How did you pay for your wedding?

We are paying for our own wedding as many of you are, and I was wondering, how did you do it?

Specifically, did you set aside a certain amount of money per month and pay for your expenses as they came up, or did you save the money you budgeted before you began planning and paying for anything?

The wording of my question is throwing me off a little as I am reading, but hopefully you ladies will understand what I am trying to ask.

We are saving a certain amount per month and just paying for things as they come up. The bulk of the costs aren't due until the end anyway.

Hopefully that's what you were asking!

Good question cuz I was wondering the same thing. We aren't getting married until 2010 but I'm planning now just so we aren't surprised with a big bill. So far I've just been buying things here and there when they are on sale and just keeping my eye out for deals. As for the wedding itself and our trip I think we will just put aside whatever money we can for this year and next year when we are minus a truck payment that will all go into an account for the wedding. It's nice that you don't have to pay for the big part till the end

We both had savings so we paid for the flight and resort first; along with my kids flights and his parent flight and resort stay. As things came up we just paid for it.

My dad is paying for the wedding at the resort, but we are paying for the photographer, private transfers for our guests, decorations/favors/anything the resort does not include, our stay and anything else that comes up that is not included in the resort wedding.

I am basically using my tax return refund to pay for everything. I only work part time and have no room to save up. FI works full time, but he pays all the bills, so he doesn't really have any extra money either. I am working on a pretty tight budget and am trying really hard to not put anything on credit cards, so going into debt is not an option for us.

we opened a wedding account first thing when we got engaged 9 months ago. nothing but wedding stuff gets paid out of it. and we both put a certain amount in every pay check.

stuff like wedding attire, rings, MOH, best man, wedding gifts are the own person's responsibility. we're both paying for our own trip on our own too. everything else comes out of the wedding account.

we pay for things as they come up. anything huge (like our AHR venue deposit) got paid on one of our credit cards then promptly paid off with the money from the wedding account. we're on budget for our wedding...honeymoon, not so much. lol

I think paying things as they come along helps ease the shock of one ginormous bill And definitely avoid using your credit cards, unless you can pay the entire bill once it comes in. It's also a good idea to keep a running total of how much you're spending on anything wedding related to keep you in check and on budget. Like many brides you will find it's very easy to rack up costs and go a little overboard especially when there are so many great deals out there on all things wedding!

We are getting married in 2010 so we have a bit of time, and my FI went back to school for these 2 years so it won't be as easy as I'd hoped. But I have a certain amount that goes into my savings account each month...and we hope to just spread the costs out so when we have to start paying for things, it won't be a huge hit. I did already order my dress and put a deposit on that, and then the remainder is due at first fitting, and then pickup. So I am just hoping to spread everything out!! Also, I have a credit card with points and I put everything on it...and then accumulate points towards our honeymoon!!

Very important question. First and foremost it is very important for us that we do not break the bank with a wedding and therefore we want to do everything we can to avoid accumulating too much debt. We both have a small amount set aside that will be used to pay for things upfront, but we are also doing the same thing as "calchik". We are contributing to a shared account monthly and using those funds to pay for a bulk of our expenses.

I have a spreadsheet set up of our budget, cause I buy alot as we go and w/ the spreadsheet i keep on track of what still needs to be paid. My future in-laws are paying for our hotel and flight. We've bought most of the smaller details, we just buy as we go. We get paid every week. We've taken everythin that we owe and divided by the number of weeks we have until its due and put that amount into the file every week. Once we've reached the amount we need to we've been just giving it to FFIL and he will cover everything. Alot of stuff is due the day of the wedding and we don't want to think about it, so he is taking care of it.