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Just curious, for all you younger brides still in school or in other situations how are you paying for things? I'm coming across more and more people who are saying that both bride & groom are still in school, etc. I'm asking purely out of curiousity. My fiance wasn't able to pay for a ring to even propose until we had both been out of college for a little while. I paid for college and worked 3 jobs while in school and still have a crazy amount of debt, the idea of getting married while in school was just NOT possible for me. I'm just curious as to how some of you manage it??
I'm not that young or in school, but my fiance is a grad student. I've found that depending on what you're studying, PhD programs often provide a little bit of a wage. Between my full-time job salary and his stipend we actually do pretty well. He's in policy, but a lot of hard science PhD programs pay you to study as well. It's not a ton, but it's something and the hours are so long there's not that much time to spend money. It'd definitely be a lot harder if we were both in school, or if it was like his masters program where he had to pay rather tahn the other way around, though.
By going more and more into debt of course! lol!
Actually, I'm the only one with debt (school loans mainly). I have a seasonal job with the IRS that I was *planning* on using as savings for a future wedding, but that just went out the window as I had a bunch of car issues come up.
The FFI is joining the military and managed to go through his school debt free. Good thing since he decided to skip out his last year or so and just go ahead and enlist. He's going navy nuke, which means the gov is basically going to pay for him to get his masters, plus he's getting a hefty hefty enlistment bonus. That's where our wedding money is going to come from!
My parents are generously paying for the cost of our wedding. We're paying for the rings out of our meager savings.
Same as veganlam. Fiance splurged on a beautiful engagement ring for me, I'm paying whatever I can for his wedding ring, and my grandma is donating my great-great-grandmother's wedding band for me. My parents are very generously bankrolling our wedding and we're hoping for some contributions to our honeymoon fund as gifts.
I worked full time and was going to school.
My parents are helping with the wedding. My FI had to save a lot for my ring.
The money does go REALLY fast when planning a wedding
My dear sweet father pays for everything :) I'm still in school and Fiance was finishing his Masters when he proposed. We both come from families with secure finances so even though my ring is a family heirloom, if it wasn't I wouldn't be suprised if his dad would have just given him money to buy it. We're very much spoiled so money has thankfully never been an issue for us. If we were doing everything on our own there's no way it would be happening now.
When we got engaged I was still working on my MA and he had a semester left of his BA. He bought my ring out of money he'd been saving from his job at a local church. We got married about 6 months after we both graduated and paid for the wedding out of money we earned. It wasn't a big wedding, just 30 people a week before Christmas, but we paid for it ourselves and it was perfect for us: classy and elegant, but a lot of DIY.
We were still in school right before we got married. My dad paid for the wedding with insurance money.
We're getting married in between undergrad and grad school. If we didn't, we'd have been together 15 years before getting married!
A few things went into this decision
1- we were okay with a really small wedding. Our parents were not, which led them to contributing money. But we didn't expect it.
2- we both work part-time during the year and full-time during breaks. While this doesn't give us any extra money, it does mean that the only debt we're going into is federal loans thanks to student aid and scholarships
and
3- for us, it would not have helped anything NOT to get married. It would have just made us sad. We would not have gotten more financial support, or anything, and since our parents did step in and offer a certain dollar amount, we're DIY-ing as much as possible to make sure we don't get bogged down by costs.
We take out federal student loans for just our tuition which doesn't cover all of it, sadly :(. For our personal and living expenses, we have part time jobs (30 hrs/wk)...we live far enough from campus that it's cheap but close enough that it's also on the bus route. As for our wedding, we are saving the best we can and have a very low budget. My fiance proposed with a sterling silver CZ ring..he plans on upgrading once we graduate. Our budget for our wedding is $2000, we're only going to have 30-35 people and we're taking them out to eat to save on venue and decoration costs. It's tricky, but I make below poverty line and so I get pretty much all of my tax paid in back. I claim myself independent on taxes but sadly I'm still considered a dependent on the FAFSA but I don't get aid (I may not get federal loans this year, my dad makes too much and he doesn't contribute). We cut out all extra's like real flowers, a honeymoon, and for my dress I've budgeted for $200 (I've done research and found some dresses that I like). Our restaurant costs will be about $600. Our wedding bands will be $300. His tux will be $150. Our priest and church fees are the rest.
