So, this is kind of a long story, but I'll compress it as much as possible. The events leading up to this have been going on for about 3 months, but this development just hit us about a week ago and it could go either way. However, the panic is strong in this one.
My FI and I have been engaged for some time, around a year and a half. We worked with a $5000 budget for our wedding and booked all of our vendors, putting money aside each month to make payments and put money away for the final payments and so on. In February we started having heavy financial problems and after a while, our entire living and wedding budget was being spilled into making sure my car is not repoed and we are not evicted. While we're not really worried about having to move (we both have parents that would welcome us with open arms) we've gotten to the point that we may have to postpone or even cancel our wedding.
We applied for a loan in the past two weeks to pay off our debts as well as take care of our remaining wedding expenses, but we have yet to hear an answer. With 63 days left until the wedding and nothing completely paid for except for my gown and our wedding bands (thank god for Etsy! We got our wedding bands for only $70), I'm beginning to panic. If the loan is indeed denied, we will definitely have to postpone or cancel. If we're approved, Whoohoo, party time! But with 63 days I have very little time to plan for a cancellation if it does indeed happen. While it's hitting me hard at the thought of having to cancel, I'm trying to plan ahead so that I'm prepared.
I'm posting to basically ask if anyone has ever dealt with a similar situation or personally had to postpone or cancel their wedding? How did you handle it; announcing it, any changes you had to make, etc? Did you elope and then have a reception/vow renewal at a later date, or did you postpone the entire event and wait to get married until you could afford it? (FI and I discussed all of these options a little bit). How did you handle it emotionally? In regards to my situation, what would you all suggest by ways of how I'd go about postponing or canceling should I have to? Would you suggest I just go ahead, cancel, and elope? If everything goes well and we can indeed have a wedding, which wine would you suggest I inhale to take my deep breaths with?
End note: Yes, loans are not the best idea for paying for a wedding. However, we have our reasons for needing it other than the wedding; we just took a leap of hope and the silence is killing us. Also, nothing is really set in stone at the moment. I'm just panicking because of the time limit that we are on and would like to be prepared for the worst.