How do people get married so fast!?

Our wedding cost about $23K. We used money we had saved up, and our parents also contributed. We were engaged for a total of 16 months, but we didn't put our first deposit down (venue) until 2 months in.

Well it depends on what you can save and what's a realistic goal if we wrote down all of our bills and after all bills we have 1,000 extra we cut that in half and so I know no matter what we will have at least 500 put towards the wedding per month, we have a large family of 10 and get over 15,000 tax return so next years plus the 500 per month is going towards wedding , Im finding it to be very expensive to get married in Colorado but we are making due also write down the 3 main wedding elements that are important

for me its food, photography and my dress

We got engaged last November on Thanksgiving and are getting married March 13, 2021 so a little over a year engagement. We already had some savings together so we’ve used and added to that. Our wedding is costing us about $12,000 but the biggest chunk of that is the all inclusive venue (venue, photographer, decor, catering), and the accommodations since it’s a DW for us, our kids and moms and our honeymoon accommodations. FH and I have a hotel room for the wedding weekend and got an AirBnB for our three kids and our moms for the weekend. And then we got an AirBnB for us for the week following for our honeymoon. It’s been a huge relief already having that all paid for.
So far we haven’t had to put anything on credit cards and hopefully that will continue to be the case. I have a planned budget showing which month things need to be paid for and that is incorporated into our family budget so we have a pretty good handle on what we can spend and what we can’t spend. That’s helped a lot.

I feel ya, we have a $13.5k budget and we've had to pay it on our own. I took a second job, curbed a lot personal spending habits (i.e. stopped getting manicures, get my haircut at cheap places, turned off a lot of monthly subscriptions, etc...), and just have been hyper-focused on paying things off. I initially used my credit card for vendor deposits to lock down a date but was focused on paying it off. I'd say we have paid off 70% of it within a span of 12 months. It's not easy at times, but its doable!!

I'm encouraged that after the wedding, I can use this energy to pay down the rest of my debt. Good luck to you and all the other brides out there!!

Honestly either way we would got married within a year of being proposed to. The fact that my dad is paying for the wedding is helping planning go a lot easier and a lot less stressful and were able to have the wedding that we wanted to have. But if my dad wasn’t paying for the wedding we would just have a small backyard wedding but still be married the same day it would just cost a lot less.

Savings, family, and a lot of searching for your budget type. You have to be very specific with the guests you are inviting

My dad passed away in 2016. My mom got a substantial chunk of money in life insurance and is generously paying for our wedding. The big celebration was supposed to be this summer, but we ended up postponing to next summer and still got married this year. On our own, our savings would have been adequate to pay for it ourselves, but since my mom is paying for it, we were able to buy a bigger house.

We got engaged and will be married - all that in a little under a year. I decided early that $10-$11k was my absolute ceiling of a budget and have stuck to that. I graciously listen to suggestions from others, but if it doesn't fit my budget then we don't need it. There are so many frivolous things that you just don't need to have a nice wedding. You also shouldn't listen to or be pressured by anyone to buy or do things for your wedding that you don't want to or don't have the budget for.

Funds: Some savings, tax refund, COVID money, bonuses - any extra money that came in went to the wedding and not other things, dad is chipping in a tiny amount, and I asked my parents to cover the photography instead of a wedding gift.

If it's any consolation, I know a couple who had a 500 dollar wedding and arranged it all within a week, while in the middle of college. The had an amazing photographer and she had a beautiful dress. It's totally possible to have a cheap wedding. A few things to help with that:

A friend recently told me when you order things for the wedding like cake.. don't tell the bakery/ company it's for a wedding. That can double or triple the price.

Take advantage of friends or friends of friends who have property, even a nice backyard, you can have a ceremony or reception at. As well as friends who might be handy with a camera. etc

Churches can be a cheaper option as well for ceremonies!

Good luck

My FH and I got engaged Sept 14th 2019 and we are getting married Sept 19th 2020. Our (inflated) budget is 21k but we might end up spending about 19k. His family paid 30% and we are covering the rest. However, his mom gave us $5k for our Honeymoon. We wanted to elope but his family wanted a wedding.


