I would not get a loan! Why would I want to start the marriage in that much debt! It just gives you something to fight about!

I just plan on saving what I can now. We plan on being engaged about a year and a half. So I will have time to find the best venue/food/decor/dress/…etc for the least amount of money. Whatever financial help we get, which won’t be a lot, will be what we have to work with. If you can’t afford it, don’t have it. I wouldnt plan a 20k wedding if I didn’t have the money.

We paid for our wedding and stayed within our budget $5300. I’ve heard that some people save for years and others have financial help from their families.

SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. Weddings are pretty expensive, but you can have an amazing wedding fo 5k-10k. I **** when people do into debt on a 1day event. That is so stupid! That money could be going towards a house!

I’ve been working full-time since I graduated college, and almost all of my earnings went into savings. I got married 3 years after graduation, so I had a lot of money at my disposal.

My parents are paying for mine as much as they can, but I don’t want to stretch them to the limit. Here are some things that I am doing to cut down expenses:

1) We decided to have our wedding at the houston museum of natural science. The rental for the whole first floor is $3500. They do not charge you extra for Saturday evenings, so now I can have my Saturday night ceremony/reception without paying double.

2) Instead of a videographer, we are hiring a photographer for just the ceremony. I am getting disposable cameras (you can get them to fit in with your theme) and placing them at each table. That way I can have pictures of the reception, but my friends and family have taken them. You can get some great pictures out of it.

3) Having a buffet instead of sit down dinner tends to cut costs by at least $15/person.

4)I am making my own centerpieces. Go to Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. You can make really awesome centerpieces for 10% the price of fresh flowers.

5) By having my wedding at the museum, I do not need to have any decorations other than centerpieces. That SERIOUSLY cuts down on the budget.

6) Forgo an open bar and offer a cash bar. That way the guests who do want to drink can, but the expense is not put upon you.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER ( and others have echoed this), do not put yourself into debt at the beginning of your marriage. It will put way too much stress into your relationship.

By having a long engagement (over a year) you can buy things as you have the money.

EX: Buy the invitations/save the date cards one month, and put down payment for the food the next. Most places will let you put stuff on layaway so you can make payments before the wedding (like your dress)

There are tons of ways to cut costs on weddings. By having a DIY wedding, you can put your spin on it and it makes it that much more special

If you have to take out a loan then you can’t afford it. Save up. Sit down and figure how much you and your fiance will be able to save between now and the time of the wedding then work your budget from there. Only spend what you can afford.

first figure out your budget. start saving immediately. and by the way my fiance and i paid for our whole entire wedding. and no we didn’t put anything on credit cards and we didn’t get a loan. we saved and we both work full time.

your very lucky you have a father that is willing to give you $5,000 for your wedding. My father didn’t contribute but $150.00 for child support until the month I turned 18. Then his “promises” of education, support, and other stuff stopped. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of that ****** in 19 years!

A wedding is “suppose” to be the joining of two people, to celebrate their life together. I could care less how much other people spend on their weddings, it’s their dime not mine. Personally,I wouldn’t have spent more then $5,000 for my wedding. I had a $1,000 budget, and 10 weeks. Yep hubby didn’t give me much time. But it turned out how it turned out… absolutely terrible because of other people. But hey that’s water under the bridge. We’re planning a very intimate renewal of vows for our 10th wedding anniversary.

Good luck with planning your wedding. I hope it’s a wonderful day for you both.

Where do you live???!!!!
My ENTIRE wedding will cost $5000. Food, flowers, location, linens, photographer.
Our ceremony and reception with enough food for 300 people plus centerpieces (5 hours time) is $3000. Our photograper is $1000, cake is $170, bridal flowers $325.
And ya, we are going to an actual venue. Getting married in the garden and having the reception inside, but people can go out to the gardens if they want.
My friends parents are 12 grand in debt because of her wedding. Her fiances 9now husband) parents refused to pay for anything, they had no money, so her parents got a lot of credit cards to pay for it. I wouldn’t ever do that to my family.
My fiances parents offered $2500 and my parents offered $3000. It’s what they could afford. Whatever extra we can use for the honeymoon.

