Hi, everyone,
Long-time reader, first-time poster
The short and sweet background: I am 40 and my fiancé is 47. This will be his first marriage and my second; we don't have any children. He comes from a large family (5 siblings, all married with children) and I'm an only child. He asked me if I would marry him in September and we've just started wedding planning.
I got married for the first time when I was very young (19, he was 23). We got married at city hall with 2 friends as witnesses and then the 4 of us went out to dinner. We didn't even tell our parents until a week after. Not exactly the nicest way to start your lives off together, pretty much alone and in secret. It doesn't exactly set the best tone.
My fiancé and I have talked about wanting to host a party that is special and a good time for us as well as our guests, who will mostly be friends. Our guest list is about 50 people. Food and wine are an important part of our lives and that's where we intend to spend most of our budget.
As for our budget, we originally thought $3K, but after hearing back from our first choice of vendor for space and food, I think we're looking at more like $6K (with $4K for food and wine). I feel like I'm being realistic about expenses and have even built in an small cushion for "just in case."
We were originally planning a March 2018 wedding date, but after looking at real costs, I'm thinking that we should push it out six months to September, giving us more time to save money to pay for this.
I'm wondering if any of you have had similar thoughts or experiences, where you saw your numbers, made your compromises, and decided that a longer engagement was worth it so that you could have what you wanted?
We're not in any rush, though it's unbelievably sweet (and an example of the kind of man he is) that my fiancé wants to get married sooner rather than later. I don't want to go into a bunch of debt for this party, especially since we want to honeymoon in Italy, which is a whole other expense, but I'm trying to decide if waiting is worth it?
Thanks for your input!