How are you paying for your wedding?

Before we even got engaged and started planning the wedding, we set a hard rule to not use any credit or borrowed money of any kind to fund our wedding so we are using our own money completely, my parents' contribution which is also their own money, and his parents' contribution. We wanted a beautiful wedding and a memorable day but we are very strict on the fact that not a single person goes broke or has to borrow money or go into debt over just one day otherwise we would much rather just go to city hall!

Well we are going to have to do all three it seems. Weddings in Canada are a lot more expensive then in Romania (I'm Romanian from my mothers' side) and plus it's customary for us to have a huge wedding and to invite the whole family. We will probably do 2 ceremonies. The one in Canada is probably going to be covered by my in-laws and me and my family are going to fund the second one in Romania. I talked with my parents and they have money saved up but they are planning to take out a small credit (they are thinking of using this company here: https://credit-10.com/ro/viaconto-credit/ ) to cover the rest of the expenses. I am not really happy about that but they say that it's no big deal and that it would be disrespectful to not have a big wedding in Romania as well.

As soon as you put the word "wedding" in front of any noun, it triples the price. "Wedding" venue, "wedding"cake, "wedding"dress, etc. My suggestion is do as much of it yourself as possible. If you're not very crafty, get help from relatives, friends, neighbours, you tube. It's not hard to keep costs down if you try. We are paying everything ourselves and we're getting close to $6000.00. Here are some suggestions:

1) Invite fewer guests - if you keep it small, it costs a lot less

2) Buy your dress from a consignment shop, or rent one just like the guys rent tuxedos

3) Get flowers from Costco

4) Make your own wedding cake, or have a friend do it

5) Make your own bouquets (look on you tube)

6) Do your own hair and make up

7) Buy centrepieces from varage sale or kijiji, or just make simple ones yourself

8) Have a budding photographer take your photos (no need to spend $800)

9) Choose a venue and tell them you're having a birthday party for your mom/aunt/friend. You'd be amazed at how the price drops for meals.

10) Don't have an open bar. Give each adult 2 tickets for free drinks, after which they pay their own.

We are paying for it on our own as of right now. We set a date far enough in advance for our budget that we wouldn't go into debt. Even though we have 120-150 guests everything else is low key and simple. We got lucky and were able to pay our venue with our PC credit card for the points and paid it off right away.

We are paying for everything ourselves - I made a savings budget and put it in a separate account - that's been very helpful. Before we made any decisions about anything (venue,photographer etc) I sat down and figured out what we could save and how much we would have by x date for the wedding and based our decisions of which vendors we used on our budget (for the most part). No credit and no help from parents. We had to pay deposit's at the time of booking and then we are able to make payments along the way!

** If I have been able to pay by credit card I have been doing that to get points (hello PC POINTS -- free groceries!!) but have transferred it right away to pay it off. But most wedding vendors want to charge you an extra fee for paying by credit - so I haven't gotten as many PC points as I was planning

We're paying for the wedding ourselves. Trying to save save save. Luckily the hall only had a deposit and the remainder is owing 10 days before the wedding. We've paid most of our deposits with only floral to go. I'm finding it very stressful to be constantly looking at my bank account and wondering where were going to get the money and how we're going to save it by sept 2018...... Luckily my mom has offered to pay for my dress & accessories.

We are trying to pay for everything ourselves but my parents are wanting to help ou! We already have $10000 saved up. My dad is paying for my whole wedding outfit (wedding dress , veil , belt), half of our catering/alcohol fee, ceremony venue , wedding decorations and wedding flowers.

It is very pricey and I find it pretty stressful. We're paying for the wedding with a combination of contributions from parents, credit and savings. We think the wedding is going to cost about $35,000 all-in, my parents are contributing $14,000, his are contributing $6,000, we will save approximately $10,000 by the time the wedding vendors payments are due, and the other $5,000 will be covered by line of credit.

We are paying for everything. My retired parents are still supporing my 35 year old brother who lives at home and cannot afford to give us anything nor did I expect it as I paid for University myself and my inlaws cannot afford to even afford it as they have 7 children my partner is the eldest.

We are contributing $1000 per month equally into a separate account as we are still paying for loans for post graduate studies.

Fortunately we are doing a destination wedding but we estimate it to be around 20K and this does not include our travel. There are several things we must pay cash for like the photographer, videographer and meals per person which is about 10K USD. Anything we can pay on credit card we will and then we will use our line of credit to pay off the balance lof our credit card ater and then put bi-weekly contributions to our line of credit.

The joys of marraige

We plan to pay everything ourselves! It is going to be hard, but we will have to make it work (no choice, right?). We are keeping the budget small, since we have many expenses (house mortgage, car payments, taxes, all that fun stuff that comes with adulting! lol). Have you worked out your budget and plan?

My parents are helping us a bit, and the rest we are paying ourselves with savings. I've opened a separate account and we save monthly. I charge everything to reap the rewards of my credit cards.

My fiance and I are paying for everything ourselves.

My fiancé are each putting money aside every month and will be paying for this completely on our own! We are aiming not to have to ask our parents for help, nor do we want to take out a line of credit/loan.

