How did you pay for your wedding? Did you have take out any loans?

Question

Bride on a budget trying to get advice!

Answer 1

i'm doing a 7,000 wedding this december on credit cards. (yes, go ahead everyone- yell at me for it!) i'm 22yrs old and have amazing credit. i also have credit cards that never give me late fees, build interest, annual payments, etc.. (i have a gov. credit card b/c hubby is army and it's only open to military families)

i have reimbursement from student loans and other money coming in over the next few months, so if i fill up a credit card, and pay it off halway down the road, it's fine. it doesn't hurt anything. also, if i need to pay something, and dont have money in the bank but need to book something now for the weddign- ill use a credit card.

let's be realistic- it may take YEARS to save up enough money with gas, bills, rent payments, etc. so i know that i'll make enough money to pay it off within the first six months of the next year, so i'm not that concerned about it- and my checks don't bounce from any kind of withdrawls from my bank account.

i'd ratherh have the money in the bank to pay rent than to blow it on candles right now... so i'm going to charge the candles to credit card.

i didn't take out loans cause i would have definetely had to pay interest and my credit cards are enough kind of a loan in life that i'm comfortable with handling.

if you're on a budget, find ways to cut a few dollars here- few dollars there. shop around for a while.. im using silk flowers rather than real and have gotten a very positive response on it (they look real, cheaper, and easier to preserve!) im also using floral spray to decorate carnations for my bridesmaids rather than having them made... i put them together.. look just as cute!

go to a craft store and pick up things in your colors- you don't need to pay $30 for 100 napkins with your names on them. people won't care.

im serving ice cream instead of cake as something fun for the family and that saved me getting a huge wedding cake that would've put me over budget.

don't worry about favors, people either throw them away- eat them- or give them away. (i can't tell you how many times ive babysat and the parents gave me the favor for part of my payment!!!) so i just did lil organza bags with mints in the colors of my wedding... so cheap! i did 120 of them for $45! and my mother in law paid for them cause they were cheap and she wanted to help..

if you want colored rose petals to decorate, go to the craft store and buy a bunch of white ones and use floral spray of your perfect wedding color and decorate them! (i bought a bunch ofo white which was cheap, and sprayed them baby tiffany-kinda blue....BEAUTIFUL! better than the dull darker blue that they had to buy!)

for centerpeices, im doing picture frames with a picture of us, and a quote with it that relates to that period in our relationship.. (army pic of us before he deployed and me saying 'absence makes the heart grow stronger')  aaannd... i'm putting candles around it with rose petals and it really really adds a personal touch- PLUS! i didn't haev to pay for a bunch of flowers that i didn't know what to do with, a bunch of vases that i didn't know what to do with or wanted to pay for and give away, and all the other tid-bits...

take EVERY CHANCE YOU GET to make something cheap but add a personal touch. no one will ever remember what you paid for it, but they will say how they remember it being personal to you guys.

i also ordered invites off the internet  (www.theamericanwedding.com) and only got the invites, respond cards & printed envelopes. i got paper from the craft store that was white, printed out where the reception was, and cut them out in perfect squares... they matched really nicely with the invites and no one can tell... trust me.. my maid of honor didn't! so that saved me $50!

also, at the craft store, they have programs that you print on at home... my sister in law did it last year for her wedding and spent $30 on over 100 programs...!!

hmmm...oh, and i read somewhere that you should make a list of things you MUST HAVE in order for your day to be perfect for you. i.e... dress, photographer, dj, ring, your bouquet. all the other stuff, woopti.. you can skim a few bucks frmo them... but there's certain things im paying full price for. my dress, the photographer was expensive but i've been told you will REGRET NOT HAVING ONE!!..., a dj is a must, and my diamond wedding band.

everything else is just addition to your wedding but that stuff... i wouldn't skimp on b/c those are the things that are most important to me...and probably any bride...

i hope this helps, if not, send an email and i can help with ideas! im in full planning mode for my december wedding ;)

Answer 2

He had savings that we specifically chose for a wedding.  We don't intend to spend a penny over that.  Buying your wedding on credit is just so stupid.  If you don't have the money, you can't afford it, so cut back.

I'm buying a relative's house in November and the wedding is the following month.  He's paying for the wedding because that is what HE wanted.  I'm making the dress and will likely be making the food as well (although it comes out of his account). I wanted a courthouse wedding. I find weddings to be mostly a waste of money. He's been married before and I think he enjoys the attention (his kids and I have bets on this).

