How to pay for weddings?

Do not go into debt! My former boss was still paying off her credit card bill from the booze tab 3 years after the wedding.

View Quoted Comment Same with my friend. They spent money they don’t have for a destination wedding they can’t afford. 7 years after, they divorced, and now, 3 years later, both have a few more years to pay their wedding debt. This is so wrong in my opinion.


OP, please save save save. If you need more time to save, postpone the wedding. Cut things you don’t need. For example cut guest list, or decoration, or buy a second hand dress, etc.

Definitely don't go into debt to pay for a wedding. Determine your budget and start saving. I'd also go a step further. I used one credit card to pay for everything for my wedding (vendor deposits, venue, dress, decor, flowers, etc.) so I got travel points for each purchase I made. I used the money in my wedding savings account to pay off the monthly balance each month. This helped me stay on track with my spending and ensure I stayed within my budget. I was adamant that we would not pull money from other sources for the wedding, and we didn't. My wedding was over 3 weeks ago, we have no debt related to the wedding and we have a significant number of travel points we intend to redeem from the credit card for a post-COVID honeymoon!

I've been told the rule for a wedding and that's to have the wedding you can comfortably afford. You don't want to start off your marriage in debt (even though let's be honest most do). I was told if you need a loan for the wedding then it's a wedding you shouldn't be having. Also nobody is expected to pay for your wedding except you and your fiance.


We planned on paying for everything ourselves but my parents really wanted to chip in and buy the cake, his parents wanted to pay for food and my brothers paid for my dress. Plus with covid we drastically changed our wedding. We went from having 120 guests at a venue to only 60 in the backyard. I think the most my fiance and I are spending is 5k compared to the 10k we originally planned on spending.
We had some money saved for the wedding. And we have been paying for everything with checks. We are doing what we can to make sure we don't owe anything for our day.

My better half and I are paying for our wedding with our tax return and stimulus checks we are a family of 10 so the stimulus checks is how were paying for our wedding, the only thing my fiance bought on credit was my wedding dress for me as a gift however he paid it off the next week.

Im having a 2 year engagement. I am now 5 months out and let me tell ya its hard as heck to save. Ive been throwing money aside or buying things randomly now so its not so much at once.

Once we get closer I will probably have to put the rest on a credit card. So far we are okay but also our parents are helping with some of the bills!

Hello! My parents are paying for the bigger portion of the wedding budget, anything involving the venue/rentals or catering. My boyfriend and I are paying for: florals/decor, photographer, dj, officiant, attire.


I advise to not take out loans. Set money aside or work out payment plans with vendors. Or plan for a longer engagement to ensure you have appropriate funds. I think using credit cards are fine to use on payments, but just be mindful to not overspend on any transaction you cannot actually afford in that cycle. Be wary of how large payments will be and your credit card due dates. Good luck!

We were going to pay for half our wedding and parents for the other half, but since we ended up having a very small wedding due to Covid, our parents paid for it all.


It is completely ok to have a longer engagement so you have more time to save. Check with your partner how much money each of you can save monthly, and how much money you will need for the wedding you want.
It’s also ok to elope or have a small wedding at a public park in order to cut costs.

You're wedding isn't until 2024 you have a bunch of time to save. Have you spoken with you're parents or Future In laws to see if they have a want to help financially?

Absolutely do not go into debt for your wedding. It might be a big day, but it's still only one day. One day shouldn't cause you multiple years of financial struggle. Relationships are hard enough in general, but being financially burdened makes things so much more unnecessarily difficult.

My parents are chipping in a bit, but everything else is being covered by FH and me. What my parents are chipping in will cover most of the venue costs. Our venue is super cost-effective and is pretty much all-inclusive, so that luckily takes care of a good chunk of what needs to be paid for. We're covering the photography and most of the rest of the stuff will be things we do on our own or with help from friends. A friend of mine is doing our bouquets and my hair and nails as her wedding present to me. Other than that, we aren't having flowers. Our centerpieces are models of MotoGP tracks that a friend is making. They're one of our biggest costs, but it's something unique that we will use to decorate our home with after the wedding. If it were just for one day, I wouldn't be able to justify the cost. We'll be livestreaming our ceremony and that recording will be our wedding video so we're not bothering with a videographer. I've DJ'd sets for a few local dance scenes that I'm part of, so I'll be creating our playlist and we won't have an official DJ. Just press play on the phone/laptop/tablet/whatever. Our DoC will announce things like the first dance, cake cutting, etc.

