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Weekend Update

July 20th, 2015 at 12:31 pm

DF got paid more than we thought, so that's a bit of a relief. I don't have to put the pet expenses to the credit card. I have some payments pending to my credit card - 30 for gas, 30 reimbursement from a work purchase, and I'm also going to take $100 out of our joint account. I will also make a $320 payment next paycheck (Wednesday). I'll still end up paying interest which is a huge bummer seeing as I've managed to avoid it the past year, but only on about $920 (the statement balance was originally $1525). For August, I have $543 budgeted to Chase, but I'm going to do my best to knock out more.

This weekend, we had two potlucks. We did bring desserts to both totaling $35.

I'm in a holding place with wedding plans. In an effort to save a trip out there, I desperately reached out to a former class instructor who is currently in my wedding location. He's graciously agreed to swing by the place and check it out for me. If he agrees that it looks like the photos, then I'm going to coordinate with their event planner to draw up the contracts to book the venue. (I had originally asked the event planner to Skype or use technology to conduct a virtual tour, but she claimed to not have the means to do that.) That would mean we only have one planning trip which I'm actually going to try and combine with the Vegas trip to save money on a cross-country flight. We've decided to go without a planner completely. I can be pretty organized when I want to, so I'll just have to make this a focus in the coming months. DF wrote up his list last night - it was over double what I had in mind. We're going to make some cuts, but I think we'll still end up inviting between 100 and 150 people now. Since it's a destination wedding, I'm going to send the invites out between 4 and 6 months and ask for RSVPs to be back by the two month mark for planning. This should give me ample time to plan if all of them suddenly decide to show up.

6 Responses to “Weekend Update”

  1. Kiki Says:
    1437418312

    Having done several destination weddings where I was a bridesmaid, I would recommend (as soon as possible) to send a "save the date" with the location information so people know where it will be held. 4-6 months is not enough time to plan a trip away with other plans people have to make. Initial estimates is #0% of friends will make it.

    Will you do a local reception once you have returned? Might want to have that date set as well so people know how they can celebrate with you if they cannot make the destination. (Where is it by the way?)

  2. Debt-free by Thir-ty Says:
    1437419279

    Kiki, it's actually going to be in Sedona, so still in the US. All of my bridal party are aware of the location and anticipated timeframe as are the important family members/friends. We are actually sending out Save the Dates as soon as we finalize the date/venue (hopefully in the next two weeks). Everything I've researched though suggests any actual invitations sent earlier than 6 months are likely to get ignored/put aside and forgotten about.

    We are actually not going to do a local celebration afterwards. Most of our family/friends are spread out which is why we went destination in the first place.

  3. Butterscotch Says:
    1437419473

    I agree with Kiki. People need to plan their PTO time from work and make arrangements for kids and pets. But PTO is the biggest thing. I gave guests two years notice on the date and location and still only about 50% came. We even paid for people's hotels rooms and still many couldn't swing it because of flights and time off work reasons.

  4. Butterscotch Says:
    1437419518

    Mine was in the US too.

  5. Kiki Says:
    1437443605

    Just caught the embarrassing typo in my comment above. That was supposed to be 30% of friends.

    I used to work for a wedding planner in San Francisco when i was in college. The planning was fascinating for those if us who love to plan.
    Most of the people she hired lasted barely a season. I loved working for them.

    Sedona is gorgeous! What a lovely location for a wedding! Such beautiful locations for pictures, colors, sun and sunsets.

  6. Debt-free by Thir-ty Says:
    1437485760

    Thanks Butterscotch for the input! It's good to have some firsthand insight. Everything I've read says to plan for 30% to decline for a destination wedding, but Sedona's sites say they're numbers are more like 25% declining since many people decide to just make it a vacation and explore Sedona. I was hoping to keep it under 100 and DF has 115 on his invite list, plus my ~50 invitees, so we'll see what kind of feedback we get when we start sending save the dates.

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