Budget struggles

We based our budget off of what we could save, not what we should save off of our budget. You need to be realistic about what you can save in 11 months. Obviously we don't know your financial situation or what you have saved now, but can you realistically set aside close to $1200 a month on top of these new credit card bills? If not, you should consider postponing or cutting things before you get yourself into an even worse situation closer to the wedding.

Before setting a budget, I think you need to discuss with your fiance what you both can save per month and see if that's possible. Since you're in a slower season, can you pick up another job like uber or doordash? Or babysitting or pet sitting? For some extra cash? Can you guys sell clothing you don't use or other things you aren't using anymore? I use the app Acorn to save sometimes, it rounds up all your purchases to the nearest dollar and invests that money for you. You can add extra money too if you want any time. I typically don't add money to it besides the round ups and I had $600 in the account by the end of the year (with conservative investments). Can you guys cut other things in your budget to save more money too? Maybe luxury things like nails & hair coloring?

I agree with Caytlyn. We were in a similar situation where his parents didn't want to contribute any (because they paid their own way for their wedding & it's our choice to get married-- totally understand), so my parents retracted their desire to contribute since "his family doesn't have to." Again, understandable, and we planned for that anyway. With a full wedding, even cutting corners & getting quotes from many different vendors, it would've costed us around $16k, which was not at all possible in our time frame because we had numerous other financial responsibilities and emergencies. We're aiming for $4k total budget. A drastic change, but vastly more realistic and still doable for the wedding we want.

Something simple I like to do to save is take the cost of something I'd want to spend money on, be it Starbucks or going out to eat or whatever, and put that amount in savings instead of spending it on that thing. You'd be surprised at how those miscellaneous costs can add up.

It's the same as investing in the stock market but Acorns just does the investing for you vs. you having to sell & buy individual stocks. I use Acorns because the stock market doesn't excite me too much but my husband has an E-Trade account that he trades every day on, but he is much more involved in the stock market.

I agree with the previous posters. Sit down with your FH and see what you can realistically save. We don't know your financial situation or how much of your budget you already have saved, and it is none of my business, but depending on how much more you need, see if you can save additional money each month to meet your budget. I agree with Caytlyn when she discussed moving your date or cutting things out if needed.

Also in a similar situation, my FH and I are paying for everything, but my mom is gifting us $5k, our budget was originally $25k (Chicago area), but then our wedding cost was estimated to be $35k. Our original guest list was 175 people that somehow increased to 250. It was our guest list that was making us really stressed because even though not all will come, that's what was making it not affordable. So we've cut the list to about 215 and still trying to cut it down. Also cut down on extra expenses that I wanted, but wasn't necessary such has this large backdrop I wanted for our sweetheart table. We used to eat out a lot, no longer doing that. I used to go to the store a lot on my days off, now I just stay home. If it's not for the wedding, I think twice if it's really worth the purchase. I'm also trying to find a prn job where I can pick up once a week aside from my full time job. We also set up a separate joint banking account where we'll deposit all our wedding money into so that we don't spend it and only spend what we need for bills, gas, etc.

I agree with what everyone else is saying. I also just want to add... make sure you remember to add in taxes, fees, and gratuities when you are figuring your estimates of your final cost.