Honestly, is anyone paying for their entire wedding themselves?

Rob and I paid for everything on our own.

Yep! We paid for everything ourselves. We had a budget of $1,500 and about 30 people. It still turned out very sweet.

View Quoted Comment How did you handle food? I can’t get a catering quote under $30 a person. No chipotle or pizza or bbq. I’d rather cook for everyone.

View Quoted Comment We had our reception at a restaurant that specializes in parties. We had an afternoon tea/ late brunch vibe going on. The reception started at 4. Hot club sandwiches, quiche, salad, fruit, 2 cakes and a pie. Plus drinks. Came out to $23/ person. Included the space and decor. They had an all inclusive wedding package option of $35/ person for dinner food and wedding cake. We cut costs by not having a traditional wedding cake. I do suggested looking for a venue that will combine services. The more you can combine the less stressful it is and the more money you’ll save.

We are paying for the wedding ourselves and it is going to be AMAZING!

We are paying for our wedding, save the rehearsal dinner (fiancé’s parents) and my dress (my parents), which our parents offered to do. Their portion is like 10%, and ours is 90%. It’s doable, and if you budget ahead it makes the planning far less stressful.

But, I don’t resent people whose parents offer to pay for their weddings. As long as the couple is appreciative, I think parents are allowed to spend their money how they wish.

I would just focus on what you can afford and what will make you happy. There’s no reason to compare your wedding to another because weddings are as unique as couples are.

We are also paying for everything ourselves! Our parents would love to help but they don’t have a lot of money and we’d rather they put their savings toward their own retirements/health as they get older.

The plan that worked best for us to not feel completely overwhelmed:
1. Choose a wedding date to determine how long your engagement will be
2. Determine how much you can save each month and still be able to pay all your bills/be happy (but also be thrifty for a while! Don’t go into debt for this!)
3. Add up what you can save and what he can save and make this your strict total budget (for us it’s 50/50 contributions, but if one of you makes significantly more money, you could adjust who contributes what!)
4. If this total budget isn’t allowing you to have the wedding you want, there are options: extend the engagement period to save more, get a second job or pick up more shifts at work, or change your vision for the wedding/compromise on areas that matter less to you

For us:
20 month engagement
Each of us saves $500 per month
$20,000 total budget for wedding and honeymoon (planning to spend ~$12,000 on wedding and ~$8,000 on honeymoon!)

Oh yeah, and think about putting the money in a good bank account that makes higher interest, such as a money market account at a credit union, but make sure you won’t be penalized for taking the money out “early” as you’ll be using it all in the next 1-2 years.

Good luck!

My fiancé and I are paying everything ourselves with no help! I hate to admit that I get a little annoyed when people just presume we have our families helping us. It’s definitely stressful but I made sure to figure out a budget right away so hopefully it helps!

I am paying for my own!

We are!! My view was that WE are choosing to have the big wedding, so WE should pay for it. My parents did their part by raising me haha! I'm definitely not knocking anyone who did have their parent's help, I think it's great! That was just how we felt about it! You're not alone!

My FH and I are paying for everything ourselves. I come from a single family home and my FH has supportive parents but he's chosen to pay on his own. Our budget is 15K so far, but due to the fact that we have very large close families. As long as you set a budget, things will work out.

We are! My parents paid for our honeymoon, DJ, and gave us some cash. Other than that everything is on us!

We're paying for everything ourselves, and it was our choice. Its one of the reasons we started planning so far in advance. Neither of us want to be beholden to anyone for anything.

We are 100% paying for ours alone. We have family but want to do it ourselves. Our budget is around $10,000 and we've been setting aside money for a while. Just starting to really focus in on what's important to us and what we need vs want. Its rough but know you're not alone.

No Parents Bank here!! We are paying for 100% of everything ourselves. This is why we needed a couple of years--so we could save up for the wedding we want to have. Next year we'll get it!!

Girl, I feel your pain! My fiancé and I paying for every single part of this wedding ourselves. Neither of our families are in a situation to be able to help us out financially at ALL.

uckily we’re both in positions with OT is available to us left and right, so we’re going to spend the better part of the next year working our asses off 😅 we know it’ll be worth it in the long run, and we have the added benefit of getting to do everything the way WE want. No pay/no say !

We're paying for everything by ourselves, splitting the 70k down the middle (it might go up to 75k, we're still 6 months out). My fiance's parents have offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner, and my parents will probably pay for an extended family bbq the night before. Otherwise, we're not asking our parents to pay for anything, as we're both older (I'm 36, he's 42) and make very good money.

No, I am paying for the wedding myself. And all parents are alive. I always planned to pay for my own wedding. I always thought the parents paying/chipping in was a myth. Good luck!

We are paying for everything ourselves. Both our first wedding and we’d rather our parents save their money for their retirement than spend on us. Being in our mid-thirties we are finally in a position in which we can afford to pay for a big party ourselves.

We’re doing it through good budgeting and monthly auto-payments to our savings account.

We are paying for our wedding ourselves and our budget started at $3k but is looking more like $6k. We are doing exactly what we want and keeping it small and simple. Splurging on the things that mean the most to us. Dont believe everything you read!