loans and wedding budget...

Brittany&Patrick

I will graduate in 2012 with over $250K in loans to pay back!! (YIKES!). Our tentative wedding date is 2013 for the purposes of saving enough money (budget $30k). Now that I am crunching loan numbers based on expected income, I think its best to have the wedding in 2012 before I have to start paying back loans. 

Feedback needed.... Are you planning to get married right after you graduate? If not, how are you factoring in loan payments with wedding budget.... Thanks a million!

JCM10

We postponed our wedding so we'd be settled into jobs by the time we get married, and able to pay for everything we need to. 

MrsMLRB

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_students_loans-wedding-budget?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:684Discussion:9a47546e-3b8d-42f2-a4b0-70b9dbc153c3Post:a84069e2-448b-46bc-840a-c864fa8426ba">loans and wedding budget...</a>:
[QUOTE]I will graduate in 2012 with over $250K in loans to pay back!! (YIKES!). Our tentative wedding date is 2013 for the purposes of saving enough money (budget $30k). Now that I am crunching loan numbers based on expected income, I think its best to have the wedding in 2012 before I have to start paying back loans.  Feedback needed.... Are you planning to get married right after you graduate? If not, how are you factoring in loan payments with wedding budget.... Thanks a million!
Posted by Brittany&Patrick[/QUOTE]

Are you in med school or something? Where are you going that you spent $250,000 on your education? The nosy person in me is very curious.

FI and I are getting married 3 months after he graduates law school and 3 months before his law school loans are due (which will be about $600 a month for his $60,000 in law school loans). We did not pick our wedding date based on loan repayment, we picked it based on the bar exam and other factors. However, we did chose a date 6 months later than our original date because we realized we would need the extra time to save up the money for your wedding.

In the end, will you be able to save up enough money to get married in 2012? Don't go into more debt in order to finance a wedding. Also, what field are you going into? Are you sure you will have a job right out of school (many people don't in this economy)?  Paying back student loans (or having enough money to pay them back) should be a priority. So I would worry more about having the money to pay back the loans before settling on a wedding date. Or write into your contracts that you can move deposits to a later date in the event you realize that you don't have enough money to cover loans and wedding.

You don't want to be in a situation where you are just married and can't afford your student loan payments with your new husband. My FI is working on a lot of divorce cases right now and most come from financial difficulities.

HTH!

Brittany&Patrick

Thanks for the advice, I am skeptical about moving it up to 2012 because I will be just graduated and new to my career.  

Sorry, kinda long..........

In response to MLRB, I'm in pharmacy school in Boston, MA. Tuition is about $30k and I take out an addition $15k to pay rent (my school doesn't offer housing), utilities, food and books for the year. (Basically every year I take out $45K and pharmacy is a 6 year program)  

Although I will be swimming in debt, I'm lucky enough to have chosen this profession because it is- what I consider at least- a high paying job The average starting salary is 100-115k/yr  (roughly $66k after taxes, stupid tax brackets). Large corporations (like CVS) and hospitals start recruiting while students are in their 5th-6th year of school. So most students are signed on before they graduate. I myself have been recruited for CVS, so as long as they are still around in 2012, I don't foresee a problem with income or stability. 

Currently FI and I are each putting aside $75 a week ($600/month) for the next 2.5 years (130 weeks), so if we keep hitting our target every week, we will have $19.5k  to work with. Each set of parents are contributing $5k, making my estimated budget $30k. If we do go over this budget we can use my sign on bonus as a last resort. (I want to be selfish and have my sign on bonus go towards a massive-once in a lifetime-congrats, you did it! -shopping trip in NYC...but if I have to sacrifice, I will)  

Im sorry that was long, but that basically explains our situation. hahaha

heyimbren

My best wedding budget advice regarding this: don't overestimate with your budget. Don't count on any money that you don't already have. Things change, and things DO come up.

I wouldn't get married until I have finished my undergrad, but then I'll also be getting my BA debt-free. After that, I'm hoping for law school and we'll see what happens finanically then. But overall, my priority is education and debts over a wedding, or even a big wedding. For me, I'd feel better about taking a chunk of money out of my debts than a big party. But it is smart to at least have some sort of a plan, and at least you do have a job that should pay enough to chip away at the loans.