EDIT: Fiance's parents generously suggested that they pay for photography...the photographer they're going with is the same amount as our entire wedding budget so wonderfully generous of them. My parents are estranged from me due to personal reasons I shall not divulge.
I'm a student, undergrad, and I work full time, as does my DH. DH bought my ring for a few hundred dollars at a pawn shop. And it's still the prettiest set I've ever seen. :) We paid for our wedding ourselves, with a VERY modest budget (about $5k). We DIYed just about everything except the food. Our families were/are in absolutely no position to help us out financially in any way. In fact, we support our moms financially on a monthly basis. How did we do it? Cut out a LOT of extras for almost an entire year, things like going out to eat, new clothes, etc. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Our wedding was about 60 of our nearest and dearest, and we didn't care about gifts. We got a few nice things, and a small check from my grandmother, but that was it. Plus, we got married in the summer, so I didn't have school to worry about for the last few months of planning.
Yes, we have debt. School debt and medical debt, mostly. We're working on paying it off, except the student loans, but we decided we could put off our debt reduction until after we had our wedding. We saved for another 8 months to be able to afford a honeymoon. (Hello, week in Jamaica!)
IMHO, you don't need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get married. In fact, a marriage license in our state costs $51. ;)
Lots of budgeting. I'm still a year and a half away from completing my BA. Thankfully, he has a wonderful job as a contracted software engineer in town and so his "surplus" income since starting is going to the ring, wedding and honeymoon. My mom has offered to help pay (she was expecting that she and my dad were to pay for it all but I really don't see that happening with my little brother just going into undergrad). The worse part will be after the wedding where we have one more semester of undergrad to pay for and then grad school. Fingers crossed I get an assitantship to help defray costs.
while i have debt, my fiance is lucky enough to have had savings, and through his part time job he was able to afford my ring. it wasn't a lot to begin with ($299), but it's gorgeous.
as for the wedding, i believe my parents are taking care of that, but otherwise it'd be one of those weddings where we would realistically see what we could save after tuition is taken care of, and have some sort of wedding with that...
My FH waited until he was out of college and had a job before he proposed (he doesn't have any student loan debt). I am working on finishing my second and then my third degree before working so it will be a long time before I will have to start paying my loans. My parents are paying for about 85% of the wedding, I am paying for a little, and my FH and his parents are paying everything else.
Well, we are having a very small budget affair (less than 5k), we've had a little bit of unexpected family help and we have had like a year and a half engagement to try to pull things together.
Carefully! First off, both sets of parents chipped in a certain amount of money a piece. It was kind of divided up in thirds, a third from us and a third from each of our parents. Well, we ended up paying more than a third but you get the idea. I took a semester off when I switched my major and worked full time and ended up saving up a lot of money that way. Both of us also worked a lot during school. So we scraped by, but we made it :)
I'm in grad school, but funded through a fellowship so I have an income. My FI was only out of school a few years and has tons of debt, but he saved for a ring and got one that is sensible and lovely.
My FI works as a police officer so his income is very modest. He has been living at home with his parents to save on rent while I'm in school out-of-state and is taking a lot of overtime shifts. I am in grad school and I actually took out as much loan money as I was allowed. I am living frugally and cutting coupons and basically trying to save as much loan money as I can. Any money left over from that will be put towards the wedding and we can pay it back as soon as I get a full time job.
well my parents are paying for my wedding, his dad is helping with food if it wasnt for them it would never happen right now!! We are broke lol
Our parents our graciously helping us. If they weren't we would still be getting married now, just a much smaller affair. Thanks to their help a lot of friends and family are able to be invited that otherwise wouldn't. FI worked with is dad in construction last summer and ended up working 70+ hrs a week which helped a lot (Money wise, not relacation wise! :-) ). I have an internship with a large corporation this summer so between those we are trying to pay for as much as we can. Even more than financial woes, I think that finding the time to plan while in school is the hardest part!
