Saving money

We sat down and looked at our combined monthly income. We subtracted money we needed for bills, groceries, misc. things that pop up, etc. and the rest we said we'd put into savings. This is what we did each month so we always knew we were putting "x" amount in the account on paydays. This is how we determined our budget. We also added in any money/gifts from parents if they offered to help out.

We also skipped Christmas presents, didn't take vacations the year we were engaged, and saved that money for the wedding. We put our income taxes towards the wedding, any bonuses we got, etc. We never counted on that money but it always helped.

Skip date nights out, have them at home. Don't buy any new clothes or anything unnecessary, skip your Starbucks runs or fast food runs. Cooking at home and meal prepping saved money too! For some extra cash you could try to sell some clothes, a garage sale, pick up a second part time job, etc. We never spent more than we could afford and we never ever would have taken out a loan.

We got engaged in February 2018. We knew we wanted to get married in the fall, but fall of 2018 would have been much too soon for us to plan, so we settled on fall of 2019. We decided how much of our existing savings we felt comfortable spending on the wedding, decided how much we could save each month, and multiplied it by the number of months we had to plan, that was our budget.

We didn't wait long before we started to plan because we recognized how quickly vendors book up, especially in the fall. Luckily we had enough savings to put deposits down on our most important vendors; vendor, photographer, and videographer.

Since we started saving, we've found some things that really work for us. We each have a portion of our paycheck that automatically goes to our savings via direct deposit every payday. You don't miss the money as much when you don't see it. We also put any extra money directly toward the wedding; tax refunds, overtime, bonuses, Christmas money, etc. We've obviously worked on spending less in general, eating at home more often, and doing more low-key date nights, but these couple of little tricks have helped us a lot.

We figured out what we could each save per month for a year (turned into 15 months). That plus my mom’s cash gift was our initial budget. Whatever you both can comfortably save between now and wedding is a great start!

We went over budget along the way so we each chipped in more (tax refund, work bonus) and then put the final extra overage on our credit card, paying it off in about two months.

Honestly, we are just paying what we can as we go. If I had to wait for FH to save money, we would never get married, haha. I have been paying for everything myself, but he has helped in other aspects so I can put money towards the wedding. We were budget conscious when choosing our vendors, but didn't have a set budget in place. We paid the deposits, and are left to pay the rest before the wedding. I knew no matter what we'd be able to accomplish this during our 1 year engagement. Also, we had planned to put our tax return towards paying for a good chunk of everything. After booking all major vendors, and finding out what are tax return would be we were finally able to lay it all out and see where we were at, what our costs were, and how much we'd be able to afford all together.

Our engagement is 11 months. I have money saved, so that's what I'm using.

I've seen someone said they are setting a $15k budget, 15 month engagement, and putting $1k in a bank account every month so it's just wedding money. I thought that was really smart.

Cook at home.

Only buy groceries you need/will use. Shop the sales ads.

Only buy clothing if it's something you have to have (ex: bra wire broke or something).

Sell items just laying around your house.

A friend of mine uses Shipt and made $500 last month for working "part time".

Babysit for date nights, holidays like Valentine's Day, etc

For holidays (like Christmas) if your parents normally buy you gifts, ask politely if they would consider cash to be used towards the wedding.

If you have loans, maybe have them reevaluated for lower interest rates or lower payments for X amount of time. I highly suggest against taking out a loan for a one-day event, even if it's your wedding.

Shop around for your venue, catering, hair/make up, cake, linens/decor, etc because those will be your higher cost items and you might be able to save some here or there.

A few of the biggest ways to save money on a wedding:
1) cut your guest list
2) look at non-Saturday, off-season rates (we saved 50%+ off site fees this way!)

We are buying all fake flowers. Doing 5 hour wedding so DJ and photographer onlyb5 hours that saved probably the biggest amount. Keeping smallish guest count

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This is basically what we have been doing. We are also in the process of building a barn for our animals so basically FH has been paying towards that and I have been paying deposits for wedding stuff. I said once all is said and done with the barn we will breakdown what we've spent on that versus wedding stuff and go from there if it's even and then move along attempting to pay equally for the wedding. He makes way more than me and can do overtime where I can't, so it might not be exactly even in the end. We are also using our tax returns for wedding costs. I have just been conscious of not spending money and going out way less and I tell FH the same. If he gets an amazon package, I'm like what did you buy now? Stop it. Lol

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What is Shipt? Thankfully I have an income re-driven payment for my student loans. Because I made so little money at the restaurant I was at before getting my FT job, my loans far surpassed my income when I applied at the time, so I owe $0 til I reapply in a year (which would be after the wedding). I mean tbh they still surpass my annual income now lol. So I was grateful for that. I basically have a year to hold off on those and put the money towards a wedding.

