Paying all wedding expenses in advance

I definitely wouldn’t pay the full amount right now since your wedding is well over a year away. We fully paid in advance about 1 month before our wedding but a lot of vendors won’t let you put in advance if the price is per person because guest count is variable until a couple weeks before. We are 12 days out now.

I'm with PP on this one. Just in case something happens (such as the venue closing), if you've already paid everything you don't really have any recourse for getting your money back. With your wedding being over a year away, I definitely wouldn't drop all the money right now. I totally understand wanting to just get it all handled, but weddings are expensive and paying everything up front is just super risky. I'd suggest putting the money aside in a separate account that earns interest (like a savings account or some checking accounts) for now. That way, you'll have earned a little more in interest by the time you go to actually make those payments.

Especially during these times with Covid, I honestly wouldn’t pay anything in full at this point. Your wedding is all the way in 2022 and anything, literally anything, yes I will say it again, literally anything can happen at this point! What if the venue catches on fire? What if they go out of business? Situations like these are situations that have happened to other brides on this forum and they have a very hard time getting their money back at that point. I would suggest for you and your FH to keep the money in the savings account. Also, even if nothing drastic it all happens to the venue, it’s a lot harder to get your money back from the venue then it is to give it to them. You may have a lot more people RSVP with regrets when you initially thought. If you pay in full, it will be a lot harder to get reimbursed for the people that aren’t going to attend.

It makes sense to work on saving/setting aside all of the money you need as soon as possible, for your overall budget and peace of mind. But there really isn't anything to gain from taking that money from your savings account and giving it to the vendors before they require it. Just explain to your future spouse the potential drawbacks of paying ahead of time, and enjoy the interest earned in your savings account!

I think this would have been fine a few years ago, but there is definitely a new risk with paying off vendors in full ever since the pandemic. A lot of venues have filed bankruptcy, and vendors have had to give up their businesses. If you were to pay in full, then the business goes under, there is very little chance you will recoup that money. I would suggest you opening a savings account specifically for wedding expenses, and just paying into that account, instead of to your vendors. Then the money is out of your personal accounts and ready to be paid once your wedding is closer

Agree with everyone else. I would definitely not pay anything in full in advance! With COVID, ANYTHING can change in an instant. Plans may change, guest counts may changes, vendors going out of business, etc. We have a savings account where we put all our money that will be used towards the wedding. It would probably be best to do it that way. I've seen a few other posts here where the venue had gone out of business and couples were out of a lot of money!

You NEVER know what could happen from now until the actual day of. You or your FH could get let go from your jobs, someone in the family gets really ill, a huge medical bill pops up so suddenly, businesses go out (therefore, having to find another vendor), etc. So, just pay the deposit down for now and then finalize everything a week before or whenever it says in your contract to finalize everything.

There is really no practical reason to pay someone thousands of dollars, in full, for a service they haven't even provided yet. Deposits make sense because it ensures to the vendor that you are a committed customer, and allows them to cover any upfront costs related to your event. If your vendor goes bankrupt, or if you circumstances change (jobs, budget, finances, etc.), chances are you'll never see that money ever again versus just being out a deposit. Put your money away in a money market account and earn some interest on it between now and then.

I would not pay in full or pay everything off so early. With your wedding being over a year away, there are so many things that would happen. I would pay the required deposits and pay everything else off closer to your wedding. We paid half up front and the other half about a month before our wedding for most vendors.

Don’t pay in full yet. So much can go wrong and it is so so so hard to get your money back (ask all of us Covid brides haha).
Even if it’s not COVID related, someone could get sick so you want to postpone, the venue could close, your vendor could go out of business etc.
Put your savings for the wedding in a high yield savings account and take that money out closer to the wedding.

I wouldn’t. I’d put the money into a separate savings account and DONT touch it. Then pay the remaining balance when it’s due.

Agreed with previous posters about waiting to pay, and especially with stashing the money in a high yield savings account! Rates aren't as good as they usually are right now (my rate with Marcus by Goldman Sachs is 0.5% vs. at least 1.5% when I opened it), but still better than typical bank rates.

So I am one who likes to pay in advance. I want to get it done and not worry about. Buttttt its starting to bite me in the a** lol. We paid off our florist, against her recommendation might I add. And as we get closer my fh found out his mom, dad and grandmother aren't able to attend. We bought both women a corsage and his dad a boutonniere. It totals like $85 that we can't get back smh. So we won't be paying anything else off ahead of schedule lol.

With my venue all deposits are non-refundable. We have a total of 3 payments. My FH also wants to pay it all in advance. Wedding is 12/8/2021. Since our final count isn't due until 10 days before the wedding along with our last payment, I told him to pay off all but maybe $1500-$2000 since we will have to pay more than our estimate since our guest count has increased. I would wait until about 6 months before your wedding before paying it off or mostly off.