Financing a wedding

We just buckled down and set it up so that a percentage of our pay checks goes directly into savings every pay period and we watch it grow. It's been hard to adjust but by packing our lunches instead of buying, not buying unnecessary things, we've really been able to stick to the budget. Also, we did not ask, but his father and my father each gave us a few thousand to help with however we saw fit so that was very kind of them.

I wouldn't take out a loan. Why you'd want to start your new life in debt over a party, I have no clue.

Pan S: We already don't do any of that sort of stuff. I am VERY frugal and HATE seeing our savings go down. It is always things like, I got a flat tire, found out all my tires need to be replaced, my car warranty ended, now I have to pay $500 for my 60k checkup.

My mom keeps telling me I should get my hair done (I keep complaining about it) but I tell her I don't have the extra $75 (that includes a $10 tip) at the moment. I can't find any place cheaper that will do what he does to my hair. He has made it so healthy and by the time we get done with it, I have about 6 mixed colors (mixes for the brown I like, and the mahogany hi-lites)

The makeup I have will seriously last me a lifetime. I've gotten a 120 colors from BH Cosmetics for $10 (they are now up to $21) all of my makeup together was roughly $100. But that was all bought before planning for the wedding.

Clothes: I am currently losing A LOT of weight and live off 1 pair of jeans that are too big (K-Mart for $20)

Yep I'm in the final countdown its like anything that can sabotage the remaining cash in my account is trying too.

We're saving. My husband is in the military and I work part time retail and we manage to save about $1,000 a month. No, he's not an officer making big bucks - he's an E-3. We just live very modestly, we watch TV shows online, use Netflix instead of cable, I meal plan and cook everything at home (that has saved us a lot!) and I still have a $400 student loan payment every month among other bills... I guess I'm just good with money and we don't mind living the way we do. I would not recommend getting a wedding loan. We pushed our wedding back a year because we couldn't have enough saved for it. I'm with Meghan, plan what you can afford when you can afford it. I'm in enough student loan debt - we don't want to add another 10k to that...

All the ideas are amazing.

We don't buy repackaged food (very unhealthy and a waist of money) No gym memberships, we've cut back as much of out phone bills that we possibly can, I shop at discounted grocery stores and hardly ever buy anything at full price. Another hard thing is school. I am going to an art school so it can be pretty demanding of money for things. I am always putting out money for projects. Granted I keep it as cheap as possible, but still, money going out.

Our issue is, I am OBSESSED with trying to pay off as many bills as possible before the wedding. So really, I need to just let that go and put all that extra money towards the wedding vs. the bills right now.

We have all the big stuff that we're saving for. Venue, catering and photography. We have a set amount we are putting back specifically for those things. Then the rest is prioritized into a list and we buy them as we can in a certain order. He's really wanting to get a loan.

He's not sure if he can because he has no credit. Not bad credit, just he's 20 so has none built yet.

At Leasha & Jeremy, we struggled with where to focus our funds as well. We have a house that could use some renovation love, student loans, car loans etc. We had to make the decision to hold off on applying extra to our debt to insure we could fund the wedding we committed to last May. We didn't really buckle down on the goal until January of this year when it really hit us we were getting married so we've been running very, very lean.

Yeah, we both have AMAZING credit scores, I just do not want a loan what so ever. I mean, if it comes down to it and we end up getting a loan, then well, it would just have to be. Luckily I worked for the school district so I get really good loans and stuff like that through my bank. They really work with me knowing that (If I still worked) I would only be getting paid once a month and that has to go for everything. That is one thing I seriously love about my bank. So I know high percentage and all that stuff really is not a factor. I've gotten several personal loans through them and worked out a deal with one of them that was a 14 month same as cash. That was a shocker that I was able to get it but they did. Hmmmm, might be something I can also look into. Most of the time they just want to know what it is going to though.

Can you get a part time job - even just making minimum wage somewhere, so that you can put all of that towards the wedding? You said you're only living off of one income, so if you got a part time job - cashier, gas station, restaurant - maybe you could put away as much as Pan said.

Sami: Yeah, I need to cut back on paying on our bills. I've been putting roughly $100 extra to each bill. Granted, I've paid off more then half our bills with the tax return (we got a very hefty tax return) at least all that money can go to it.

I guess I just need to refocus our extra bill money to the wedding. I really did NOT want to go into our marriage with bills. I was trying to avoid that at ALL costs.

Alina: I've been looking for a job for over a year, I always get told I have too much experience. I am so beyond tired of hearing that. Currently, I am not able to do anything right now anyways, FH INSISTS I finish school first before anything AND I have a back injury so I can't do much at the moment.