Is it a bad thing to pay off your venders completely before the wedding?

NO it's not bad... we are making small payments to make sure we don't have a huge bill to worry about at the end of the night!

JUST make sure you have documentation that you DID in fact make payments!

NO it's not bad... we are making small payments to make sure we don't have a huge bill to worry about at the end of the night!

JUST make sure you have documentation that you DID in fact make payments!

No difference to pay off a year that than 30 days before. If they are not going to hold up their end of the deal I don't think being paid off matters. either way they are obligated to you hence the contract. I say if you can mark off things from your list and get it paid off do it for sure. You will be happy the month before the wedding with a smaller to do list!!!

Ours is totaly paid off

Ahead of time isn't bad, but that far in advance IDK. Places go out of business, and stuff so I might wait until a few months before instead of a year or more.

I love this idea because like you said it's easier to pay as you go. The thought of places going out of business has crossed my mind. You never know.

Instead of paying off the vendors each pay cheque, we are depositing that money into a high interest savings account. That way we earn the interest, not the vendors. Plus that way we avoid having to go chasing our money if anyone goes out of business or something happens. They all have their required deposit, but we will not be making payments until the contract requires us to.

I paid ours off but only a few months out. If you can stash the money, I would. A year out would make me nervous!

I like having something over their head, ie $$$ towards the end. More motivation to follow through....but being paid off ahead obviously has its advantages too

It's not a bad thing, we've saved up a chunk of it to pay for it in the end. It's better to so you can worry about spending for the honeymoon.

I had all my vendors paid about 2 to 3 months before and it really takes a lot of stress off of you. I don't know that I would pay them off too much earlier though as you never know what might happen.

Do you have a savings plan that you could contribute the money towards? That way if you have anything urgent come up the money would be there and if not then you have it all saved up super early!

We're actually saving 5-10% from a lot of vendors by paying for the bill upfront. Photographer knocked off $400, venue took off $350, etc. if you can afford to pay up front, it could save you money!

As much as I would like to get paid early I would not turn it down. However I would not recommend paying weeks or months ahead. If its a bigger more established company you are safe but keep all receipt. Check in with the vendor to make sure you are still on their calendar

I agree with the rest of the ladies- as long as you have record of each payment, you should be fine. We made payments all year for our venue... and then followed the payment policy for the rest of our vendors. You have contracts with them, so if they run, you can chase them :-)

All my vendors are paid off and we're still 2 months out. I would be nervous about a year but as long as you have contracts and stuff they are legally obligated to provide service.

Per our contract, we are to make payments every 3 months with the final payment due 60 days before the wedding. However, we have recalculated and are paying every months. At this rate, we will make the last payment 4 months before the wedding. We are mailing each payment, but the last one we will walk in and request a receipt showing they have been paid in full.

Most of my vendors required a deposit of 25-50% and payment within 1 week of the wedding date. My DJ & officiant required a deposit of 50% and payment the night of. I wasn't comfortable paying everyone 100% far in advance. They were all reputable vendors, but what if something happened and they were a no show?! I paid my baker, venue, & decorators 1 week in advance. The DJ, caterer, & officiant were paid the day of. My advice would be to set the money aside so that is doesn't hit you all at once and you are prepared to pay them the week or day of. Also, I agree with everyone above, make sure to keep all of your receipts. I didn't pay anything in cash so that I would have the payment on my bank or credit card statement as proof of payment in addition to the receipt.

I agree with a lot of what the other ladies said. FH wants to pay it all off asap but I like the idea of paying them closer to the dates so that we can remind them like hey, we have a wedding you are doing soon! But definitely get all receipts as soon as you pay it. Harrass them if you have to. Some vendors wont let you pay before a certain time, or they have specific schedules set up already. Our officiant wont accept anything but deposit before 2 weeks before the wedding in case something comes up I guess. So we can just pay him off early. If I were you though, since your wedding isnt until 2014, wait until a year out before you start paying stuff off. Get a savings account specifically for the wedding and earn interest over the next year. Then the year out payment will be a reminder and maybe do half then, half 6 months out or something.

I think a year is too long.

I would create a new savings account and just dump the money in there so it isn't mingled in with the rest of your assets. And then when the time gets closer, pay it off.

Several weeks early I think is fine, that definitely is a check on your to-do list and you don't want to be worrying about people getting paid on the day or week of your wedding. But that far out - I think is too far.

Pay with a credit card whenever possible, and know your CC's policies around fraudulent charges. One of my friends had her DJ go MIA right before the wedding after she'd already paid him. Thankfully she paid with her Amex, so Amex refunded her account and then sent the guy to collections.

If you decide to do it, I would check suggest paying with a credit card that you've verified will protect you if, for example, they went out of business before your wedding. We are paying ours off early, but I insisted on buying wedding insurance in order to make sure that we wouldn't have to worry about taking a loss with out of business vendors or natural disasters. It took a lot of anxiety out of the picture for me!