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Wedding Blues

November 18th, 2015 at 08:17 pm

I recently did a detailed budget of the remaining wedding costs and it's a little painful. It doesn't even include the honeymoon which is several grand more. I'm hoping some of the travel costs will be alleviated by using rewards points. Everything is already booked, so the only areas I can save are smaller things like the Out of Town bags, centerpieces, placecards, and my accessories and shoes. Even then, the savings is hundreds which won't make that much of a difference. Planning to pay for it completely in cash would require us to save $3300 each month from December to May. That number does not account for any help from my or DF's parents. Both have agreed to help, but since we did not get a set number, we're trying to minimize the impact to them. I plan to sit down with DF tonight and go over this with him. As much as I want to do our original honeymoon plan, we may have to settle for coming back and doing a staycation or BnB getaway in our area.

9 Responses to “Wedding Blues”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1447883433

    We never had a honeymoon officially either. My husband couldn't get away from work that long. Aren't you having a destination wedding? (Or is that someone else?) Can't you just stay in the area a few days longer...rather than go to another destination?

  2. Butterscotch Says:
    1447889167

    Remember that a lot of people give money as wedding gifts! You might be able to cover the honeymoon that way. You can even register for a honeymoon fund for people to donate directly to.

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1447898859

    I would scale back on all the wedding decorations, most of which will be forgotten, and spring for a better vacation

  4. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1447927079

    We put a travel agency as our bridal registry and received about $800 (remember we had a small wedding). Also, our honeymoon was only 3 days and very close to our wedding as it was a destination wedding anyway .. We went horse riding on the beach, had an awesome seafood platter among many cool things. Seriously though I get antsy if I'm away 7 days so a three day honeymoon was fine! I think we were gone 10 days in total. Maybe look into travel bridal registries?

  5. helen Says:
    1447942152

    Oh for goodness sake, just elope. That's what I did.

  6. debt-free by thir-ty Says:
    1447945384

    CCF, we are doing a destination. We may stay in the area a few more days, but even that would require a hotel and car rental. We discussed it last night and are okay with giving up our original plan (Grand Canyon and a drive up the California coast in a really nice car). We'll probably just stay two days more and still fit in the Grand Canyon.

    Butterscotch and VS, we do have two honeymoon things on our registry, but I don't want to count on it as we're destination and people are already spending a lot of money to come out.

    PatientSaver, interestingly enough, we're not really decorating. We have table linens and are doing wine bottles as the centerpieces. All of our other florals are included in the venue package.

    And Helen, that's probably the one thing I'm totally against. I've never really pictured my wedding, but the one thing I always was sure of was that I wanted to be surrounded by my friends and family. While it's certainly much more cost effective, that's not even on my radar as a solution.

  7. scfr Says:
    1447945600

    Definitely keep looking for places to cut back. So many of us brides get caught up in what we think we need to have instead of what really matters the most(sharing the moment with friends and family).

    DH & I went to a nearby resort for one night for our honeymoon. We're still happily married 23 years later. We took several nice trips in the early years of our marriage; we just waited a bit.

    What about planning for an anniversary trip to your wished-for honeymoon destination in a couple years, when you've had time to save up?

    Never forget that a strong, long-lasting marriage is the ultimate goal, not a one-time blow-out event and fancy trip. Blessings to you and your DF.


  8. pjmama Says:
    1448028138

    Weddings are so expensive, but I'm with the others - don't get too bogged down by the little stuff. Nobody is going to remember what your placecards look like, so do them tastefully, but not expensively Smile Also, accessories can run high - I'd suggest taking a look at Tradesy.com if you haven't already. I bought my wedding dress pre-owned for $160 and LOVED it. They have a whole wedding section on their site, and accessories are included. And honestly, unless you're wearing a short dress, the shoes won't make much of a difference (I'm a wedding photographer, and I can tell you nobody frames those fancy shoe shots. lol).

    It sounds like you guys are on the right track with staying a couple of days after the wedding. Finding low-stress solutions is key, I think. Honestly, it's so easy to get bogged down and bummed out. But you're getting married! And that's the important thing to keep in mind Smile

  9. klarose Says:
    1448032293

    Goodness. I can't even imagine spending that much. My wedding was around $3k, I had over 200 guest, catered, and it was beautiful. There are ways to cut back.

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