Our Wedding: Our Budget Strategy
Written by Sara on April 6, 2010 – 9:00 am -
When J and I first discussed marriage, we both agreed that we didn’t want to go into debt to afford a wedding. So, from the moment I accepted his marriage proposal, we knew that we’d only enjoy our wedding day if we stuck to a strict budget that didn’t involve credit card debt.
I’m very proud to say that Jordan and I haven’t relied on credit cards to fund our wedding. However, this commitment is not without sacrifice:
- Jordan and I both contribute a significant portion of our monthly income toward the wedding, which means that we sacrifice dinners and lunches with friends, nights out on the town, and even dates with each other!
- In December 2009, Jordan moved approximately 90 minutes away from me and from his friends and family to take a job in Lake Preston, SD. Every day, Jordan sacrifices time with me, with our dog Wyatt, and with our families and our friends to bring in a stable income. While being apart is extremely difficult for us, we’ve made it work!
- When Jordan accepted his job in Lake Preston, I moved back home with my parents. While living rent free is certainly helping our wedding budget, at times, living at home is rather difficult (especially when I’m missing Jordan!). But Jordan and I both feel incredibly grateful to my parents for allowing me to live at home, and for allowing him to come and stay with us each weekend he’s in town.
Our overall budget strategy has been to open a savings account (which I manage) and to funnel money into the account as often as possible. We also have made the commitment to paying ahead for all-things wedding (as much as we can). This is an extremely helpful strategy for us, as we make monthly “payments” of sorts to our reception venue, our photographer, and other things.
I also am an incessant list-maker and an avid user of Google Calendar, which allows me to set reminders for myself each pay period of what we want to accomplish with the money that Jordan and I are able to set aside after paying bills. We begin each month sending a payment to our reception venue, and we try to separate the other expenses (i.e. decor items, gifts for our honor attendants, etc.) between our pay periods.
While our budget strategy has been wonderful for us, we recognize that our strategy may not work for every couple.
What’s YOUR budget strategy?
Tags: wedding budget
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