My fiance had his school payed for by his parents, so no debt from that, but I'm currently trying to get into school and can't find a job, so it's getting a little nerve wracking there. Other than my dress, we're paying for the wedding on our own though.
My fiance and I have just finished up with school recently. He finished his degree in January, mine is just wrapping up at the end of June (I'm crazy, 5 weeks between school and wedding...ahhh!!)
We had planned on getting married in a hot air balloon with a few witnesses and then celebrating with a barbeque or something chill like that a week or so later. We weren't planning on having a huge to-do. In fact we went ring shopping together, and when we first went to buy the engagement ring (a bit of a new age idea I suppose--but he had a good point that I was the one that would have to wear it the rest of the night!!) we both got turned down for credit at the store. He ended up putting it on his maxed out credit card--haha.
I, like some of the other bees on here paid my own way through school, 2 jobs and all of that jazz. I received pretty good student loans and government bursaries so the little bit of money that my mom had saved for me never got used....it's only about 6,000 but its going to probably pay for a good chunk of our wedding.
Wish us poor girls good luck! However, i'd never dream of going into serious debt to have a wedding, or asking that of my parents either!
We are both in a PhD program and we both get a small stipend, so we paid for our wedding with some of our stipends.
Both of our parents are helping us out (my parents are graciously paying for the majority of the wedding) and I'm working as much as I can to cover the rest!
We've been dating for almost 5 years now, and FI won't graduate for another 2 (grad school), so it would have been a LONG time if we had decided to wait. We'll be getting married right after I graduate from college, so we'll at least start off married life with one of us employed full time!
We both go to school fulltime and work fulltime. So we can pay for the wedding by having no social life lol. But we are waiting until we have both graduated (getting married a month after he graduates) simply so that we have time to get married. And obviously our wedding won't be as extravagant as it would have been if we waited another 5 years, but I'm more excited about getting married than I am excited for a big party lol
We are both still in school. We are paying for our wedding uorselves with no support. We are saving half and taking a loan for the other half.
I'm getting my master's and FI is also finishing his degree. We're paying for the rings and the honeymoon. My parents are generously paying for the wedding, with his parents contributing as well.
I just graduated from college in mid-April, so I'm still seeking employment, and we put money into the savings account every month for the wedding. FH's Dad is going to pay for alcohol, but we don't expect any money at all from his Mom, She already owes us money, and My parents said they are going to help pay BUT we aren't expecting them to help.
It is definitely tough, but right now I am going to school full time and also working full time. My FI is also working full time.
My father was generous enough to offer to pay for the food and also the venue so I consider ourselves very lucky there.
I have been very lucky to have a job where I am able to save $300 a week (even after all of our bills are paid and we still have extra spending money). We arent getting married until next year so it will give us plenty of time to save.
Weddings are super expensive and there are so many details that add up very quickly. I am just trying to not go overboard and out of control.
My fiance is in grad school and on the European equivalent to a Fullbright. I put him on a VERY strict budget for the ring and told him that if he came to me with more than 1ct. I would say no. After that I told him to hit eBay and estate sales, LOL! After four months of looking, he found a very pretty modest ring for a fifth of its value. Good for him! (I knew he could do it.) <3 I have very thin, long hands, so a big rock would just look silly and be a waste of money. That, and I didn't want to support the diamond trade, so I felt a lot more comfortable getting something second-hand.
It can be done. You just have to be very meticulous about everything and a little innovative. IE, I'm an art student, so I will be doing the graphic design for our wedding stuff and probably calling in favors to get it all printed. My aunt loves gardening; she'll probably be growing my bouquet and I'll be making some really pretty succulent centerpieces. I'm trying on our friends' old wedding dresses (the ones that fit) and my MIL used to be a tailor she'll probably alter it for me. Community effort! Like the good ol' days.
