Affording your dream wedding

We sat down and determined the amount we felt comfortable saving out of each paycheck, then we opened a savings account strictly for the wedding and deposited the agreed upon amount from each check.

I think the more important question should be whether you can justify spending a lot on a big or traditional wedding. To answer, you first need to identify important short and long term goals? Are you on track with those? Do you have debt? Emergency savings? Stable jobs or careers? When you think of the lost opportunity cost for that money and how it could have grown over time, a wedding is far more expensive than most couples appreciate.


Though it makes sense that an independent couple is responsible to host their own wedding, the timing for such a large expense really couldn’t be any worse. There was a reason why parents, and more specifically parents of the bride used to host weddings. They didn’t have the same higher education costs as for a man, and a larger percentage were in a stage of life to be able to afford it.
So, rather than ask how can I afford this, you need to determine a budget first and only then plan the wedding based on those numbers.

Many couples save as they go during their engagement. With your partner, determine the wedding's priority/ scale within your life's short and long-term goals. Then create a budget with the wedding as another expense. It helps to send a portion of your paycheck directly to another bank account, so that you do not have to manually transfer each month. If either of you must miss payments, then you cannot afford wedding idea #1, and therefore must lower your budget and adjust expectations for wedding idea #2. This method is often recommended to first-time homebuyers assessing mortgages.

If you're looking for justification on spending, each person is a product of their money culture starting from childhood. While others function with a scarcity mindset, others may not. It's best for your partner and you to get on the same page when choosing how to live. While a wedding is a one day celebration, how you make choices together foreshadows your future teamwork and approach to finances. Good luck.

Also, remember most weddings you see on the internet will be out of your budget. Ask your friends or relitives what they did.
I don't even have a pintrest or instagram, just looking at wedding websites like 'brides' and 'weddingwire' it's easy to feel disapointed with what you can offer
What you might be able to do is ask your friends and relitives for help other than monitary, the latest wedding I went to the cake, photos, chairs, music, and fairy lights were all done by relitives. Dinner was pizza.
My mom's wedding was a crudete and a cake from the grocery store, hosted at the church

We save a certain amount each month towards vendor payments. I also picked up a part time job since he coaches high school sports and gets paid stipends for that. We’ve also cut out unnecessary spending. Thankfully we both get annual bonuses that have been helpful as well. So my advice is come up with a plan and budget. You got this!

We've been saving long before he officially asked me to marry him because we'd talked about it. As soon as he talked, I listened & started saving for this specific expense. I keep our budget in line & keep him posted. I knew we were on the same page with keeping the celebration low key & also knew we'd have a small crowd to entertain. We chose a venue (Air BnB on property) which afforded us opportunities like not paying for a bar, corkage fees etc & we opted for beer & wine over anything hard. We are hosting a bbq (we do this professionally on the side) & I'll bake the cake & make sides. I'm going to buy flowers from the grocery store & hand tie a bouquet. My maid of honor wants a wrist corsage so I'll use some flowers from my bouquet to make her corsage & some similar flower for the boutonnieres. We aren't doing flowers on the table & instead opted to fill the centers with olive branches. I pay for things as we get paid in the form of filling envelops for certain things that come up. The photographer charges $3500 for a mid range package that included engagement pictures. We didn't need those so she graciously removed them which lowered the cost to $2000. She asked for a $500 deposit which we paid immediately to reserve our date. So I make weekly "payments" to the envelope for the remainder. I've bought in advance some baking supplies (extra flour, sugar, etc) which I know can be kept shelf stable so I'm not paying the wedding grocery bill all at once. We bought our meat from a local butcher which saved us money & we'll pick that up the day before the wedding. I paid a lot for my dress but it was a terrible mess & had to buy a new one. I got it from Amazon for $75 & it fit like a dream! We aren't doing professional hair/make up or nails. My fiance really wanted me to look like me when we get married. He didn't want me too done up. I appreciated that because I'm not really the done up type Idk what your dreams are, but they will vary from person to person. To me a lot of people gathering to watch me is a nightmare, as is a ballgown, as is getting married inside. But to others that is their dream! Write out what your dream is & figure out the venue. Everything else should align.