When we got married we had ~30 people for the wedding, and about ~50 for the reception. The wedding was at an outdoor amphitheater that was really nice (and free to use). The reception was a big BBQ at a pavilion out at the nearby lake. We decided early on that we only wanted people there that ACTUALLY meant something to us. No distant cousins, random friends of our parents, friends we rarely connected with, etc. Just people close to us, and it was terrific! Probably the best wedding I've been to, because we all had fun.
I went to a wedding of a friend of a friend, whose bride's father was a big-time muckety-muck. So there were hundreds of people, at a really nice place, and the whole thing cost way too many tens of thousands of dollars. From what we could see, the bride and groom had a miserable time, while everyone else enjoyed themselves. It was a "you'd better eat before the reception" deal because they had a wedding coordinator guiding them all over the place on a strict schedule, and they didn't get the chance to have a good time at their own wedding. I'd have hated that.