Answer 3

I paid cash but I scheduled it out far enough I could do a little at a time and my reception all did everything ( cake, food, decorations..etc) so I set up a payment plan with them and owed nothing by the time the wedding came.  

Answer 4

Do not go into your marriage in debt.  Wait to get married until you save up all the money to pay for the whole shabang.  You will be so happy you did this.  

Good luck!

Answer 5

Paid cash along the way.  I had to put the final food/alcohol tab on my credit card but paid it off the next month.  I'm not bragging, I'm just saying you should only spend what you can afford.  It makes no sense to finance a party.  We spent $8000 and had a beautiful wedding with everything I wanted, and nothing I didn't.

Answer 6

My wedding is 22 months away, so I pick stuff up here and there. It really helps cut down the costs. It sucks having to wait that long, but having 22 months gives me a lot of time to save and find great bargains.

My parents are paying for the food. His parents are paying for alcohol.

I have used a credit card - but its 6 months no interest, same as cash. I have the majority of my decorations and flowers (Im having silk flowers made because I have a pollen allergy) on the credit card, and it will be paid off by Dec 1. We will be paying cash for the rest -- invitations, cake, dress, etc.

Answer 7

We both have jobs and started saving.  We had a little saved already, but are still saving up for the wedding next year.

I had stopped doing tax preparation on the side when I went back to school for my Master's and I'm thinking of getting back into it to make some extra money.

Answer 8

most weddings unless rich are on a budget!  

we are saving for our wedding!  but our wedding isn't for another 2 years!!  i'd rather wait a few years and have the wedding i want with out going into debt!

Answer 9

I'm lucky and have a great family that is taking care of our wedding, but if we where to do it on our own we would NEVER take our loans. Its not worth getting yourself into debt for your wedding and starting your lives together in debt.

Look for friends and family that know how to arrange flowers, or can cook, or have a big yard to get married in. Check out all your options before you go the loan route.

Answer 10

DO NOT GO INTO DEBT FOR YOUR WEDDING! (yes I'm yelling that).

Seriously!  Starting your marriage in debt for ONE DAY just isn't worth it.  Set the date for a year of two in advanced and plan a part of your monthly income that you put into a high interest savings account every month automatically.  And stay on BUDGET.  You should only have the wedding you can afford.

Try to save money by having your wedding in an off season (winter) or off day (Friday or Sunday) you can seriously save like 40-50% off on catering and hall rentals.  Our winter wedding is saving us about $40 per person (for 110 people that's a lot)

Good Luck!

Answer 11

I paid cash. We saved for a while and then paid up front.

Do not use your credit card or loans! It's not worth it.

Answer 12

have the brides parents pay for it

Answer 13

Save Money and do it right!  It is all about the actual wedding - not the reception - so do that and if you do a reception make sure to get a good DJ & WEDDING MC - so the whole event is successful!

Answer 14

My fiance and I will be paying everything without the aid of credit cards or loans. We're having a long engagement so we can accomplish this. We used to go out twice per week, and now we only go once. On our kitchen counter we have our "wedding jar". Every week we put the money that would have been spent on that additional dinner into that jar. At the end of the month it is put into our savings account that we set up specifically for the wedding.

We've also decided not to have a limo (we personally think that they're overrated), a videographer, and we're only having a professional photographer at our ceremony to do the formal posed pictures. At our reception we'll have a few disposable cameras, but then our parents and other family will take some pictures as well.

We're not having flowers with the exception of the bouquets. The ceremony will be outdoors and flowery anyhow.

Since I happen to be creative and crafty, the wedding decorations and other things will be made by me.

The biggest money saver has been keeping the guestlist in check. We only invited close family, as well as a few close friends. Granted, since we have huge families our guest list is about 100, but all in all that's not too bad.

My advice to you is to figure out which things are important to you, and which arent. Then you can start cutting things out that you don't want and/or need.  

Answer 15

Well you start planning for your wedding two years in advance, and every month you  pay for something in cash. That's how you pay for a wedding.

Trust me it works, I'm a wedding planner. When you are look for your vendors make sure you get references.

Answer 16

We took mine, my fiances and my parents tax refunds (totalled 6,000) the stimulus payments (2400) and the rest we just bought stuff when we had the money for it. my wedding costs about $10,000 Definitely do not take out a loan for it!