This is, of course, assuming that my FI's family doesn't decide to step in and make things silly.
i am still in school--will be graduating 1 month after the wedding!
however, i still work full-time, and so does my FI (who is 26).
My parents are paying for 1/2 of the wedding, and we are paying for the rest. Because we both work full time we are able to pay for the other 50%.
I am not a very young bride, I'm 24. But I go to school full-time and work part time on campus. My FI works full time, often 50 hrs a week. And then we have my financial aide. My finaide covers half of our living expenses so hlaf of his wages can cover saving for a wedding. I think that most young brides dont yet own a home and that is why we can afford college and a wedding. I also just live cheaply...no coach purses/desginer clothes, we only eat out once a month, no fast food, no starbucks (I bought an espresso machine instead), NO CREDIT CARDS! My ring was purchased on an interest free loan from the jeweler, so we make monthly payments.
EDIT: We are also cutting costs by doing a DW with our immediate families only. And we are waiting until after I graduate from school. We will have a hometown reception when we get back hosted by our parents.
I am in graduate school at a private university and unfortunately all my funds are going to that! We decided early on that we needed to have a long engagement (3 years). It sucks but we both decided that we wouldn't be going further in debt to have a wedding. It is still going to cost a fortune but now at least we have had some time to save up for it. : )
I'm in graduate school and he's finishing his undergraduate degree (even though we're the same age; he took some time off in between his sophomore and junior years). He works part-time, I work part-time, he'll be working full-time while he's on co-op next semester, I'm very good with budgeting (and saved a lot in the years I worked full-time between undergrad and grad school), and our parents are paying for 2/3 of the wedding--so we only have to cover 1/3. We are both extremely lucky to have such generous parents!
We're in stingy-stingy-stingy mode right now, since the long engagement gives us time to save every last dime and put it to good use.
I am 22, he is 23. He hasn't had to pay for any of his school/housing (scholarships and fellowships). He is working towards his PhD so we have a few years ahead of us still. I should finish my masters by the end of this year and before we get married. My parents have funded my education and I have also worked part time for the last 6 years and have a bit of money saved up. We are not yet engaged, but regardless of who pays for the wedding we will be keeping it as low and intimate as possible.
I'm in grad school, he's in med school. We have loans out the wazoo (though most are his). He paid for my e-ring with loan money and some of his savings from high school/college jobs. Our parents are paying for most of our wedding. I'm hoping to get our wedding bands and possibly a few other small things out of our own money (even if it's his loan money). The rings symbolize so much...I would feel weird about presenting FI with a ring my parents paid for. *shrugs*
This got me thinking....
Say you file your FAFSA in April as single. You get married over the summer, say June. Do you have to update your FAFSA? Or just wait until you file it the following year?
And, if anyone has done this, did it help of hurt your fin aide package?
My dad is giving us some money (paying for reception food), and we're doing the rest. With 80 people, it's a lot of DIY-ing. DF works full time, and I work part-time before starting school in a few months. When school starts up, I'll be an RA, which pays for housing. DF works at the school I'm attending, and the rest gets done with loans.
As far as the FAFSA goes, it depends on the school (I think). For my school, it goes by "what you are when you start school". So in your scenario, I'd have to fill out my FAFSA as married, or refile once I got married. In my situation, since I'm getting married in October, I'm single in the eyes of the school, and will be treated as such for the year. In terms of changing finaid, I was hoping it would help, but since it's grad school, I got all loans anyways.
I work full time and go to school, and FI works full time. We're paying for everything ourselves having been saving a while, which has helped us to identify what we really want and what is important to us. We're doing a destination wedding weekend with 16-20 people.
It works out well for us because neither of us really ever imagined a large wedding. I really don't have any family and that was a large reason I felt all the more comfortable taking our closest friends & fam for a three day wedding extravaganza instead of having something local and more traditional.
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