We had a good deal of money from my inheritance, and looked at FH's monthly income and our monthly expenses.

We also chose a 2-year engagement mostly for financial reasons, since getting married near Atlanta with about 150 guests is not a cheap thing to do, especially since we're both still in school and I don't have my "big girl job" yet. We were engaged in April 2018, and have been saving since then.

We have changed a lot of our general lifestyle spending:

- we only eat out on special occasions

- only give gifts to each other on christmas and birthdays

- stopped drinking socially (like at bars)

- quit going to starbucks

- making sure to use coupons for grocery shopping, or only buying certain things on deal days

- sold old/unused items at garage sales or on LetGo (we made close to $1,000 from it all)

- not seeing any movies in theaters during engagement

- I was going to do this pre-wedding anyway, but i've stopped dyeing my hair

- no getting my nails done professionally

- no concerts or sporting events, other than Atlanta United matches that we have a season pass for (FFIL payed though)

- we aren't renewing our aquarium memberships this year when they expire, will get again sometime after wedding

- FH's holiday bonus from last year went into wedding savings

- I have been babysitting and tutoring in my free time for some cash

We also have been using an excel spreadsheet that FH made to track what we've spent, but WW has a similar budgeting tool.

Also, we are getting married on a Sunday because that was a big save, and I got my wedding dress on a sale

After we got engaged we sat down and looked at what our dream wedding would cost. We divided that by 14 months (we've been engaged for over a year and are getting married next March but I wanted to make sure that we had the money we needed for the wedding by end of February 2020) and then divided that by two to see if it was even reasonable. It actually turned out that this was totally doable for us so we're able to have our dream wedding!

If it turned out we couldn't afford it, we would have done the reverse. Looked at our income first, what we have leftover after bills and what we want to put into our own personal savings and then multiplied what was leftover by 14 and then added both of our numbers together to find out what the grand total was.

It actually works out slick because I got a raise this year so I'm bringing in about $100 extra per month that I never anticipated having! Like others have said I applied a portion of my tax return to our account, he will do the same, and then we've been selling some small things in order to get a little extra money. Any money that is gifted towards us, we always apply at least half of it towards our wedding expenses (unless someone gives us the money and says use it for your wedding and then we put 100% of the money towards the wedding).

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It's an app where people input their grocery order, you go get the items and deliver. You get paid (and can see that amount) before you say you'll do it and most people tip as well. You're able to see the grocery list, what your payment will be, where they live, etc beforehand. She really likes it and just does it some evenings after work.

FH both had existing savings accounts. So we sat down and talked about how much we were comfortable spending. We settled on a budget, and each pulled an equal amount from our savings and put it into a new checking account.
I’ve been skipping lunches and dinners out, no nail salon, no hairdresser, etc to try to replenish the amount I took out of savings. FH has been keeping to a strict budget as well.

So far we’ve paid for the venue, deposit for florist and photographer. Individually I’ve paid for my dress, jewelry, shoes and last night ordered a veil.

We went to our bank and opened a savings account. We both put money into the account every 2 weeks,, it’s sddung up for us!

I always save for anything and put a portion of my check away for a rainy day. I’ve been doing that since I was 14. My wedding will be underneath my means. I’m having a microwedding and instead of an immediate reception, we’ll go out to brunch.

I got a part time job 20hrs a week min wage. I basically scan medical records which is easy work and because I work in nursing my primary job is 3pm-11pm so 10am-2pm I sit at a desk and scan medical charts all that money goes into our wedding account. We are Also having a Friday night wedding which is 10 pp cheaper and engagement is an 18mth engagement so it all works out! Oh and savers thrift store and fall clearance helped us save money on decor

Once we picked a venue and found the total cost of everything, between my fiancé and me, my parents, and his parents, we divided it all up equally or to a point where everyone was comfortable with the cost and no one got upset that someone was paying more than the other.

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These are great tips thank you!