We are 25/26 years old working in the Staffing field. Saving everything we can 😅. COVID-19 has helped because we don't really go out and spend money.

I knew I wanted an elaborate wedding, so I've been saving up money for years now. Our wedding cost $35k. Between my husband and I, we saved up $25k, and my mom helped us with the rest because she refinanced her house to take out money for herself and gave us the money as a gift. My husband and I are 32 and 30, and we have good jobs so that probably helps being older.

Been engaged for 4 years and feel reasonably comfortable paying for a 10k wedding without debt. School and moving did play a part for 2 years. It seems many people get help from their families.

We originally had 4 months to plan our wedding. Engaged the last weekend in Jan and would have been married May 1(thanks covid). I planned a quick wedding because I tend to procrastinate when I have too much time and also tend to change my mind so doing it in 4 months made me think that would eliminate some of my overthinking. Now we are getting married in August and I’ve definitely started to change my mind a lot. Our budget was 20k and anything that didn’t fit within that was out since we really didn’t have much time to save more. My parents gave 12k. I had 5k and we saved 3k more. For us we both work good jobs so it wasn’t really that hard to budget. But now that we have an additional 4 months I could have increased my budget but I didn’t just because I simply don’t want to spend more on one day. I suggest picking a budget and sticking to it no matter what!

And I wonder why people are engaged for 2+ years. My engagement will be 8 months, but I have a wedding budget of only $4,000 and worked my personal budget to where I can set all that aside just in the engagement period. We’ve been looking for the right one for years, and we felt like God revealed that we were the right ones for each other rather quickly, so why wait so long.

I feel the same way. Some families have more support than others. Some couples go in debt and over extend themselves. We’re engaged and still haven’t finalized anything because we’re nervous about the virus and not getting out money back. It’s your wedding and money doesn’t necessarily mean a better wedding. I’m sure your wedding will be fabulous.

Budgeting. Our wedding cost over $40,000. I started saving when I was 21. I am now 31. I've been strict and mindful with my earnings. We both own our own homes, drive nice cars, have masters degrees and successful careers. I was able to save $27,000 personally and he saved over $20,000. My parents were able to provide about $9,000. We were engaged 11 months. This is 100% doable, you just need to be very strict and know what you want early on. I knew early on I wanted an upscale, elegant, stress free wedding. I would much rather pay for luxury than stress out and be wed on a dime. I come from a very basic, middle class family in a small town. Trust me, set your limits, budget and be strict. Your dream wedding is possible it just depends on how hard you work at it.

My mom helped with some of our deposits but we found a venue where pretty much everything is included so our wedding is only costing just over $6,000!

You don't have to spend 13,000 for a wedding
i got engaged in April 2019 and got married on June 2020 and believe me when we got engaged we had 0 money and we decided we will buy cheap nice ring for the engagement, also my whole wedding cost us 7000 and if you want i can help you how to plan it and don't spend a lot of money i can go with you step by step, my wedding was so amazing and beautiful and i tried hard to make it less than 10,000

Yeah it’s a combination of all those factors. We got engaged June 30, 2019 and married on June 7 2020( small ceremony, free) I didn’t know I wanted a wedding until about August. So I’ve been actively planning for 9 months. If we would have had the ceremony in June then I would
have needed my moms help. But since we postponed to September, I am footing the bill myself. She did pay for my dress though.

I knew we were going to get married when i moved into his house back in 2016. So I was able to save my ridiculously high Dallas rent for the last 4 years. I don’t know if I would have been able to have the wedding without these events taking place first and without my moms help. But everything works out the way it’s supposed to. I save 60% of my paycheck that I take home. Whatever I don’t use for the month, I transfer into my savings and start over the next month with $50. I don’t pay with debit or cash. CC only and I get points in return. I pay my CC balance off every month. The points I earned with my CC’s paid for our honeymoon. All in all, I think I’m a saver more than a spender so it was doable. It wasn’t easy but it will be nice knowing that I’m not in debt for a wedding.

Thank you all so much for all the input and information!