How We Paid for The Wedding of Our Dreams Without Going into Debt

Getting married is a truly emotional experience. It is easy to get carried away and forget about your money goals. Your wedding is a small portion of your life, but for many the debt lingers after their special day. I got married last year on July 27th, 2018 to my wonderful husband and it was beautiful. It was truly the wedding of our dreams. We had everything we wanted. It was overseas in Aruba, on the beach, with beautiful sunsets and a huge party at a private location.

While we were very serious about what we wanted, we prioritized not leaving that day with debt. Like many things in my life, I planned very carefully. Here are three main things I did that helped us stay out of debt while having the wedding of our dreams.

1) Get on the same page with your future spouse.

You need to discuss how you want to handle the financial responsibilities of the wedding. Are you going to put all the money into one bank account? Will you both be responsible for all the expenses? We decided to split certain expenses and to be individually responsible for others. Some of our joint expenses were the venue, DJ, flowers, photographer, decorations, food, liquor, and our hotel suite. Our separate expenses were his tux, my dress (gifted from my father), our gifts to our wedding parties and wedding bands. In addition, we paid for every expense ourselves. Our parents did not pay for our wedding, though we did receive some unexpected gifts at the end.

2) We put money towards the things that mattered most

There is a lot that goes into a wedding and not everything has to be included. Be careful what you give your financial attention. We chose to prioritize the venue, open bar, photographer, and rings. I believe more than 75% of the money spent on our wedding went toward these four things. We spent a lot of money on these things and we will never regret it. Spending money on the venue and open bar created a party on the beach that will last in our memories for a lifetime. One costly tradition we left out was a formal dinner. We had food, but not a formal dinner. We are not very traditional and there were many things we left out, but did not miss. We weighed it, a private club night on the beach with our loved ones, or a formal dinner. The decision was easy. To learn one of my best tips to staying on a budget click here!

3) Book Smart

Don’t jump ahead and start booking when you don’t have a cash deposit. Put yourself on a plan. That might mean you have to push your wedding further out. Originally, I wanted a wedding in the winter time on a ski slope, because I love to ski. After looking at the time it would take to save a cash deposit, it was better for us to have a wedding in July. This gave us six extra months to plan financially for our wedding. Don’t rush. Trust me, the additional six months go by fast and I am glad that my husband asked me, “What is the rush?” It really put this in perspective.

Staying out of debt to get married was a great decision. We didn’t start our marriage with an additional financial burden. If you keep your ideas focused and think long term you might make different decisions when creating the day of your dreams. Don’t lose sight of the real purpose for that day. This is about the two of you, so don’t try to please everyone. Forget tradition and do it your way! Sometimes it is hard to figure out how you relate to money.

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