MrsMLRB

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_students_loans-wedding-budget?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:684Discussion:9a47546e-3b8d-42f2-a4b0-70b9dbc153c3Post:55f5d8ae-d73b-4a26-be6e-06da27413e0e">Re: loans and wedding budget...</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks for the advice, I am skeptical about moving it up to 2012 because I will be just graduated and new to my career.   Sorry, kinda long.......... In response to MLRB, I'm in pharmacy school in Boston, MA. Tuition is about $30k and I take out an addition $15k to pay rent (my school doesn't offer housing), utilities, food and books for the year. (Basically every year I take out $45K and pharmacy is a 6 year program)   Although I will be swimming in debt, I'm lucky enough to have chosen this profession because it is- what I consider at least- a high paying job The average starting salary is 100-115k/yr  (roughly $66k after taxes, stupid tax brackets). Large corporations (like CVS) and hospitals start recruiting while students are in their 5th-6th year of school. So most students are signed on before they graduate. I myself have been recruited for CVS, so as long as they are still around in 2012, I don't foresee a problem with income or stability.  Currently FI and I are each putting aside $75 a week ($600/month) for the next 2.5 years (130 weeks), so if we keep hitting our target every week, we will have $19.5k  to work with. Each set of parents are contributing $5k, making my estimated budget $30k. If we do go over this budget we can use my sign on bonus as a last resort. (I want to be selfish and have my sign on bonus go towards a massive-once in a lifetime-congrats, you did it! -shopping trip in NYC...but if I have to sacrifice, I will)   Im sorry that was long, but that basically explains our situation. hahaha
Posted by Brittany&Patrick[/QUOTE]

Thank you for answering my question and your answer is very logical. So if you moved your date up, your budget would suffer. Now you could have a perfectly nice wedding on a smaller budget but if you aren't willing to sacrifice that then it sounds like you are stuck with the long engagement. I get it, it sucks (FI and I will be engaged for 20 months when we get married) but it is kind of nice to have lots of time to research things and get the best vendors in the area, etc.

ledalia

If I were you, and our parents were going to give us 5k each, I would make that my wedding budget. $10,000 may not be the fancy wedding of your dreams but that is still a LOT of money to spend on one day. Not to mention twice my personal budget and I think we are having a very nice day for the price. I don't know what your FI's situation is but if possible I would stop taking out the 15k for living expenses, live as cheaply as possible off his income, and put the $75 per week towards your loans.

Oh, and I would visit www.DaveRamsey.com.

SCBojangles1138

I'm getting married while still in grad school too. Partially because I won't have to start paying back loans until a year and a half after the wedding. Partially because I won't be having to find a new job/house hunt/have house payments at the same time as trying to get married. I'm also on an assistantship right now and am able to save about $20/week for the wedding. That combined with excess aid and parents' contribution is enough for me. Everyone is unique but now is the time to be careful with money and do what you can to save it.

skylarjo04

I want your wedding budget!! You could definitely get away with a cheaper wedding...I only have a budget of $6,000 and I am satisfied with everything we have planned for it.

Brittany&Patrick

WARNING: This is long.... sorrrrry!

Thanks a lot girls, reading other opinions has really brought me back to earth. I'm the MOH in a wedding this May and my best friend has now spent 50k on her wedding. Her wedding is the first wedding I have ever been actively involved in; therefore,  I thought I was doing great but shooting 20k lower than hers. (Originally when I set a budget I googled the average cost of a wedding and it said 14k-24k was the average. So I picked a number between my best friends budget and the 'average' budget). 

However, since this post, MANY of changes have been made for the better!! First of all, we have set a date for Sept. 7th 2012. This is best for us because we will not have to worry about paying back loans. Secondly, I will NOT being taking out a huge student loan next year because I will be moving in with FI and moving out of this pricey/overinflated Boston apartment. 

We cut our budget by 12k by taking LauraT's advice and not counting on parents towards our goal; therefore, we moved the wedding to a Friday. At first I thought it was a total bummer but now I am accepting the idea and going to run with it (our venue has a 20k minimum on Saturday but a 12k min. on Fridays and Sundays)

In addition,  I purchased 20 hot pink pomanders from another knottie for $80 (she delivered them to my apartment today and they are stunning!--Thanks Jamie!!). I will be using these as bouquets for my bridesmaids and the rest will be hung down the isle in our church or used as centerpieces in some way. I have also purchased 40 brooches from another knottie for $80 (which also arrived today- Thanks Megan!) and have decided to use them to make a brooch bouquet for myself. 

 Basically, I am trying to buy as much as possible second-hand and have cut the budget in half (almost!) since the first original post. So I just wanted to say thanks for all of the advice, you gals are great!

JadziaDax

I'm glad you came back to follow up. I felt I was a little harsh. I know what you mean about looking up average wedding budgets- it's depressing how high the numbers are and i'm not sure about the truth in some of those numbers. Pick up a copy of the Bridal Bargains book as well- it has some good advice. I'm glad things are working out for you