- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
I refuse to. I gave up some of the things I really wanted because I refused to be one of those "oh well, we'll get enough money back in gifts." NO. I am not that naive. We want to start our marriage off on a happy, great, STABLE note.
Yeah - we are not! We are saving and the main things that we are saving on right now are keeping our decorations really simple, using an ipod for music, and having a friend do the photography.
We didn't go into debt! Paid 100% with cash, and it felt great :-)
The only debt I have right now is my student loans. Jim and I agree that paying them off is one of our highest priorities, because it is the only debt either of us has. We also agree that we will not go into debt for the wedding or anything else--with the exception of possibly buying a larger house some time down the road.
I've been majorly in debt before...I didn't like it, and I'm not going to do it again. If I can't pay cash, I'm not getting it.
We are not going into debt either. This is why we kept our budget really low. We will have a great wedding and not have to feel guilty about it
I absolutely REFUSE! This is being paid 100 percent out of our own pockets. If I have to cut people off the guest list then so be it. I also plan to have chicken entrees. I wanted some type of beef or fish but ya know what... CHICKEN IT IS! I also know that since we are paying for this alone we are going to take a mini-moon for a few days after our day and plan a real honeymoon for a few months later.
Us! Us! We paid for it all on our own, and did put some on credit cards... but we're able to pay those off in full each month. We used a card with miles and racked up a TON of miles :)
My FI was very adamant that we did not spend more than we have. If it was left up to me, I may have been okay with charging some debt; thankfully he was there to keep me in line!
We refuse as well. Neither one of us even has a credit card so that's not even an option. If we don't have the cash for things or are able to pay on it without credit then it doesn't get bought. I want to be able to still have money in our savings account when this one day is all over with.
I agree with all the posts above! This was part of the reason why our engagement is nearly 2 years. We're putting away a good amount of savings each month for the wedding, in addition to saving for a house, car, travel, and personal investments. Even though our parents are willing to help out, we chose not to ask them since they've supported us individually in so many other aspects of our lives.
i feel like most bees won't go into debt. I don't know the exact stats. But I don't think any of my friends or family have taken out loans or gone into debt for their weddings. We all just saved for a year or so before we had our weddings!
I think most people are choosing to have longer engagements so they can have enough time to save up. And not many of us are as lucky to have our parents pitch in. But if I had a job with a great salary I'd definitely make my day just the way I want it.
I won't go into debt for my wedding either. I have enough debt from student loans; I don't need to add my wedding to that.
However, I plan on paying with a credit card that earns airline miles so we can use those miles for our 1st anniversary trip (we decided to do our honeymoon on our 1 year anniversary). I will pay that credit card off every month.
Our engagement is going to be 2 years for precisely this reason. We just don't have the money to drop right now. We're spreading out the costs over two years and scoping out sales the whole time. Because I have so much time to plan and shop, we're getting a ton of things at an awesome discount.
It's so refreshing to see couples being responsible about the whole wedding thing. I used to work in a bank and I can't tell you how many couples came in looking to take out a personal loan to finance their wedding. I cringed every time I had to submit their application.
It may work for some but definitely not for us. I know couples who have been married for 10+ years and are still paying off their weddings.
We are not going into debt. While it is nice to think about getting a loan to have that big cookie cutter wedding, I have to remind myself that our $10k budget will go a long way. (Mostly thanks to the bee) Before the weddingbee I would have never dreamed of DIY projects and skill swapping for other services. I read a blog (I wish I remembered where it was) where the bride was a graphic designer and she used those services to trade photography, videography, a baker, and a discount on the caterer. SO is a graphic designer so I'm def going to go that route. They way I see it is to start a website, design, and code is going to cost the same amount as some of the above services.
We didn't go into any debt. Fortunately my parents paid for the wedding, but DH paid for my engagement ring and wedding band in cash and we paid for our honeymoon out of our savings. We also don't believe that we should ever finance anything unless it is a house. We pay our credit card bill in full every month. I could never imagine going into debt for just one day. If we had to pay for our wedding ourselves, we would have had a totally different wedding with just our immediate family and closest friends.
@Miss Tattoo: We're hopefully going to be trading an iPhone app for our videographer! One of the best videographers in our area is interested in bartering with FI for his services. I'm pretty stoked! His packages start at $2000! We would have never be able to afford him if we had to pay out of pocket but thankfully FI is a well known iPhone developer and the videographer wants to work with him. Hell yea!
I would never go into debt for a wedding. My parents have offered to pay for our honeymoon which takes a huge load off, and by Dec 2011 we're hoping to save the $20000 needed for our dream wedding, gown and suit, rings, photog, and all the bits and pieces! I find that saving with a goal (i.e. house downpayment, wedding, that beautiful DVF dress) makes it SO much easier - kinda like counting calories with the goal of looking your best on the big day!
Its awesome to see how many of us are in the same boat! Saving is the new spending!
We are also refusing to go into debt. When we got engaged, we picked our wedding date based on how long it would take us to save enough $ to have a debt free wedding. We wanted to have all the money on hand by April of next year (marrying in June). Fi & I are paying for the wedding all by our selves, so we had to cut costs (like DIY centerpieces) wherever possible, but we do not feel that we are skimping on having our 'perfect' wedding =). We set up a joint savings account and have an excel file showing our budget for everything! By the looks of our spending so far, we will have all the money we need for the wedding by this December! That's a whole 4 months earlier than our plan!
