What is a better way to pay off vendors?

Hmm your wedding is still pretty far away but If I had the $$$ all at once to have paid my vendors off I would have. We did payments you know the typical deposit then paid the rest of the balance off except for the venue we did that one in about 4 payments or 5. If you have the money pay it off and don't worry about it later just make sure to always check up on it every other month or so especially for the venue .

For our caterer, we made a deposit, and the final payment with head count is do 30 days prior to our event in the form of a cashier's check. She did not require payments.

We also made a deposit when we picked out our cake. Final payment is due a week before in whatever form we like. They did not require payments.

We prefer not making payments because we like to have our money working for us, instead of working for someone else. Also, I feel far more comfortable paying a short time before the wedding, than having a several thousand dollar fee paid months in advance.

I guess whatever works best for your vendor and you is the way to go.

If I had the money to pay off all my vendors at once, I would. It'd be nice to not have to keep track on my calendar of when payments are due every month and making sure the stock exchange has gone through ... but we are paying in installments ... it sucks, it really does ... but we do what we have to do.

I've read on here that you should not pay in full for services that have not been rendered. Plus, I've read enough horror stories of scam vendors that took off with money deposits that had been paid in full. I say follow the vendors timelines of when they want deposit and payment(s) and put your money into a savings account and let it accrue interest. I think we've made about $80 in interest so far.

@ Karen W. good point I had forgotten about that issue ... unless you have a contract in hand and they are for real (investigate BBB), then it's okay but just be careful ... If you want a savings acct that has good interest I've heard INGdirect is good or a credit union ...

@Karen.....I love the $80 interest!

I wouldn't do it. In the event that your wedding is cancelled, you may be out a lot of money. I'm not saying that it would, but it does happen to some people. Besides, why not make a little money in interest?

2nd Karen W. It would be really unfortunate if you paid someone in full and they closed shop for whatever reason without being up front with you. I think I saw on here that someone ordered a dress and called up after a couple of months to check on it, only to find out that the store went out of business and took her money with it.

Never pay anyone in full until the job is finished, if you want to pay them that's fine, but wait till the job is done to finish paying them off. like pay them down till you owe $100 dollars, it's enough money you owe for them to finish the job and little enough to easyly come up with the money as well

We only paid deposits to everyone initially - we are saving money and placing it into an ING account so it can at lease collect some interest on it - the only thing that will be paid off probably prior to the summer will be for our honeymoon - all of our wedding vendors will be paid either two weeks prior to the wedding or on the wedding day where I will give all checks to a designated person (most likely my mom) and she can give them to the vendors for me.

Yep, I'd wait and get a good interest rate; and as others mention you never know, something good happen with one of the vendors.

Thanks everyone for the input....paying everything in full was my fiance's idea and at first i thought it was a good one but the more i thought about it the more questionable i got so this was very helpful.

We are only paying deposits right now, FH and I agree to deposit our monthly payments into our joint saving account, we are planning to sit down the last week if October or first week of November and write the final checks to everyone. It's best for us not lose anything in case we need to postpone (God forbids), most vendors do not refund deposits and any additional payments made.

We paid the deposits then paid in full when we got to Hawaii. So it was all paid the week of the wedding and we did not need to think about it on our wedding day.

I am paying deposits and then final payments later (like Karen W and Carole, love that interest!). Final payments will be made on a credit card or via paypal (as much as possible) so that I can have the additional dispute resolution option heaven forbid it becomes necessary.

Great Question! I always had teh fear of losing the money Ipaid since I heard about the reception Halls in Galveston and Houston closing down. Ipaid Deposits on everything and I have themoney aside to pay by the day its final due.I feel alot safer that way.

I was just at the Hartfor Bridal Expo today and Travelers Insurance offers wedding insurance for $160, which covers your dress repairs or replacements, deposits on vendors, lost or damaged rings, sever weather, transportation shutdown, ruined photos, damaged gifts, sudden illness, liquor liability and additional expenses. Sounds like a good idea to me, if you pay the vendors in full it might be good to have this insurance so they can't run off with your money.

I would earn interest on my money and pay as I go. We paid our last payments a week before before the wedding. Just make sure you have contracts

I am terrible with money so I am paying as I go