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!
Re: loans and wedding budget...
My Planning Bio!
[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!
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.
[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.
Oh, and I would visit www.DaveRamsey.com.
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!