Just got engaged and wondering how to start saving for your wedding?
Weddings are a beautiful time, but they also tend to be stressful and expensive! When you think of your dream wedding, it seems wonderful and magical, but it is not realistically possible. If you start saving for your wedding in the future from this moment, maybe that magical wedding could happen!
Savings; it all depends on how big of a saver and spender you are. In this day, with student loans and car payments that seem to last forever, additional expenses for a wedding could be very stressful. You should not have to be scrambling around trying to collect all the money you can, taking loans from friends or banks, for your special day.
Saving money in advance for your wedding helps take a lot of the load off your shoulders. Who wants to start their new, married life with debts up to their necks? In this article, we will tell you about some smart ways to save money on your wedding. Hopefully this will make wedding planning easier for you and not taint the excitement that comes by when starting this new chapter in one’s life.
Start saving for your wedding before you’re even engaged
In America, statistically, an average wedding costs up to $20-$25,000. That is not only extremely expensive but also inconvenient if you are planning for a short engagement. So, here’s a way to make it possible; start saving for your wedding before you’re engaged.
Yes, it does make you look presumptuous, especially if your courtship has just started. But it is a practical and realistic approach if you want to have the wedding of your dreams without drowning in debts. An average courtship is more or less 2-3 years. If you were to start saving now for a two year time period, you would definitely have to save $400 every month for just a $10,000 wedding.Here’s a chart that would help you realise how difficult this really is:
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- For a $25,000 budget wedding, you would have to save $1041 for 24 months, and $694 for 36 months.
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- For a $20,000 budget wedding, you would have to save $833 for 24 months, and $555 for 36 months.
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- For a $10,000 budget wedding, you would have to save $416 for 24 months, and $277 for 36 months.
That seems almost impossible!
To have even an average wedding when the time comes, the realistic thing would be to start saving money now, even if there are no engagement prospects on the near horizon. The goal is to be prepared for whenever the time comes.
First, you have to arrange an independent savings account with regular monthly or weekly deposits. Make sure to evaluate how much you would need to be saving for the budget you are aiming for. Also, it is important to keep in mind that weddings never stay on budget. Plans could change, honeymoon turns out to be more expensive than originally thought. You can never stay on target no matter how much you try to.
Secondly, telling your partner about a future marriage savings account may not be the best idea. Keep it to yourself, since it could make for some awkward conversation about something that your partner is not ready for.
Thirdly, when you do happen to meet the person you want to spend your life with, you may change your mind about having a lavish wedding. You may just end up going to the courthouse. So all that money saved up could be used to buy a house, car or investing in something profitable. Although this may happen, it is still better to be ready than to have to live in debt later on.
Last but not the least, save in the same way you would pay your car payments. Make it necessary and do not skip. This would help you not be in debt later and maybe even none at all, which would lead to a better marriage.
Here is the complete guide about Perfect Way to Plan a Wedding on a Small Budget
Clever ways to save on your wedding
These are some helpful tips on how to save big on your wedding. They will not only bring down the expense of the whole wedding by a big margin but also make it more intimate and charming in my opinion.
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- Do not get married on a Sunday. Pick any other day of the week as it would be cheaper.
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- Have a longer engagement. This would give you time to research properly and choose things according to your budget and book early so it does not get expensive when the time comes.
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- Marry at the end or way before the wedding season is at its peak. This would save you thousands.
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- Finding a venue that does not limit your vendor choices would help a lot. You would get to choose vendors on your own, and that would be less expensive than a venue that comes with its own vendors.
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- Rent a vacation house that could be the venue for the wedding and the bridal party could stay there too.
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- Arrange your ceremony and reception to take place in the same venue such as a hotel. It would greatly cut down the costs of transportation and decoration etc.
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- Plan to have your reception at a fancy restaurant. This way, you would only be paying for the food and drinks and everything else would come along with the venue.
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- Marrying at the courthouse could mean you get to have a fancier reception.
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- Skip having to serve a whole dinner meal and have an evening wedding that serves as a cocktail party too.
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- Borrow some of the décors that your friends may have used in their wedding and find alternatives for others, for example; fake flowers are a much cheaper choice than real flowers.
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- Let your friends assist and help you with things that you would otherwise hire people for.
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- You can have a sale after the wedding so you could sell things that you don’t need anymore after the wedding.
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- Find dresses at sale or just get ones that have been worn before. You can find many retailers that rent out decent dresses for weddings. Same goes for wedding tuxedos.
These are just some of the ways that would help you in saving money for a wedding. After you have a successful wedding with the help of some of the above ways, people would be coming up to you with questions such as when did you start saving for a wedding?
And You could point them to this article and let them know that this is how I saved for my wedding.