Answer 17

I would not want to be in debt over my wedding day, even though it was incredible, but you have to decide what is important to you.

If you want the dream wedding and are ok with going into debt then do what you feel will make you happiest. We had school loans so it wasn't in our best interest to take on more debt.

My parents paid for the big stuff. But we saved money by picking the food up ourselves and we hired someone to prepare and heat it up, put it out and clean up...she was wonderful that saved us thousands!! The funny thing was that everyone that we had it catered.

We bought the flowers for the reception from Sam's Club online and saved alot of money. We bought the actual centerpieces from a craft store so that we could start buying stuff slowly over time. We enlisted a bunch of help from family members who were more than happy to help and we saved alot.

Just decide whether you want to go into debt if not you can always find do it yourself ways for almost everything. On some of the wedding websites they have forums where brides give away things that they had too much for for their wedding...Personally I bought double the programs and we didn't print on most of them...I will be putting alot on there.

Answer 18

If you plan ahead you can get some good deals. Marry in the off-season. Make your budget and stick to it. Do everything you can yourself. Call friends you know have talents to offer (musician, florist, baker, etc). Call in old favors from people who "owe you one". Put aside a little money every check to put toward the wedding. Keep your head on straight.

If you do get a CC, make sure you pay the montly balance in full and make sure it is one that has rewards that will benefit you. My bro and SiL put their entire wedding on a CC that gave them enough air miles to go on a virtually FREE honeymoon. They paid their balance every month and only budgeted out what they could put on the card based on what they make. They went into their wedding debt-free and got the bonus of good credit and free flights and hotel upgrades!

Good luck!  

Answer 19

We are using a credit card that we pay off monthly.  We are using the air miles we get as a result for our honeymoon.  We *never* carry a CC balance, so while we do "use" credit we're not paying interest.

We are foregoing the usual big fancy reception in favor of something smaller because we just can't see spending thousands upon thousands of dollars for a party, especially when we both have been married before.

We're using the bulk of our cash to pay for the honeymoon, because that's what's really important to us anyway.

Answer 20

We had our wedding in my in laws backyard (we rented chairs but some guests went together and paid it as a gift).

We only had dinner for about 30 people (our parents, grandparents, the wedding party and a few close friends).  We had it at a restaurant owned by a family friend (we ordered prime rib, he sold us the large plate for the small plate price, but in the end as we went to pay him he told us to consider it a wedding gift).  He told us he would let us bring in wine/champagne for the toasts because paying restaurant prices for that would be huge!

We had the reception in a hall and had our family members bring the food for that. (dinner at midnight, buns cold meat, cheeses, baked goods).  We did not have a free bar.

The only thing we paid full price for was the photographer.  Don't skimp on this because 20 years from now, no one will remember the food you served but you will remember bad pictures.

Look around and see if you have friends or family members that can do what you need.

Answer 21

A wedding is about the worst thing to go into debt for: the items are consumables and have no value after the event.  In debt is also a bad way to start a marriage.

We opened a separate bank account for our wedding expenses.  We started it with some of our savings, and then made regular deposits into it.  We put aside money that we saved using coupons and store loyalty cards, rebates, expense reimbursements, tax refunds, what was left in our wallets on payday.  You'd be amazed how quickly these things add up.  I sold a motorcycle I didn't ride much anymore.  We rented movies instead of going to the theater, went to less expensive restaurants, took our lunches to work, and the like.  We then paid for wedding items out of this bank account.  We always knew how much money we had, how much we'd spent and how much more we needed to save.  We ended up saving a few thousand dollars more than we originally planned, so we were able to add a few nice touches (hors d'oeuvre upgrades, for instance) at the end.

The wedding was in May, but we've kept the bank account and some of our new-found saving methods.  We'll now use that bank account to buy frivolous things like a big screen TV and other stuff that we might feel guilty about spending savings on.

Answer 22

Saved for years. Saved for a house, bought a home. Kept saving for the wedding, then got married.

When we said our "I Do's" we had no debt from the wedding.

As others said DON'T use Credit Cards and DO NOT take out a loan. If you cannot afford to pay as you go or pay it off in a reasonable time, then rethink the wedding plans (i.e the wedding date, the decor/food - scale back) or maybe elope?

Answer 23

We budgeted for what we knew we could afford to spend in the time before the wedding - for us, we were engaged eight months.

Don't take out loans, or use credit cards. You have a marriage upcoming to think about - not just the wedding day.

So only budget for what you can afford.