Fiancé and I are doing it all on our own. We budgeted, and we are putting all that we can into a savings account. It's a tad tight, no more morning timmies, or going out to lunch "just cause". But I have my "must haves" and he has his. Mine just happen to be the expensive ones... haha. We don't want to compromise on our day. We're only doing this once

My dad is paying for my dress. My fiance and I are paying for everything else.

I would say my parents are paying 40% and the remainder will fall on us. It's definitely better if you're able to get a line of credit versus putting the costs on a credit card => lower interest!

My fiance and I will be paying for the wedding, alongside a small portion from my parents as a gift. We will also be asking for cash gifts from guests and no gift registry (we've looked at registries and there really wasn't anything we wanted) to hopefully offset a part of the balance.

Our parents and us will be paying for our wedding.

That's so cute that you've been dating since highschool and started saving so early.

Saving money every month. My mom is helping with the dress and some extras but the majority of it will be paid by my fiance and I.

We are paying for our wedding, we are also having a Buck and Doe to try and have a big party with all our family and friends but we also hope to raise some good money to help us out for our wedding !

We're paying for the wedding with money from our families and our own. I have a travel rewards credit card and I try to put everything on it. The plan is to accumulate points to pay for the honeymoon. Also.... When my finace proposed he gave me his gandmothers ring but with the intention to also make a custom ring. I put the ring on my credit card(he gave me the cash) and we got a lot of points. I know that's a bit odd but it worked for us.

We paid the deposits for the vendors with our own money, my dad gave us some money to help us out a little bit that we used to pay off any current debt we had. Now that we are debt free we are taking our paychecks and saving as much as we can for the wedding. We will also be having a jack and jill in the spring time and will be asking for cash for gifts at the wedding.

My parents are helping us, and we will be paying with savings and credit....So we are keeping our budget small! We don't want to start married life with a lot of debt hanging over us!

We asked our guests for cash gifts that will pay our wedding

We've been saving for our wedding ever since we graduated from high school. We knew we would be getting married once I graduated from University.

Hi Amanda

I think that's a great idea to save up for your wedding! How are your preparations going?

Did you figure things out for your wedding guestlist?

Hi Samara Thanks so much for your useful tips in this discussion!

It's so helpful and very appreciated in the community to share all your useful insights!! I'm happy you were able to find all these ways of saving to organize your wedding!

Catch up with these discussions in the community! It would be great to have your insight

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How is your planning going?

I see that your colour for your wedding is Fuschia. I made this discussion for a wedding in Pink, let me know how you like these ideas!

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What are your ideas for your decorations? Do you have a special theme for your wedding?

I must say, I never thought of saving money for my wedding long beforehand. This is giving me the challenging of putting aside most of my income for the next year! We are using credit card (just as as means of paying, I don't spend money that I know that I can't pay off) and online transactions.

My parents are contributing some money as well as my future in-laws. However, it looks like I will be paying for the majority of it. My fiancé can't contribute much as he is finishing his last year of university, so he doesn't have a lot of money.

I would just say don't spend money on frivolous things. Just spend your money on necessities. Also, every penny counts, so watch spending on several small things as well. And the wedding wire budget too is also very useful. I would also allocate some money for anything this year that you want to use to prepare for you wedding, ie gym memberships, fitness plans, beauty treatments.

When you make your budget, remember to include GST and gratuities (caterers often include these, so read contracts thoroughly). These add up when you are spending large amounts of money.

For your money, spend on the things that matter most to you! And think about involving people you know that might be able to help. Just make sure you have confidence in their skills. I've heard that you shouldn't get a friend to do photography unless they really know they're doing. But you might be lucky enough to know someone that does though. Does having a live band or professional DJ important to you? My brother, who's a musician, is creating a playlist for us and will manage that throughout the evening. He can also help with sound etc. Just make sure you do your research on how to manage a playlist. I've heard of cases when it worked out well, but also cases of when it wasn't successful. Also, do you know anyone that would be great as an MC? And, when it comes to videography, does having a professionally edited video matter to you; do you know someone who could edit the raw footage for you, or can you do it yourself? It just depends on the amount of quality you want. A couple places will offer just the raw footage, and this can save a lot. If you can save in any of these areas, that helps a lot.

Look for vendors that offer discounts, like some of the ones on Wedding Wire - as long as you are happy with their work!

At the place I bought my dress at, they let me buy a veil off the rack for 50% off. It saved me $250! You could ask a place if they will give you discounts on any off the rack accessories. Just make sure they aren't damaged.

I don't know how much more advice I can give, but ask any other questions, and I can try!

Good luck,

Samara

Edit - additional info:

My fiancé and I don't drink, so we aren't spending on alcohol. It is our wedding, and we and our guests don't need it. If alcohol isn't that important to you, no need to spend on it.

I also heard suggestions to have late night snacks, but I suppose it depends how late you want your wedding. But I asked my future mother-in-law and she said she was at a wedding once where they did have late night snacks, but no one ate them! I'd imagine people would be pretty full after a large meal and cake, in my opinion anyways.

Do you need programs or menus? Sometimes ordering these can be expensive. Or you can just order less and people can share, or you can just have one or two menus on each table. Alternatively, DIY of course

We just budget and pay a little per month or put it into a savings account as we go, depending on where we cut spending IMO it's well spent

Thanks Olivia!

Thank you Simone!!! Btw... I love your dress ideas