Scared bride

Do you have a budget (reasonable amount of money you can save in one year)? I calculated between FH and I how much money we would have left over every month after rent and bills were paid times 12 months (the length of our engagement). We used that as our budget and used the budget tool here to decide how much money to spend on certain vendors. This way there is no reason we shouldn't be able to pay off our vendors. In the event there is an emergency expense (car repair, etc.), we knew we could cover some with a credit card and pay it off but it should only be used as a plan B.

It sounds like you have it all carefully planned and budgeted. Hopefully, you've also given yourselves a little bit of a cushion/emergency fund. If not, perhaps try to set aside any extra cash you have monthly into an emergency fund, rather than seeing it as "extra" you can spend. Daughter and I shared a Google doc with the budget spreadsheet and we tracked budget, contracted costs, payments by due date, etc., down to the penny. It seemed we had two big "balloon" payment periods -- when we were putting down deposits, and then the last 90 days before the wedding (and especially the final 4 weeks) when all the final payments are due. My only other advice is to be careful about impulse buys on things that "are SUCH a great price," unless those items are already in the budget and you will DEFINITELY use them. It is SO easy for lots of "small items" to get out of control and the really add up fast. Also, any impulse buys you end up not using are a complete waste. (Daughter bought print them yourself invitations sets on sale and later decided to just order the invites during a great sale on Zazzle. The invitations she ended up with were beautiful, and a good price -- unless you figured in the $50 she spent on invitations she never used....) If you have some budget set aside for gifts, perhaps plan to shop for those items during major sale periods (e.g., Black Friday, after Christmas, Father's Day, etc.). With an after Christmas clearance sale, and every possible coupon, daughter got really pretty Swarovski crystal necklace and earring sets for her BM's that were originally $75, for about $10. During a Father's Day sale, again, with coupons, she got the guys' white dress shirts for $6 each. She was going to spend $ on both of those anyway, so it was an actual savings. Good luck!

This keeps me up at night as well. I graduated from college in May and it seems that if it's not one thing, it's another. I had plans to drive the car I had throughout college until the wheels fell off to avoid a car payment but God had another plan which left me with an added monthly expense. My fiance is also in a profession (firefighter) where we never know what his paycheck will be. Base pay we have down but between OT and "riding up", it's hard to actually nail down a budget on his side. We have almost a year and a half engagement and I'm still stressing. As of now our guest list is at 262 but we CANNOT have more than 200. A good portion of those are from out of state that I didn't assume would come but they've made it clear that I was mistaken. SO it looks like we need to shave that down a bit. I'm looking for ways to cut corners but I'm struggling. As of now, excluding the honeymoon (we're doing a HM fund), we are looking at close to $23k. With what I have budgeted and estimated for everyone else, we're on track to save $22,800. Cutting it CLOSE.

I'm in the same exact boat! FH and I have started a savings account specifically for the wedding. Money goes in and doesn't come out unless its for a payment. We picked a savings since it has some interest that could acquire. For the BM and GM gifts, I am planning on going all out on Black Friday/ Cyber Monday to make sure that I can get the best deals.