here is the speech i give my brides to be:
no one needs a $25,000.00 wedding and if you don’t have the money for it then i suggest you scale down your ideas. you don’t need most of the ’stuff’ the wedding industry is pushing.
for example:
wedding favours are a huge waste of money, generally speaking the majority of them go in the garbage.
save the date cards are another industry money-grabbing ploy. they aren’t needed at all. send your invitations out in a timely fashion and you are fine.
wedding dresses can be as simple as a pretty little tea-length dress to very formal - but remember this is something you’ll only wear once. it doesn’t need to cost thousands of dollars.
tuxes - while every wedding party seems to be in tuxes they really are supposed to be for formal affairs only. if your man has a business suit that will work very well for a semi-formal wedding and a casual wedding can be anything from sports coats and dress pants to blue jeans and white shirts.
there are a ton of ways to save money and if you just sit down and think about it all you’ll find you can have a lovely wedding on the five thousand dollars your dad is giving you.
please don’t go into debt for anything - its an awful way to start your new life. keep in mind all you really need is the bride, the groom, a couple of rings and a preacher - everything else is just ’stuff’.
good luck to you and congrats on your engagement! happy wedding!

Credit cards…people go into debt for weddings. It’s no way to start a life together with your spouse.

There are tons of way to save on weddings…

I bought my dress off of Craigslist. It’s a designer Maggie Sottero gown, with the authenticity papers. I got it for $350. I totally don’t mind that it’s been worn before. It’s a spectacular dress, and it’s ALL mine.

We picked up our invitations at Michaels craft store. 100 invitations with envelopes for $25.00!

I’m making my own ring pillow, flower girl basket.

I’m picking up a nice journal instead of an expensive guest book.

A girlfriend of mine who sews is hemming my dress for me, and doing any other alterations I may need.

I bought my daughters flower girl dress off of Craigslist for $50.

My sons ring bearer outfit will be bought at the Gap. Instead of spending money on renting, he’ll have something he can wear again.

We’re having an outdoor ceremony/reception. We rented an outdoor wedding tent, a fraction of the cost of renting a hall.

For the dance, we’re renting our own music equipment. We’re hooking up our pre-mixed iPod to all the equipment. Under $100.

My family is getting together and we’re doing the food ourselves. Prime rib roast with all the fixings. Haven’t budgeted this out yet, but it will be FAR less than hiring a caterer.

My brother is a professional photographer and is doing our pictures as a gift.

For guest favors, we’re doing a candy buffet. We’ll stock up on candy, and display it nicely. We’re getting little bags for the guests to fill up their own bags. Budget is approximately $200 for this.

The point is, if you’re willing to take things into your own hands, you can cut costs at every corner, and still have a fabulous wedding! We’re paying cash for everything, and we’ll have zero debt and people to own when we’re all done.

that’s a lot of money for a wedding, i mean really you can have a wedding on 5 grand, you can have a wedding on a lot less, my friend did everything herself, well we helped, and she only spent about 500 dollars on her wedding, and that included her dress. so it can be done

just make a list, plan your budget and be smart about it i rent houses out that’s it i don’t work i’m in school i grad in may, he works at a really good job, i make 8,000 a month on the rentals, he brings home 2800 every 2 weeks, we could have a big 25k wedding, but why,

when you look at the pic isn’t it more special to know who is in them. any way save money, but you can have a nice wedding for 5 grand. save the rest for a house

please answer mine.;_ylv=3?qid=20090401160128AAwHHBd

My friends wedding cost her over $25,000! It was nice, but my other friends wedding, whose budget was under $7000 was just as good, if not better….

And this friend who spent $25,000 is now repaying the loan they got for their honey moon and they are also working ridiculous hours to try pay back people who loaned them money - in fact she borrowed $3,000 from her boss!

My advice, is to save what you can and use the $5,000 you are getting from your parents. You can do a beautiful wedding for under $10,000! Also, maybe you should rethink your guest list, only invite those who are truly special to you. That should cut down on cost.

I’ve been having the same thoughts as you. My parents are also contributing $5,000 and I’ve been wondering how to get what I want for less than $10,000.

Also one last thing, I’m trying not to let myself get my “heart set” on anything in particular…like the flowers, or dress, or venue. I know its a pessimistic way to look at it, but at least won’t feel disappointed if I don’t end up with it. I think thats the biggest trap ladies fall into, letting themselves get disappointed- there really should be nothing disappointing about the day you marry the one you love, no matter what happens.

No way to loans, and my parents didn’t pay for my college - they are certainly NOT going to pay for my wedding - LOL!
My wedding budget is $20,000. We got about $4,000 as gifts from people who wanted to contribute. We put hefty deposits out of our savings onto everything we needed to reserve. And lastly we set our wedding date nearly 2 full years from when we got engaged so as we worked we could pay a little out of each check towards the costs.