There are plenty of things you can do to keep costs down, and you've got a ton of time to save up. FH and I only had about 6 months from the proposal and now our wedding is 2.5 months away. We're not too worried because we've planned and budgeted and are keeping to that strictly. If an unexpected expense does come up at the very last minute we'll have a little extra set aside for that and I do have a credit card I am willing to put up to $1000 on. That keeps it below 20% usage, which is great for your credit score, and can still be paid off in a few months at most. Additionally, that number is actually included in our budget so even if it's unexpected it's been planned for.

View Quoted Comment I would advise against asking anyone if they want to help financially. If people want to help you out financially they will on their own.


We never planned on financial help or asked if any was willing to help financially. We set a reasonable budget that we could afford and went from there. Then once the wedding was a year away people offered to help out with the wedding.

Also you aren't getting married until 2024. Yes I know it is hard but you have a lot of time to save the money. Make a savings account and put what you can afford into it every paycheck so that way the money isn't as easy to get like it is in your home.


Another great thing about the time you have before the wedding is you have time to research all the vendors and venues around you to see what the best offer is for your budget.
And one more thing, when you budget for your dress make sure you are budgeting not just for the dress but for the accessories and any alterations it may need. I made a budget for my entire outfit and then figure out with the jewelry, shoes, Vail, and alterations how much I could realistically afford to spend on the dress itself.

Paying for it 100% ourselves. We started with an ideal budget and a goal of "when". Then I looked around until I could find things within that budget, built out a buffer zone, and realistically how much each month we would both need to save to meet that timeframe. While I knew I had allotted a certain number for some things, I hunted for ways to go lower (like getting my dress from Stillwhite). If we wanted to spend more, I would have pushed it out further to make the saving possible. Also of note - I have a separate savings account (high-yield) that is solely for events (vacations, down-payments, etc.) so that money doesn't get touched but is ALSO separate from my emergency fund savings.

I also took advantage of buying second-hand decor (my centerpieces are mostly from a friends wedding). DIY where you can. Save where you can. Keep guests lists reasonable and thoroughly budget and vet your ceremony/reception venue for hidden costs. Get creative. Cut what you don't care about (even if it is "traditional" to weddings).

Echoing everyone here - don't bury yourself in debt. Credit cards are great for racking up points, but interest will eat you alive if you don't do a monthly pay off and you don't want to start a new chapter of life fretting about bills. If you know (100% certainty) you will have money within 3-6 months for a larger purchase, cards or plans with # of months same as cash are great (I did this a lot with Paypal credit - just make sure you pay off within the time or you get smacked with back-interest).

100% paying for all out of pocket. We opened a joint savings account and have been saving since we got engaged. Also when we get married we would have been engaged for 2 years so the long engagement has allowed us to plan and save without having to get any loans.

We scheduled our wedding for about 16 months out and paid monthly together.

View Quoted Comment Yes! I understand people are against asking for help financially.
Saving and keeping a budget on certain expenses helps.

Definitely didn't take out any loans at all e just saved from each of our checks.

We are paying entirely ourselves and started saving years before getting engaged as we knew we would have no financial help for anything.

My fiancé and I waited 1.5 years longer than we planned to get married because we are paying everything ourselves. I won’t do a bachelorette party nor a bridal shower. Don’t take a loan if you can because that will be very stressful!

See if you can rent a wedding dress or buy a cheaper dress. Plan a small and intimate wedding to cut down the cost but still do all the nice designs/decorations you want for your wedding! Get 1-2 credit cards with signup bonus for mileage so you can maybe use the points for your honeymoon.

We split the cost between ourselves and my parents. They paid for the majority, but we did most of the work and also paid a portion, ourselves.

New tradition states that the couple pays for the wedding themselves, but I find this really varies from family to family.