@UpstateCait: I would love to be able to pay for it all but it just isn't possible. My parents are not able to help financially. Our budget is 15000 but we don't have that in savings. I know that I am going to end up putting some stuff on a credit cards because I can't really get our budget any lower and we just don't have the money. We want to share this day with our friends and family and its hard to spend much less than our small budget.
We are absolutely against taking on debt to finance one day, just like you. It may be a very important day, but it's not so important that we should risk our future for it!
@UpstateCait: Life in general should be more of a barter/trade system. I mean, once you really think about it, your videographer charges as much as my SO charges for some websites and blogs only because of the hours of design and coding. So what's wrong with trading services? Need a website? Well we need a photographer, videographer, ect. lol
@Miss Tattoo: I completely agree! A couple a few towns over actually just set up a bartering website for locals. The newspaper just did a story on them and it was very interesting. I thought it was such a cool idea. Money is tight for everyone now-a-days. I would much rather trade services with wedding professionals than cough up the cash.
@Jenniphyr: Couldn't agree more!
We are having the wedding we can afford (thankfully with my parents help). If my parents weren't chipping in then we would be having a wedding on what we are able to save. It's not worth making a monthly loan payment for the next 10 years, IMO.
We actually don't really put anything on credit. In the last 5 years the only thing to go on credit was our living room set and thats been paid off for a while now. I'm a serious shopaholic so I don't even allow myself to carry a credit card.
No debt here! I use credit cards and pay them right off for the points and cash back, which really paid off cause I just redeemed about 1k that I had racked up in credit card points over the years. Luckily I have no school loans, no car loan, just a big fat mortgage. I'm really good at saving and watchign my spending, so paying for the wedding is no problem.
It never occurred to me that loans or credit cards would even be an option to pay for our wedding. I always knew we would have a budget affair we could afford to put on ourselves. But now that I know people use loans and credit, I understand how a lot of folks I know have expensive weddings when they don't make much more than we do!
Many of the vendors we looked at didn't take credit cards. It was actually very surprising since I've heard some folks put their weddings on credit cards. Most of our vendors want a check or cash, the one's that did accept credit, we used our credit card for points. A year was enough for us to save for our budget. FI and I are paying for it ourselves and have split the costs between us too. We haven't merge funds yet.
We don't plan on taking any debt out for our wedding either. We are lucky that we have a lot of people pitching in to help pay for a portion of the wedding (my parents, grandmother, his parents, and us).
My engagement ring and wedding band were also paid in cash. That makes me more proud to wear this engagement ring than almost anything else.
Keeping control of your finances is one of the best things you can do for a marriage, I think.
Ditto!!! We are saving each month to pay for everything ourselves - no parental help. I am all for not having debt!
I scrimped and saved and when the big day had come and gone I still had money left in savings. That might change after our appointment to pick out the pictures we'll buy today (we pay for the photographer's time and then each picture we want), but, at worst, I'll break even. I'm okay with that.
Definitely not going into debt for the wedding!!! It was FI's idea to have an over 2 year engagement to save up all the money for the entire wedding ourselves, but honestly I would have taken out a loan if it were just up to me. I'm so glad he's there to keep my grounded though, it will feel SO much better not going into our marriage with debt.
We have friends who are $30,000 in debt due to their wedding/HM. They are also wanting to buy a home, and have car payments so unfortunately they won't be doing that for a while.
We're paying cash, too! Well, actually I think we'll charge it on my Nordstrom Visa, pay that off in cash, and then I shall have a free mini shopping spree... 
But anyway, I have had credit card debt in the past and it's so stifling to have it hanging over your head, especially when you are just beginning your married life together (I would think)! To each his/her own, but I definitely think it's wise to spend what you can afford, and either do without the rest or figure out how to tweak the plan and make changes to keep wedding spending under control.
We are not going into debt for the wedding but mostly bc I am already in debt up to my ears from college loans and not finding a job for almost a year after graduation while supporting my mother. I recently consolidated my debt to pay it off faster and at lower interest - waiting 2 yrs for things to get better never happened.
I am working on my own bills and almost all of our shared living expenses while he dedicates his income to saving for the wedding. Once married we hope to have all debts paid within 9 months and start saving for a house. (In our case, it was HIM who wanted the wedding, I wanted the marriage but felt it was unfair for my debts to deprive him of ONE nice day in his entire life).
I do not feel good about our decisions but I am sure I would feel worse if I forced him to give up his wedding day.
We are paying for one thing every month so not to go in debt. I am realistic and know I can not afford a 3k dress or a 7k reception! We are using our network of friends in the theatre business to do our lighting, a photographer friend, a family member who is a baker and the Ipod for music.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Lyndzo | 46 |
| Brielle | 26 |
| funkymunky85 | 26 |
| AshleyR83 | 24 |
| rebwana | 24 |
| mypinkshoes | 23 |
| his chippymunk | 23 |
| Ms. Salamander | 23 |
| beargoose | 22 |
| kat2014 | 22 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| fivemonthsnotice | 3 |
| StrwbryBlnde | 2 |
| kate02121 | 2 |
| eagle | 2 |
| eloping | 1 |
| HisIrishPrincess | 1 |
| ama0219 | 1 |
| KT808 | 1 |
| puddingface | 1 |
| sienna76 | 1 |
Beekeeper
... for just one day. I've known couples to take out loans or rack up their credit cards to pay for their weddings. FI and I just refuse to do that. We don't believe in entering into marriage with any unnecessary debt. Infact, we even paid cash for my engagement ring.
My parents are generously paying for half of our wedding but FI and I still have to pay for the other half as well as our honeymoon (roughly $8,000-$9,000).
Any other bees not going into debt over their weddings?