I will also add that my fiance & I are in our 30’s have been in our careers for 10+ years, both own homes, we both have more than 1 car, and we each have a motorcycle. We didn’t buy $500k houses, we stuck to what we could afford (under $80k for each of us) so we are able to pay our mortgages as well as put savings into the bank. We don’t eat out excessively or blow money unneccesarily. We are careful with our expenses and save something out of every paycheck.

I have been working in the bridal business for quite some time now, and it amazes me the S.H.I.T. people will blow thousands of dollars on. To me, when I hear of young couples have lavish weddings, I wonder what they’re trying to compensate for in their relationship that they have to waste all this money on crap that will be gone tomorrow.

With the economy the way it is, it’s disgusting to me to see shows on television where we are praising people for spending $300K on a ceremony and treating each other like crap all the way down the aisle. And three years after this lavish ceremony, they lose their house because they can’t afford their mortgage.

Let me tell you what to spend your money on: a great photographer, a honeymoon for the two of you to enjoy, and a down-payment on a home. Flowers will be dea within hours, food will be eaten, and your dress will either be sold or preserved indefinitely. Why spend all your money on that?

I don’t see why people can’t have perfectly good weddings for less than $5K. If you’re in love, you’re in it for the long haul, and what’s REALLY important to you is saying “I do” and spending the rest of your life with the person across the altar from you, then all the glitter and sparkles should seem totally optional.

Good luck. =)

If you’re smart: You save. You both take on extra jobs, if necessary. You forego buying new cars and eating out. If you’re lucky, you have generous families who help you out. Then you figure out what you can afford with the cash you have.

If you’re not smart: You take out a loan. You max out your credit cards. You tap into your home equity line. You prematurely take money out of your 401(k) and pay a penalty and taxes on it. You tick off your relatives by begging or hinting for contributions that they have not offered. You tell your guests that you want cash. You have a money dance or a wishing well with a big dollar sign on it.

The bottom line is, not everyone gets a “dream” wedding, but you CAN have an affordable wedding that is joyous and fun, if you plan carefully and scale back your expectations.

It’s definitely not a good idea to go into debt to have a big wedding. And getting a loan to pay for something like that just isn’t smart. Most people either save up to pay for their wedding or like you said have money given to them by families, parents etc.

My wedding cost about $25,000 but we NEVER would have had a wedding at that expense if my parents didn’t pay for it. If your dad is giving you $5,000 then you should try and make it work using what money you do have. It sounds like you have a big wedding in mind but if you don’t have money saved and don’t have a way to pay for it without getting a loan then you should probably re-think your plans. I would have been pretty sad if I wasn’t able to have a big wedding but my husband & I weren’t going to put ourselves in debt just to have a big party. You can do something nice with $5,000 if you get creative.

yes i think that is peerfectly fine…. its ur special day i think that you shoudl be able to ask one little favor from them!!!!

you have the wedding you can afford. my wedding cost $3000. we incurred zero debt. we are 26 and completely own two cars, a home, and i am able to stay at home with our 4 month old because we spend according to the lifestyle we can afford, not to keep up with the joneses. this is a good time to start living responsibly, like an adult. have a wedding you can afford and live a life you can afford.

we will have 50 guests at the wedding. we know everyone by name, none of this “oh this is cousin tom’s friend from church” business. we invited close family, no 3rd cousins twice removed. you can easily have a $5000 wedding in 2009, but only if you focus on what’s important. marrying the man you love. besides, what’s more important, having an expensive bash that puts you in debt (in a very slow, weak economy where you could be unemployed at any minute) or entering your marriage with zero debt so that you can begin to save for your financial goals (house, honeymoon, car).

also, we’re getting married at a beautiful conservatory so that we don’t need any flowers. we also choose to marry there on a thursday morning. this cut the rental fee from $2000 for a saturday night down to $500. the pictures are just as beautiful and the guests that chose to attend were those who were really there for us, not to be wined and dined. so, if you feel you have to invite EVERYONE, choose a date/time that will make it a little less convenient for casual acquaintances and long-lost friends/family to attend. that way, you have invited and left the decision up to them…no hard feelings.

Saving up for it. Traditionally parents pay, so it seems unkind that you would mock people whose parents do pay for it. Bonuses and tax return money are where lump sums might come from. Cutting back on eating out and vacations.
I would not recommend getting a loan. Starting off a marriage with unnecessary debt has got to be the worst thing you can possibly do- what I mean is- there is nothing you need at a wedding that is worth going into debt over.
Weddings are just darn expensive. A nice simple wedding for 100 people is generally around $20,000. The longer you have to plan, and the more people you have to help you out and be creative, the less expensive you can get things done.