Advice-how to pay for wedding?

I really appreciate all the advice. Thanks gals! I definitely had already planned for lots of DIY and I already use and love Vista Print! It's the saving part that is hard because we don't have much discretionary income right now. I'm a sub teacher who hasn't been able to get a full time job (I live in a VERY competitive area for teaching. Gotta love the Pacific NW!). Looking back on it now I wish I'd picked up a summer job, but we weren't planning a wedding then, lol! We'll get it figured out eventually. Maybe I just need to realize it may take us a little longer than I'd hoped. I always said I wouldn't do the long engagement, but I didn't know what my circumstances would be now that I'm finally at that point.

 

Thanks again everyone. BDW gals are the best!!!

We've just had to save everything, sorry I should say I'VE had to save everything lmao

 

Our biggest expense is the hotel and airfaire. Because we are so far away we can't just go for a week so its costing us double the cost of the wedding just for the airfare and hotel stay.

 

I have got most of it but what i don't have will go on a credit card and i'll transfer it to a o% one after that to pay it off.

 

We aren't getting help off anyone either so its all down to us - but we decided to get married so its only fair

i agree with what everyone else here has said (budget, save, DIY, etc.) with a few additions:

 

We have an airline rewards card, so we have started putting EVERYTHING, down to the smallest $4 purchase, on our credit card, thinking if we are going to be spending the money anyway, we should at least get something out of it down the line. (Of course, we are those people who pay off their credit card every month too, so it is like paying cash - but with the side benefit.) It doesn't help pay for the wedding now, but next year when you are burned out and desperate for a vacation, you have a nice start for your anniversary! If you have a cash back type card - even better, but be conscious of paying it off because you don't want to rack up your card and be paying tons of interest on top of your wedding costs.

 

We also booked our trip on airline points that FI had accumulated through the last few years travelling for work (and again using our credit card), which cut the cost almost in half.

 

As for how to cut costs - little things add up. Instead of the daily Starbucks run, we started buying coffee beans at Costco and making our coffee at home. (At $10 a bag, we get about 3-4 weeks worth of coffee, vs. $1.50 per cup per person 6 days a week.) We also started bringing our lunches from home. (That was HUGE - at approximately $10 each per day - we are saving $100 a week!) We stopped eating out as often (which also helped us lose some weight!) and just started asking ourselves "do we really need it?" when it came to impulse buys. We also do our grocery shopping several times a week, (convenient for us because the store is on the way home from work). Before, we would go and buy a bunch of produce and stuff and it would go bad before we used it. Now, we buy enough for a few days and use it all up before buying more. No more waste, so we are saving money there. Little by little it really starts to add up. Just figure out what things you can cut out or cut back on in your daily life.

1)I think that first you need to determine a definitive number that you would not want to go over. Then take the time frame you plan to marry and divide it into a monthly savings goal. Look for high interest savings accounts that will make your money grow.

 

2) You should also determine what is most important to you , your must have list and cost out what you want to pay for each.

3) Identify what things on that list you can do yourself, or maybe a talent that one of your guest can provide you as a "gift" i.e photography, videography etc.

4) continue to re-evaluate your list and you might find out that your previously must have list may become smaller and therefore decreases what you have to save.

 

 

Remember that this special day is really about you and your FI and what people usually have at weddings may not be what you really want to have. Traditions only matters if it really matters to you.

We are extremely lucky because my parents are paying for everything....so blessed to have such amazing parents!!!

Some of you girls are so lucky that your parents will pay for the whole wedding!! I dont get along at all with my dad so i have a feeling we wont be getting any help from him...so my FI and I are paying the whole thing ourselves. that way we get to make all the decisions which will be nice!

 

but for saving the money we have made a budget with the highest price we are willing to pay for everything and then my FI is amazing with excel so he made a spreadsheet and figured out if we put money away from each paycheque how long will it take until we have the money to pay for the wedding...that way we knew we could judge when we can get married by reasonably figuring out how we could save up the money. we are paying for eveyrthing with cash and refuse to go into debt for the wedding so although i really really want to get married in 2009 we knew that wasnt possible...unless you are willing to go into debt sometimes the date has to be pushed back as much as it sucks lol

Wow! You are VERY lucky! If my parents offered, I'd definitely take them up on it. However, they went into SO much debt for my sister's wedding a few years ago, I just could never ask them to help us out. Besides, I'm 29 and feel like at this point it should probably be our responsibility. LOL! Now, if only I could get a full-time teaching job...it'd REALLY help!

We're paying for everything, aside from my dress, on our own. So far we're looking at $18,000. We have about 2 years to save. So hopefully we can do it.

We paid for most of it ourselves (towards the end we had some family give us some money:)) We saved about $1000-1500 a month for a year and a half. Cut down on eating out, going out, shopping. It was hard (and still is since we are now doing the same for a down payment on a home). I did use some CC's to pay for items that I thought I would get paid back for (GM suits, Fabric, etc.) But we did our best paying everything major in cash.

We had planned to pay for the entire wedding on our own, however my Mom and his parents gave us our "wedding gifts" already. Enough money to cover our 2 week trip to Jamaica, my dress/alterations and our engagement pics. We're still saving like crazy because obviously there's still more money to dish out, but the big stuff is paid for. Im 30 and he's 33, so we are more than able to pay for our own wedding, but we're both the oldest siblings and the first to get married in our little families, so the parents are excited. I consider us lucky.