May 26, 2009 3:05 PM in response to: MrsCox2B

DH and I had a long engagement and saved a ton of money for the wedding. We sat down and figured out our budget. We took how much we could each comfortably save (leaving wiggle room) each month and then multiplied that by how many months before the wedding.

We also gave up certian things to help us be able to save as much as we did, which was a nice chunk of cash. We skipped going out to dinner, brought lunch with us to work, went to bargain matinees if we wanted to see a movie, etc. Putting the savings into a high yield savings is a great idea. DH and I used ING Direct and ended up with a few thousand dollars in interest by the time the wedding rolled around.

I wouldn't take out a loan for a wedding. It's a bad habit to get into, in my opinion - borrowing money for things. I can see doing it for a house or car, but not a wedding. When people asked me why I had a 2.5 year engagement, my answer was "Weddings are expensive". DH and I started our marriage with no major debts. We had a few hundred dollars on credit cards that we paid off with some of the gifts we were given.

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May 26, 2009 8:22 PM in response to: MsDenuninani

My FH and I are paying for majority of our wedding ourselves. My parents are contributing some, approx 5k total, however his parents can not afford to contribute at all. We are having a destination wedding as well and I think having people contribute (even family) becomes harder when you are asking people to pay to come to your wedding, but some of my family are still able to contribute which is a blessing. My FH and I both have two jobs and before we got engaged we saw it as extra money to play around with, even though we should have been saving it, LOL. But that is how we are paying for our wedding, we keep about $200 from the checks from our second jobs and the rest goes in our savings for the wedding.

BUT, one thing I have to say is destination weddings in my opinion are not cheaper. When I sat down with my girlfriends to develop a budget by the end of the night my grand total for things we needed and wanted was approx 30k and this was expecting 75 people to come to the wedding. Now 75 people is a lot for a destination wedding, but we have to be prepared and 50 people came to my brothers wedding. I sent out 140 invitations. So I rather have more money then less hoping and thinking a lot of people wont come. Well now our budget is down to approx $20. We had to make some cut backs and adjustments. BUT I am praying that no more than 40 people come to the wedding, the number of poeple attending will cut cost a lot. There are so many people who keep on saying "Yeah we coming" but show me the money, b/c no one is being counted unless they have made deposits for the trip!

Also about payment plans for vendors, the resort we are using doesn't require us to make the final payment until 30 days before the wedding. I am using a different photographer than what the hotel is offering and for that we made a 20% deposit of the total cost and the balance is due the day of the wedding. Whatever resort/hotel you are using I would just ask what their deposit requirements are.

Good LUCK!

Be Blessed!

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May 27, 2009 11:40 AM in response to: MrsCox2B

Well I see you are getting married in 2011 and you said that no one is helping you pay for your wedding. So the most logical thing to do is to save save save save!! Whatever you do NO NOT take out a loan. You will be swimming in debt for a loooooong time! If both of you work you can go to the bank and open up a joint savings account for your wedding. Every time you guys get paid you can put some of that money in the bank account. You have TWO years to save up. Even if you don't have a desitnaiton wedding (which those can be just as pricey as a "regular" wedding) I think you can save enough money to have a decent wedding of your dreams.

That's how FH and are saving for our wedding. We figured $300 a month goes into our account. By the time our wedding comes we would have saved enough money to reach our wedding fund goal lol. That's why we decided to have a long engagement.

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May 27, 2009 7:27 PM in response to: amlewis83

I enjoy threads dealing with finances, they're always very informative (as long as drama about comparing budgets in avoided!) Thank you to the PPs.

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May 29, 2009 2:24 PM in response to: Bride2008

I'm totally not trying to be rude, but some of these numbers people are throwing out sound astoudingly high. I am having a fairly lavish wedding with 250 guests, and we're keeping our budget somewhere between $6,000 and $8,000, with the goal of coming in under. I suppose it depends on what part of the country you're from, since I'm from a fairly rural part of Ohio. But I am serious when I tell you that I have friends who had beautiful weddings for more like the neighborhood of $3,000.

I think the bottom line in saving money on weddings is to do most everything yourself.

And I agree with other posters, don't finance a wedding. If you do, get a small credit card with a limit of only a few thousand bucks, and label it with a sharpie WEDDING ONLY! After the wedding, pay the thing off asap and SHRED it!

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May 29, 2009 4:15 PM in response to: ChelsRae85

I dont think the wedding is going to be too expensive. Our hotel and airfare is about 2 thousand. I refuse to pay more then 1 thousand for a dress. The wedding packages at the resort we want (Rosehall Montego Bay) are fairly expensive but we are going to pick and chose which of those items we want. I say roughly around 8-10k. Which isnt bad for a destination wedding. Im sure we can save that in 1 yr and 10 months =) I was just curious to see how most people paid for weddings. Id rather ask people I didnt know then ask people I do know and have them feel funny about me knowing their finances. Its always a touchy subject.
I agree with everyone that getting a loan is ridiculous considering that FH and I have no debt but our house and our cars. We have no credit card debt, no prior vehicles, no outrages shopping debts...We have done fairly good and staying above water with money. Im so excited to finally be a bride. Something I have been drooling over for 5 years. Glad to finally be able to say yes were engaged =) ah..

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May 31, 2009 11:20 AM in response to: ChelsRae85

Yes, that's absolutely true. Venues inside Washington DC charged about $200pp for the same stuff I got for $125 in northern VA. But the distance wasn't a big deal, as most of our guests were OOT, so we didn't want them to have to drive in DC itself, anyway.

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