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Paying for college and a wedding at the same time

MaggieEngagedMaggieEngaged
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in Students
FI and I had a very narrow time slot to have the wedding in; we both graduate in May of '12 and didn't want to get married during college, and we are moving to the States that August-September for graduate school for me and work world for him. We live in Puerto Rico, and want to have the wedding here, and we definitely don't want to be planning it long distnace. We literally had a two month time frame to have the wedding in, and that requires planning it- and paying for it- during college.

The only issue? I'm putting myself through college, and we will be paying for the wedding ourselves. And we're not planning on going into any debt beyond student loans. I have some money left for me by my grandfather, but I don't get it in full until six months before the wedding, so all downpayments are coming straight from us.

Anyone else going through a similar budgeting nightmare, or been through it before? Words of encouragement or advice? Are we doomed to going into debt?
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Re: Paying for college and a wedding at the same time

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    SereJaneSereJane
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    FI and I are also paying for our wedding while in college and are not so far (cross my fingers) going into debt. What has worked for us is working as much as possible while still maintaining good grades so that we don't lose our scholarships. Also, budgeting has become so important-we made a plan of how much to save and how much each month that means and work very hard to stick to it so that we know we will be able to pay for everything. One last thing, we have done everything possible to keep our wedding budget small-we're planning our wedding for about 5 k. Good luck! It is possible to do it!
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    heyimbrenheyimbren member
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    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_students_paying-college-wedding-same-time?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:684Discussion:6fd9ea6a-4f29-4d29-af7f-f8e4557b8f6ePost:0456b7e8-8800-4d6b-9158-782eba46fb1b">Paying for college and a wedding at the same time</a>:
    [QUOTE]FI and I had a very narrow time slot to have the wedding in; we both graduate in May of '12 and didn't want to get married during college, and we are moving to the States that August-September for graduate school for me and work world for him. We live in Puerto Rico, and want to have the wedding here, and we definitely don't want to be planning it long distnace. We literally had a two month time frame to have the wedding in, and that requires planning it- and paying for it- during college. The only issue? I'm putting myself through college, and we will be paying for the wedding ourselves. And we're not planning on going into any debt beyond student loans. I have some money left for me by my grandfather, but I don't get it in full until six months before the wedding, so all downpayments are coming straight from us. Anyone else going through a similar budgeting nightmare, or been through it before? Words of encouragement or advice? Are we doomed to going into debt?
    Posted by MaggieEngaged[/QUOTE]

    Figure out what your needs are for the wedding, and start with that. A wedding doesn't need to be a huge affair and party, so start with the basics. Don't overestimate how much money you can contribute to the wedding, it's better to have money left over than to not have enough. Set realistic expectations for yourself.
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    Brittany&PatrickBrittany&Patrick
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    Not sure if this will work for you, but we are in a similar situation (in school, paying for it on our own). So first, figure out what your total budget is, then divide your total budget by how many weeks you have to save. 

    For example, our budget is 15k, our wedding (at the time of budgeting) was in 2 years (aka 104 weeks), so FI and I have each been putting aside $75 per week. $75 may seem like a lot at first, but I get it automatically taken out of my account right after my direct deposit, so its like I didn't even know it existed. 

    Hope this helps!
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    jma51107jma51107 member
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    My FI and I are also paying for our wedding and I'm paying my way through college. My advice? Think about the small expenses you make on a daily basis and ask yourself if you really need the, A coffee from starbucks, going out to lunch, etc etc - you'd be surprised how much it adds up!

    And remmeber, saving money doesn't mean you and your FI need to sit at home for the next year. Find cheap ways to get out of the house and ejoy each other's company.

    Good luck!
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    Magnetra1Magnetra1 member
    First Comment
    Look for a cheap location and dress it up. If you do it at a park or a friends yard it can be cheap and very little decoration required. Also if you look at a gym you can still make it beautiful with fabrics or even lighting.

    Also if you make the food yourself it can be much much cheaper. You can make food ahead of time and freeze it. Then cook it on that day. For your bridesmaids maybe just give them color swatches and a level of formality or theme and let them get their own dresses. For music maybe use a computer and speakers and just play your own list. You can listen to your list while you are making other things for the wedding and see just how much you like it!

    Also for invitations if you don't have a ton of money for sending them you can just do simple ones or a small card that invites them and says when and where and make a web page that you put the address on so that they can look on there for any other info and other pics.

    If you keep your flowers simple or even us things instead of flowers you can make a lot of things go down price wise. I hope this helped you. Check out my blog for some ideas.  I'm planning my own wedding right now and have been putting up things that I found that were cheap and cool ideas.

    http://brightbride.blogspot.com/
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