I asked my girlfriend to be my wife and she said…YES! Now comes the stress and agony of preparing for the wedding! I just came back from a friend’s wedding this past weekend and it was a lot of fun. They told me that they spent about $23,000 for the entire wedding and reception for about 230 people, equating to $100/head. This is I think pretty reasonable. They were able to get a massive discount for having the wedding in the middle of a holiday weekend, which I might have to consider for my wedding.
I was smart by saving early for the engagement ring but I forgot to consider saving for the wedding ceremony and reception. So, I’m in a big hole to start things off. We haven’t set the wedding date yet, but I figure we’ll give it about 8 months or so from today, giving us about spring time of 2011 time frame. My goal right now is to be able to have $10,000 available to spend on the wedding. Our wedding budget is still unknown because my folks and her folks will talk things over and come to an agreement on how to finance for the wedding. I don’t expect them to pay for everything, so having some money available will be nice and will relieve some burdens off of the parents. On top of that, I also want to have about $5,000 available for the honeymoon. Since my fiance will be in school during the spring time, we might have to postpone the honeymoon until the summer, which will give me more time to try to save up as much money as possible. So, essentially, I would need to save $15,000 in about 1 year. It’ll be hard, but I think I can do it.
How To Save For Wedding
My plan is to open up a brand new online savings account, probably Discover Bank or Everbank, due to their high-yield return, and dump all of my savings into that account. My other savings account will just sit there and collect interest in the mean time. Currently, I have been saving about $800-$1300 every month so all of that will go into my new savings account. If things are tight, I will probably need to re-evaluate my budget spreadsheet so I can save a little more every month. At this rate, by the time spring rolls around, I will have $10,000 saved up. For $5,000 needed for the honeymoon, I will probably need to rely heavily on my tax returns. I will also continue to save for couple more months at $800-$1300 so I think I will be OK in that category as well.
That’s what I’m thinking at the top of my head at the moment and plans will most likely change. But what’s for sure is that I need a good financial plan and need to stick to it no matter what. Any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I got married almost 20 years ago, so 23,000 dollars seems like a fortune to me for a wedding.
We got married on a Friday evening because that was cheaper. Don’t know if that option is still less expensive.
I advise to invite people that you imagine will still be a part of your life in 15 years. We paid for our wedding ourselves, but we overspent doing things like we thought we were ‘supposed’ to do. That meant, inviting people we barely ever saw. (A lot of those people were my husband’s extended family.) So my biggest piece of advice would be to really scrutinize the guest list.
I got engaged a few months ago – wedding in October – and we’re spending only about $75 a head by getting married at a seaside town in Maine in October instead of in our home city of Boston.
I have a friend who’s getting married on a Friday – kept his costs down at the venue and helped to weed out some of the “have to invite” folks who wouldn’t take a day off from work.
The best advice is to decide what’s important to you. Food was more important to me than anything, and 80% of our wedding savings is going to that. For you maybe it’s music. Or decor. Or luxury suites for out of town guests. Whatever it is, decide between you and your fiancee and don’t let anyone sway you. If you don’t want a receiving line, don’t let the lady at the venue try to tell you that you need one, and don’t get upset when she glares at you for the rest of the meeting. (true story).
There are countless ways to save money, but focus on big ticket items such as mortgage and car payments. You can always negotiate a lower monthly payment on big loans, assuming your credit is good. The little things (you can do without) can add up too, like Starbucks – I stopped buying their coffee and saved roughly $60/month! Check out sites like weddingbee dot com for DIY ideas that can also cut costs for the wedding. Looks like you already have a good plan so I’m sure you’ll meet/exceed your savings goal. But good luck and enjoy every moment!
Thanks for all the tips and advice. I’m very excited to be in this situation of planning for the wedding and thinking of different ways to make the finance aspect to meet ends. I just hope that my fiancee won’t go too overboard and want only the most expensive details
$23k for a wedding is a ton of money in my book. Too much in my view. I bet if you wanted to, especially in this tough economy, you can do it for 1/2 that price. Perhaps even lower.
Financial Bondage,
A $10,000 wedding is really hard to come away with. I guess anything is possible if you’re willing to sacrifice on a few things, such as flowers and venue location. We will see what are budget will be and hopefully, we can come below that budget and use the leftover for our honeymoon
This was truly useful for me to read. Thanks so much for explaining in detail your plans to save. How did it turn out in the end?? I want to hear the ending to this story!
Thanks, I was doing a google search and your site came up for real estate in Winter Springs, FL but anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it, keep it up!
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