Spinoff: Couples who are making payments throughout planning

I think about this too. I just want to pay everything off so I can stop thinking about it. What helps me though is that I have been budgeting on just our income and it works out, but FILs have said they will put around $600 towards and I'm not including tax returns or anything like that.

I have our payments in a spreadsheet with each month til the wedding detailing what is getting paid, vendor etc. I have included EVERYTHING down to postage, gifts etc worked into this.

I occasionally think wow we still have (less than half) to pay with only 9 more payment dates but mostly I don't obsess.

I stressed about money almost the entire time, even though I knew exactly how much I needed and would be able to pay etc... finally I'm eleven days out everything is paid and the vendor tips are sealed up in envelopes and now I feel like I can finally relax!

Do your best not to stress! Everything will work out! Once I had all the deposit down I paid things off in order of "importance" . First the officiant, then venue, then the caterer, photographer etc...Good luck!

ETF spelling

I was thinking about this last week, I'm going to make payments too. My goal is to pay off my photographer and videographer by the end of the year. I suck at saving. I' am stressed about when my family members who promised to help are going to give me the cash. I hate last minute people or begging for something they already promised.

I don't think you're being paranoid. A lot of expenses pop up toward the end, so hopefully by planning out this far ahead and being strict with your budget, you will be prepared for anything that comes out of nowhere.

We're paying off things as we go as well. My FH wants to limit the amount that we have to pay at the end. The more that we can pay off now, the better.

I do it too. Then freak out and go over my whole budget again and realize I'm fine. I did what another girl did, budget just off income and didnt include taxes or bonuses from work which fh and i will both recoeve around Christmas. I also made my end number on budget a little over a thousand over budget just in case.

We are paying as we go. FH gets monthly bonuses and processes scrap metal so each time we have a chunk of money, we throw that at it too. It's working out well.

We are doing the same. It worries me, but I watch the budget several times a month and make sure that if we're even a little off-track, we course-adjust. Also we're planning to throw in both our tax returns this April to make up for any last minute stuff.

This is my biggest fear! I have my deposits paid an no one wants money until like a week before the wedding. I think I am going to try and pay things off way before like the photog or DJ, but then what if they cancel or something and I lose that money? I'm worried that I will be broke for things right at the end like tips or feeding the BP breakfast/lunch before the wedding.

It's a reasonable paranoia I think!

It sounds like you know your budget. Just make sure there's some wiggle room, and you should be fine.

Also, and I don't know if this is true across the board, but when I first started looking for venues I noticed some had a 2014 price and a 2015 price. The 2015 price was higher. We also spoke to friends about venues, and ones that they recommended as 'super affordable' had gone up in price since our friends' had used them, even a year or two ago. So we're locking in prices ASAP hoping to avoid any surprise hikes. You have to have your ducks in a row to do that (know where, when, and how the wedding is going to go really early out) but if it saves money it might be worth it.

I was this way in the beginning about a 10K budget I knew we didn't have at that moment. We actually pushed the wedding a year because of my FH fears. Now we have $3,360 left to pay and that is to the cake lady ($510), photographer ($1,000) and caterer ($1,600). There are still small details to be done but this thing will be paid off by Christmas. To keep FH more claim he thinks we have $4,500 left to pay. With everything I've actually spent on the wedding, we are over the 10K budget and closer to 12-13K not including the wedding.

We setup a savings account with capital one, because it earns interest at a great rate. then figured out how much of each check we'd need and set the direct deposit. we also add in extra when we can and will use a chunk of taxes so we plan to have a little extra.

This is what FH and I did and I can tell you from my experience, the last month is the hardest. I feel like that's when things pop up.

But we did and it's really gratifying. We kept our second jobs and made that our wedding account and to be able to pay it off without having to use a credit card or tap into savings was pretty awesome. It can be done, as long as you crunch every single number. And then add wiggle room.

Your best bet is to set up a savings account. Pay the account instead of your vendor. 1. Better off collecting the small amount of interest. 2. If your vendor goes out of business all you will lose is your deposit instead of the whole smount. You should only pay minimums and pay everyone when they say the total amount is due.

I have a secondary savings account that I put money into for wedding and transfer it out as needed. I have made payments on those who requested but I know approximately how much I need in the end and going to have it in the bank. My concern about paying people off early is that they go out of business or disappear! There have been at least 1-2 reception venues in St. Louis that closed with no notice and left brides out 1000's of $. No thanks. While I did choose reputable vendors, I am not willing to chance it.

The paranoia is real. We are actually moving in January to another state, and won't have a real solid idea of our financial situation until after the move. Hopefully with FH's huge raise, and me landing something full time, we will be more than okay, but there is always that fear. We have backup, but like you, would rather not use it.

You're not alone! Save what you can and expect a few little extras to pop up.

I'm scared cuz my dad promised a good amount and never has been good at keeping his word with finances. It's his only daughters wedding I'm hopping he can pull through this once. He promised a 1/3 of it in Dec so we'll see then if he falls through then we'll have a feew months to recalibrate an move forward