Paying For Your Wedding
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Time is the biggest, most important factor in getting what you want. Give yourself enough time and you can have most of what you want or a pretty good facsimile regardless of your budget. That is not to say that you can sit on your bum waiting for things to fall into your lap. You have to make it happen. Don’t waste time doing nothing. If you want to watch TV, do something while you are watching. There are always projects that can be done well in advance and when a little is done consistently, a lot can be accomplished.
One of the biggest mistakes that a bride makes is to underestimate the amount of time any given task will take. I have seen the bride, her mother, the groom and attendants all stressed out, in tears and lashing out with tempers flaring because they didn’t allow enough time. I don’t care what the task is; whether you are picking up stockings or decorating the reception area, whatever amount of time you think it will take you to complete the task double it. If you’re unfamiliar with the area, the specific task or the availability of the product, triple the amount of time you think it will take to complete. This may sound ridiculous but consider this, you have no control over traffic, parking spaces, store inventory, checkout counters or the people helping you and the list goes on and on. With so many “X” factors give yourself the extra time. Look at it this way if it takes less time you have that much more time to relax and enjoy the moment.
Money is the big grey cloud that can hover endlessly over your wedding dreams. If you are on a tight budget you absolutely must know what you want. The less money you have the more important the budget. Any bride who thinks she has too little money to bother with a budget better get ready to throw her money away.
A simple rule of thumb is if you use words or phrases like; “could work”, “maybe”, “sort of” “it’s okay”, “I guess” or my all time favorite “On sale” you are not ready to buy, so don’t waste your money. The problem is that after three or four “maybe”, “I guess”, or “sort of” purchases you have already blown the money you could have used on the “Wow!”, “I love it!”, “It’s perfect!” purchase.
So now it’s time to look at just how much money you actually have available verses how much money you plan on spending. This is where you have to separate the dream from reality. Don’t pretend you have more than you actually have. That’s fine for daydreaming but the whole point is to get the most bang for your buck as they say and you can only do that by being honest with yourself and knowing how many bucks you have.
Financing - Start with what you have in cash savings. If you have a zero balance in savings then you have zero funds available, it’s that simple. So now you look at how much can you afford to designate monthly for your wedding. Again be honest, if you can’t afford to set $100 aside each month, then don’t put it down. Try for $50 that is equivalent to about ten latte’s; a couple happy hours; two large pizzas, a couple Chinese take outs… Remember this is what you are going to do, not your parents or your fiancée just you. How important is your dream and what you are willing to do to make come true? You don’t have to pay for your wedding all at one time. Obviously the longer the engagement the easier it will be to pay for the wedding without going into debt. Yep that’s the theory!
Family Money - As I said in the beginning the days of Mom and Dad footing the bill for everything is becoming a thing of the past. However many parents want to help and are ready step in when asked. If your parents are going help with the financing you need to know what you want and how much it’s going to cost before you go to them unless you want their help in planning. Don’t ask them to pay for the caterer without letting them know what the menu is and how much it’s going to cost. It’s far better to sit down with them and find out at least a ball park figure or how much they would like to contribute. Keep in mind regardless of your age or status in the community, at work or virtually any place else, you are still their child, so be prepared for advice, grimaces and sighs. Often other family members will help with the financing of the wedding. An aunt and uncle may pay for the cake; another may help with the photographer. This type of family participation is common in many cultures and can go a long way in helping to lift the financial burden.
Credit Card - I don’t advise the credit card method of financing your wedding except as a last resort. The last thing you want is additional long term debt that could affect your credit rating in the future. If you still think using a credit card to finance your wedding is an option, take a look at your credit report and that of your fiancé. The credit report can tell you a lot about your partner; things like are payments made on time, how much outstanding debt is there, are the payments made more than the minimum required and have they ever filed bankruptcy. If after all this you decide to use a credit card, take out a new card with a low interest rate and a set limit then stick to that limit. Keep in mind that whatever your limit is, you will be paying that amount plus the interest that is accumulated. Over a period of time even a low budget wedding can end up costing big money. If you can’t pay your credit card balance off monthly then have a definite plan for how and when you will pay it off.
If dreams are the design and money the fuel then details are the engine. Detail puts it all together. It is the make or break of a successful event. You can have all the money and all the time but if proper attention is not given to the details, your wedding will not be an event of which dreams are made.
Details are the look, feel and function of a successful wedding. How great is it to hire a valet parking attendant if you don’t have enough parking spaces, an outdoor wedding with no restrooms; an evening wedding without proper lighting; a wonderful menu but no way of keeping the food hot or cold? Details. Respect the details!
Of course it all comes down to knowing what you want. Plan appropriately and regardless of the time of day, location or size of your wedding you will feel in confident and of course beautiful.
© 2008 Mary Spies All rights Reserved
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