I thought planning my wedding would be fun :(

jdjoyne2

So, I am very frustrated becuase we have pushed our wedding back 3 times. Now, we are thinking about pushing it back another year. We have been to so many venues, tried to scale down the guest list, tried to have it a cheap venues, everything we could think of without it being horribly ghetto or trashy. I am at my whits end because we found the perfect place but it is out of our price range. I don't know what to do. Any suggestions on ways to save more money? Or if there are any suggestions about how to cope with pushing the date back?

beardownbchs

Well, there are a million ways to save money. I give myself an allowance and then get rid of any other money in my bank account. I live on my weekly allowance and everything after my bills goes into either wedding savings or regular savings. If I decide I want new clothes or something like that, I save my allowance for a few weeks. 

I don't know what your habits are, but stop going to starbucks and make your own coffee. Stop going out to lunch and dinner and make your own food. I can buy a week's worth of groceries for what we would spend eating out once or twice. Do your own pedicures, things like that. For me, fake nails are super important, so I use my "allowance" money for that and go without my chai tea lattes. You can cut back your cable, reduce cell phone minutes, hell, even go to the library instead of buying books on your Kindle or whatever. I live in an apartment and we're friends with the couple who live below us. We share internet. It was cheaper to add it to our cable bill so every month, they give us $20 instead of each of us paying $40. 

My FI and I put money in our wedding savings account like it's a bill - on the 30th of every month, that money is due. If you have the time, you could always get a part-time night or weekend job.

Pushing the date back a year would be great for saving money, but only if that's what you two really want to do. Is it worth it to you? LOTS of people have beautiful weddings on a budget - please, stick around here and browse the Budget Weddings board. One of the regulars there had a lovely wedding for under $1,000. 

You and your FI have to decide what's more important to the two of you - being married soon or getting married at this dream venue. Only you can decide what's best for you. If you think you will regret not having the whole shebang, definitely wait another year. But talk to your FI about it and sleep on it for a few days. 

If you decide not to wait, there are a lot of ways to save money on weddings. And if you decide to wait, make sure you budget everything out and save accordingly so your perfect venue still is out of your budget one year from now.

Either way, good luck and just take a few days to relax and enjoy your fiance.

Tchavon1984

I know how you feel we're not getting married until 12/13/14 and I've found myself getting very stressed the way I'm planning on saving money is using all the resources I have...

my Fiances sister loves party planning so she's willing to help with anything I need help with... 

 I'm doing my own invitations centerpieces place cards save the date bouquets and will more then likely do my own makeup and get a friend that knows how to do hair to do my hair as a gift...
 
I work at a resort that gets flowers delivered at a discount every week so I plan on getting my flowers and renting the vases I need for my centerpieces from them...
 
I have a friend that has a really nice Camera so I'm going to ask her to take the pics as a gift to us...

my fiance is a DJ I dont want him DJing on our day so we plan on using a Ipod with all the music we want to play and stop it when an announcement needs to be made....
 
My cousin is a baker so I will be asking her to make our CUPCAKES which is a bit cheaper then an actuall 5 tier cake I originally wanted...
 
my Fiances mom and aunt are a very good cooks so I'm going to ask them to cook as a gift to us and just have a buffet style meal....

those are just some ways on how I'm cutting corners and saving money so dont be afraid to ask for help from friends and Family... look on youtube they have so many DIY projects you can do for your wedding its amazing... but in the end the most important thing is marrying the love of my life so if we have to go to the court house and do a wedding later thats what we'll do... dont forget the real reason of your day the glitz and the glam comes 2nd to the real reason of your day... good luck with everything!!!

kerbohl

I thought wedding planning was supposed to be fun to, until I see the price tag on everything.  I have saved by prioritizing things - I don't care about flowers, so I'm not having any flowers (I can make it work with a winter wedding), so I'm saving there.  I'm having a lunch reception (saving a bit there), and I'm having an off-season wedding.  But I thought that I would be saving a lot more by doing these things than I am.
Ditto what beardownbchs and Tchavon1984 have said for saving - some good advice there!  I unfortunately don't know how to cope with pushing the wedding back for a third time.  I hope that it works out for you!

elizabethm1984

I personally think that planning a wedding is more stressful than fun, sometimes.  I wanted to elope, or at least have immediate family only ... but our families did not like that idea.  I still wish we would have done it that way.  I've been engaged for 7 months, and a lot of people are making me feel guilty for wanting a small wedding and for not inviting everybody and their dog.  I wish I had taken 1 month or less to plan a small ceremony and go out with immediate family to a nice restaurant instead of spending my life savings on one day.  I can't wait until all the planning is over and we can just relax on our honeymoon!

thejucheidea

hahahaha, wedding planning being fun, that's cute.

MuppetOverlord

This is the second wedding I am paying for entirely (with the exception of the cake this time).

This time, I get a lot of discounts because I'm friends with a lot of my vendors but no trading. I am putting $700 a month away to cover final costs. Honeymoon is going on a 0% interest credit card. We are hoping cash we receive can go against the honeymoon and the balance we will be able to pay over 6 months.

FI isn't able to contribute much and has mentioned that perhaps we should wait another year, but we don't want to put off starting our family so we save save save.

What I would suggest is that you make a list of the 40-50 people you couldn't live without at your wedding. Keep looking at venues until one fits your budget. It exists. Ask venues if they will work in your budget. Get married on a Thursday, Friday or Sunday.  DIY invites. DIY favors.  DIY ipod music. Student Photographer.  Family member to video.