An analysis of the geometrically nonlinear dynamics of thin circular plates on a two parameter elastic foundation is presented in this paper. The nonlinear partial differential equations obtained from von Karman's large deflection plate theory have been solved by using the harmonic differential quadrature method in the space domain and the finite difference numerical integration method in the time domain. Winkler-Pasternak foundation model is considered and the influence of stiffness of Winkler (K) and Pasternak (G) foundation on the geometrically nonlinear analysis of the circular plates has been investigated.Numerical examples demonstrate the satisfactory accuracy, efficiency and versatility of the presented approach. From the numerical computation, it can be concluded that the present coupled methodology is an efficient method for the nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of circular plates with or without an elastic medium.