The Piggy Bank

We've set a $25k budget which we can fund ourselves if needed. My mom wants to pay for my dress and we are expecting my FH's parents to contribute something but we aren't sure how much and haven't had a chance to have that conversation yet. They are fairly traditional so I'm thinking they might offer to pay for the rehearsal dinner since the groom's family customarily takes on that expense.

I have to admit I'm jealous of my friend's parents who were like "Here's 30 thousand dollars." But at the same time I haven't liked taking money from my parents since I got my first job at 15 so...

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Aww thank you! It is very generous. We are having a small lower budget wedding (at least compared to some of the ones I've seen on here haha) and sadly they are mainly doing it to make themselves look good. They dont approve of my FH and I and have never liked him even after 5+ years of knowing him.

My parents are paying, but we're spending a fraction of that average

View Quoted Comment I'M the same way, been working before I could legally drive too.

View Quoted Comment Oh no, I'm sorry to hear. May I ask what their concerns are? Feel free to private message me if that makes you more comfortable.

View Quoted Comment Okay, very nice. That is really generous of your parents regardless 😊

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We are so grateful for all they have done for us! We even lived with them for about 8 months after we got engaged. Once we are finished with school and are making good money we are planning to take them on a trip, completely paid for by us to say thank you for everything

We are in Nashville, TN. We looked around the Nashville area but the prices were astronomical for us so we decided to do a destination wedding in Gatlinburg (about 4 hours from us). Gatlinburg is an elopement town so they have tons of all inclusive venues. We aren’t doing an elopement but were able to find a venue that could accommodate up to 40 total (including bride and groom) so it was perfect. It includes venue, photographer, decor, catering. It is a short event though, no dancing and such. We have the space for a total of 3 hours.
We are also doing a dinner Friday evening for anyone that comes into town that day. My FH is a chef so he is planning to do some bbq at home that we can take to Gatlinburg and then he will whip up a few sides and voila dinner. And finally we are doing a pancake brunch the day after for anyone that sticks around for a bit.

View Quoted Comment That sounds like a neat idea. I love Gatinburg!

My parents have very graciously offered to pay for my wedding. I could never afford to have a wedding with our whole guest list, so I think it's half for me and also half for them to be able to invite the people who helped them raise me. It's a win-win.

View Quoted Comment I didn’t know this, but sounds about right. His family didn’t offer to pay for anything except for a bar tab during our weekend getaway.

View Quoted Comment Yeah it was! We only had immediate family attend, and we paid for everything: hotels, flights, food. We both used cc’s to rack up on points, but didn’t have debt because we had money saved to pay it off. We did this to take advantage on the points because we used them for the hotel rooms and flights. Everything, including our 2 day mini moon at the hotel was $35k.

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I don't mind, but it is a long story so I'll send in DM!

We were prepared to pay for everything ourselves but my dad shockingly gave us a $10,000 check. We used half for the wedding and are using the other half to have a baby (we’re both women.) My mom paid for the photographer deposit and her parents are paying for the caterer tip. Our set budget is $10,000 and we’re coming in at that.

View Quoted Comment Okay, good for you. And that is indeed very generous of your parents.

View Quoted Comment Hopefully they can offer assistance with the planning and organization.

View Quoted Comment Oh my gosh. $35k? Did I read that correctly?

View Quoted Comment Okay, that was very generous of them. Thanks for sharing.

Right now we're sitting at right around 18k for the wedding, my parents are chipping in 5k and we're paying for the rest.

View Quoted Comment Yea, that also includes food and such for the family. If we didn’t pay for our family to come we would have spent less than 10k for us, the ceremony and our dinner reception. Flights and hotels cost the most, which is why we used points for those where we could.