The Wedding Budget Saving Plan

How we got to $10,000 as our Wedding Budget
If you remember about a month ago, I had $7,525 in my emergency fund and was talking about when and how I would save for a wedding. Of course I happily got engaged a week after posting that, so my saving plans have changed a bit. Originally we hoped to save $5,000-8,000, which we could easily save assuming both of us have our jobs for the next 8 to 9 months.

There were three words we want our wedding to be described as: Fun. Sweet. Personal. And we want an event that would accommodated about 150 people (originally the list was 485… we both have a lot of family!). After drafting a simple wedding budget, we figured out the only way to have this kind of wedding remotely close to our $5-8k budget would be to host it at our home. However, that idea lasted about half a day before we realized that the Fun factor of our wedding would probably be out the door, and in it’s place would come STRESSFUL.

Sooo after a loooong talk, J and I decided to transfer over $2,500 of my Emergency Savings into the wedding fund and contribute $800-900 per month into our wedding fund, bringing the total to $9,700-10,600.

How we will save $800-900 per Month
J has some debt that he will continue to pay off each month and I will save for the wedding each month. I stopped contributing to my Roth IRA and any extra money leftover in my account goes to the wedding. I will probably be moving in January to our new place, so when that time comes J may pause his debt-payments to help me save for the wedding or pick up some of the apartment expenses. My goal is to pay for the wedding slowly month by month (full payment for the venue and wholesale backdrops printing company has already been paid!) so it won’t be a huge amount by the time the wedding arrive and I can focus on simply getting married.

I am also a bridesmaid in my roommate’s wedding in January, which adds a few lot more expenses to my budget each month. It’s challenging to balance, but I’m very conscious of my every day expenses and J has helped tremendously by buying our meals when we eat out and using his gas whenever we drive somewhere.

What our Parents Think
At the end of the day, J and I can pay for the entire wedding with no help. However, my parents have graciously offered us some money that we may use. To be honest, we need to talk about this in person and figure out how much they would like to contribute. It’s always been important to me that I pay for most of my wedding because my parents don’t have that much saved and I do have sisters who will need a wedding in the future as well. But we will talk about that this weekend.

J’s parents have graciously given us some money that will be used towards the rehearsal dinner, lodging for the wedding party, the groom’s attire, and the honeymoon. They gave us an amount that I don’t feel comfortable sharing right now (maybe later?) and told us what we did not use for the wedding they would give to us as a wedding present. After hearing the amount and crunching some preliminary numbers, I am not at all worried that our post-wedding Emergency Fund could be back to normal (or maybe even fully funded).

Whew! All this money talk is exhausting!  Thank goodness it’s Payday! Any questions? Comments?