it will be a fantastic night and it will be awesome having everyone we love around us to celebrate our marriage. I just cringe at the number though because I could knock a huge chunk off my student loan with that!!! aaaahhhhh!!!

The hardest part about event planning is accounting for all of the details. Sure you need food, but you also need plates and napkins.

Beer is awesome but you need some way to chill it.

You have a space but there aren't tables and chairs or they have tables but no cloths.

Then there is tax and delivery fees, gratuities, etc. that have to be added. Parties can get pretty expensive pretty quickly.

Ours will be just over 3K. This is for a reception hall, appetizers, and free beer/wine for 4 hours. We are doing it on a Friday night which knocked 2K off the price. We're using an ipod and speakers for music so that saves about $500. We're doing desserts ourselves which will be a couple hundred and favors for 200 people will be another couple. Total all-in-all will be around $3500. I'm paying for it myself so I'm definitely going to keep it capped at $3500!

Yeah, we didn't want the costs to be so high but everything keeps adding up! It is the little things like Erin said!

i'm not going to spend a lot because if we had the money we would have just done the whole thing at home in the first place. we keep stressing to people that it's just a CASUAL party, a celebration to include those who couldn't come, and NOT a "wedding reception." i'm sure we will still hear crap from some family like, "well if you were going to do all this anyway, why didn't you just do it all here?"

besides, the price for halls/catering, etc. also seems to double or even triple if the word "wedding" is involved. i will call it an anniversary party if i have to, but i am not getting price-gouged over semantics!

We are going to do a backyard party for our AHR. We will be bbqing and have some salads, deserts and munchies and a couple of kegs and wine. We are not wanting to have a whole other wedding at home, we can't afford it. So wewill put the $ into fixing up our yard and have it at home. At least that is the plan...whoknows what will happen once we tell the parents of our plan

As now I stand corrected in another post I did a few days ago about something like this..(I told Jay about the thread cuz I had to ask) we actually ended up with a grand total of $6K. We had 104 people attend and this was 5 course with either prime rib or chicken. It was a full formal event to celebrate and recreate the day for grandparents because they are serious old school and hated the fact that they would not be in attendance due to health. We had it at a rest. that has a complete ballroom.. actually shocked me a bit but it was Jay's choice and rated on The Food Network for Best Steakhouses. It was a package deal for 5 hrs of time. They actually called it an anniversary party, due to us not really needed some of the other items. We lucked out as Jay has been a DJ for so long that the company offered it to us as a wedding present... savings $800. My flowers alone for the day because I was silly and wanted to have close to what I had in Jamaica was over 700.. YIKES.. this was dumb for the amount we actually got even with a discount because the place gave us a $ amount we could spend on flowers as part of the package.. but again January, Massachusetts, and Tropical flowers I should have known better. If I attempted to put dollar amounts on favors, table runners, gifts to family, hotel rooms, and all the other small items that went into the day.. my total would be more on the $7500 scale. I bought items as I saw them way before the wedding knowing I was going to need them for this.

I guess it really depends on where and when you will be having it and who can help out with what if you are going alone and cooking 100+ hamburger and 100+ dogs yourself. But it adds up quick espec with a large number you are thinking.. I would be amazed with a 1K budget.